Meet Lexi

• Baby Saves

• 04.10.24

“Lexi is my second daughter, so I was familiar with Count the Kicks. I would see the Count the Kicks poster every time I went into my Ob/Gyn office for an appointment, and I had downloaded the app but wasn’t using it yet. 

I am a huge Iowa Hawkeyes fan, and I saw that Tory Taylor was donating his NIL to Count the Kicks. Seeing that Tory Taylor was supporting it was a reminder and motivator to start using the app. 

Once I started using the app, I would use it to count multiple times per day. The app is very user-friendly, very simple to use. I had a lot of anxiety during this pregnancy because I had lost multiple pregnancies prior to getting pregnant with Lexi. It definitely helped me to know that everything was fine. I found that she was most active in the evenings and the mornings. During afternoon/lunch time she was the least active. 

The night before I went into labor, I noticed that she was less active than usual. I had just been at the doctor that day for my normal Ob/Gyn appointment and they said everything looked good. The next morning she really wasn’t moving much after breakfast, which was when she would normally be active. She had hiccups, and I tried some things to get her to move. She did move 10 times in about 2 hours, but she would normally move 10 times in like 5 minutes. It took 2 hours of me really trying to get her to move.

After that I knew I needed to go in. I called my Ob/Gyn and I was waiting for a call back, but I made the decision to go to the hospital to get checked before my provider called back. We went to the hospital around 2:30 p.m. and they were waiting for me in the birthing unit. They hooked me up to the machine to monitor the baby and I told them she had not been moving. I was so scared. I felt like there was a rock in my stomach. 

They found her heartbeat, and said she was fine, but they were going to keep monitoring me for a bit. I was actually having contractions, and while I was hooked up to the monitors they could see she wasn’t tolerating the contractions very well. They could see that she was in distress. They also discovered that she was breech. 

The ultrasound tech came in to do a biophysical profile (BPP). She said the test would take 30 minutes. Lexi only got two out of eight points because I had enough fluid. But other than that, she wasn’t moving and she wasn’t practicing breathing either. 

They finished the test around 5 p.m. Shortly after that, they came into the room and told me I was going to have a baby. They rushed me off to have an emergency cesarean section, and she was born at 6:14 p.m.

I expected something to be wrong after she was born, but they didn’t find anything to indicate why she was in distress. Her placenta and cord were fine, and they have no idea why she stopped moving.

I think if I hadn’t had Count the Kicks, and hadn’t been paying attention multiple times per day, I wouldn’t have noticed that she wasn’t moving like normal. 

Until it happens to you, I don’t feel like people really think about it too much. No one thinks about the possibility that you can make it so far along in your pregnancy and that your baby can still experience distress.

I think that everyone should definitely use Count the Kicks. I know it’s important to do it once each day, but I would encourage everyone to keep in tune with your baby’s movements throughout the day.” -Stephanie C., Lexi’s mom

Editor’s Note: A huge thanks to the team at Mary Greeley Medical Center for helping Lexi have a safe and healthy arrival!