Baby’s heart beat should be jumping up every few minutes, it is evidence of movement.

Nonreactive stress test could be baby sleeping. Or could be something serious like lack of oxygen. They usually repeat it or send your to the hospital for further monitoring. One of my kids almost died and I'm so thnkful for having an NST at that moment.

Was this just a standard appt where they use the external Doppler or a special ultrasound?

I had one where they wanted to see the baby moving a certain way (with fluctuations in heartbeat) and we had to wait awhile and move around for that to happen. But it was a special appt due to some specific issues (which were not that serious and everything turned out fine).

Sounds like a sleeping baby - I had stress tests where they jiggled my tummy and had me drink orange juice to wake the baby up so they could run the test. Did they actually say they were “concerned” or that was your interpretation of the jiggling and smelling salts and then saying they needed to repeat?

I went in for a prenatal appointment and they did the heart rate monitor check. I have to redo it as the heart rate was “too steady” and they were concerned- the woman even shook my belly for about 30 seconds, I guess trying to get the baby to move around or for his heart rate to spike- they also had me smell some kind of essential oil thing for the same reason. I don’t quite understand why this would be an issue, does anyone have any insight?