31w today ~ Had Appt ~ Have to start Bio-Physical Profiles...

I love my doc. She really makes me feel good about everything! She said that starting at 32w, she wants to go to TWICE a week and do BPPs (bio-physical profiles) on the twins to check breathing, heart rates, movements, etc. She gave me a choice to do it via NST or via Ultrasound (at no extra charge). I told her I wanted what was easier because being a SAHM with a 4-almost-5-year-old, with no guarantee of child care, I needed it to be EASY! So we decided to go with the Ultrasound. She said it could take 5 minutes or an hour - just depends on if they are awake or sleeping at the time.

I've never heard of this before. Curious to know if any of you dealt with BPPs? I've heard of NST - did that quite a few times with my son. Just curious to other women's experiences.

I did get to see them on another unofficial ultrasound - just to see how they were orientated and their heart rates. I KNEW Baby A had moved from head down because one night (as I previously posted), I felt like my uterus was stretching HUGE from the inside. But my belly changed shape so dramatically, I thought for sure they were both transverse. Nope, Baby A went from head down to breech and B is still transverse, they are almost laying head-to-head. Their HR's were 167 and 171. My BP was a tiny bit elevated, but no cause for concern. My swelling has actually gotten better over the past few days and no protein in the urine. All good info. She said she was really happy about my weight gain, too. So far 24 lbs. Considering the fact that I was very overweight when we started, I am fairly happy about that too. But then again, because of the GD, I eat SO MUCH protein and few carbs - so it's almost like the South Beach diet for pregnant women!

 

I had a biophysical profile last week. I had it done because my babies move too much and they could not get them to stay still long enough for the NST.
Essentially they look for movement, fluid levels and practice breathing. Some babies move and do the practice breathing right away, some take longer. My little girl did it right away and she passed. The boy though, took much longer. The tech told me that they will watch a baby for 30 minutes to see if they do it. And if they don't in that half hour then they don't pass, and I assume they want to send you for more extensive testing. Luckily, the boy did it at like 26 minutes.
So basically its an in depth ultrasound.

 

I had to go weekly for both NST and BPP's.

With the NST they want to get at least 15 minutes of babies' heart rates, and they are looking for accelerations, or an increase in heart rate for a short period of time. Sometimes this can take a long time if the babies won't stay on. (My little Chloe never did!) Once we were there for two hours.

The BPP is when they look with u/s to check to see if babies are practicing breathing- again, sometimes you have to wait a bit to see. They also check amount of amniotic fluid, muscle tone, and heart rate.

 

I had NST and the BPP via U/S every 5 days. Both were easy and I loved being able to peek at the babies every few days.

 

I had Bio's every Monday and a regular ultrasounds every Thursday from 31 weeks till I delivered. I had my last bio the day before I delivered. Not uncomfy, just a more in depth look at each baby evaluating them in several catagories.

 

I've had weekly BPPs since 30, or 32 weeks, I can't recall!! Never had an NST

They allow up to an hour to complete them, at my OBs office. So far, we've had no problems, and they've been pretty fast. The past 2 weeks, it's taken a little bit longer(20 min or so), and I think it's because they are getting bigger.