37 Week Appointment

Well, I had my 37 week appointment this morning. And there's nothing all that terribly exciting to report. I'm only 1 cm dilated and 25% effaced. Since the baby has settled down in my pelvis, his heart rate has dropped into the 150's. And he's still all lined up, ready to come out. Apparently my body isn't in too much of a rush, though. Which I suppose is fine. I know my body and the baby will know when it's time to make everything happen, but I can't help comparing everything to when I was at this point with Clark. At 37 weeks, I was a good 2 1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, and I could feel that my body was out of room.

I feel okay with not going early, but I am still hoping that when the time comes, I'll be more dilated. Ah, but who knows what will actually happen? I should just give up trying to figure it out, but when you're here at the end and you're basically all ready to go, it's hard not to obsess, at least a little bit.

My nurse practitioner offered to strip my membranes next week if I wanted. I'm not sure at the moment. I guess if I haven't made much more progress and I'm really uncomfortable, I might give it a go. As far as interventions go, that one's pretty minor I think. But generally speaking, I much prefer just letting things happen on their own. Now, if it looks like I would go overdue and the possibility of having to be induced comes up, I think I'd definitely go the stripping membranes route to attempt to avoid that. Pitocin doesn't sound like much fun. Last time I had an induction scheduled at 39 weeks, but there was no pitocin in that plan. Since I was already 4cm, my doctor was just going to break my water and have me walk laps around the hospital. She felt pretty confident that would work. Of course, that's not how things turned out. lol

Anyway, my next appointment is in a week. If there's anything of significance to report between now and then, I certainly will.

Yessss!

Well, I finally got childcare lined up for when I go into labor. My friend Maria Figueroa has graciously agreed to take care of Dominic and Clark when the time comes and that is definitely a load off my mind. 

No other real changes, other than yesterday was another day of crazy mood swings. Today I feel normal again, which is nice. 

I guess I'm pretty much all set at this point. I finished up the final baby shopping, and got all of that stuff washed and put away. I suppose there's nothing left to do at this point but actually go into labor. 

I'm looking forward to my Wednesday OB appointment to see how much, if any, I've dilated and effaced. It's really hard not to hope for the same sort of progress as last time - 4 cm before I actually went into labor! That's 4 cm of pain-free dilation! It took 6 hours of labor to get to 4 cm with Dominic. That's the point at which I decided to go ahead and go for that epidural. lol

Nerves!

Last night I had my first case of feeling like maybe I don't want to do this whole labor and delivery thing and gosh, what's it going to be like having a THIRD baby in the house? The hormones were all over the place and I'm sure if someone had just looked at me the wrong way I would have been a sobbing mess. Not that I am against crying - I think I cry my fair share - but I just didn't feel like it, you know?

And of course as I'm feeling all these things and I know they're perfectly normal, a little voice inside of me was noting the irony of it all. I've been dying to get to this point and wanting the pregnancy to be done with and now I'm balking. Figures. I know I'll be fine when the time comes, but as the reality and inevitability of it all sets in - I'll be full-term as of tomorrow! - it all feels a little intimidating at the moment.

Name du jour

Another name change. This is starting to get old...

36 Week Appointment

I was so excited for my appointment this morning, aside from having to stand on the scale. That part is always stressful. Just as I predicted, my weight is headed right where it was for the other two. Which is fine. I guess. :)

Anyway, my excitement turned to disappointment when my nurse practitioner informed me they don't start cervical checks until 37 weeks. Argh. So I have to wait another week to find out if/how much I've dilated. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I'm still very curious. She was, however, able to tell me that yes, the baby has dropped, and he is head down and all lined up to come out. So that's all good news. I suppose knowing he's head down is more important than knowing if I've had any cervical changes at this point.

What else? This kid's heartbeat is STILL in the 160's! Dominic's was always in the 120's and Clark's ranged from the 130's to 140's.  

Well, back to sitting around and waiting for something to happen!

Things are happening...

Last night I had my first real pre/false labor experience with this pregnancy. Over the past week I've had some crampiness off and on, but last night was definitely more significant. The whole thing only lasted an hour or two, but there were a good 3 contractions that I actually had to think about breathing through. I'm fairly certain the result of that episode was that the baby dropped. I have more pressure in my back and pelvis and my stomach pushes on my legs now when I sit down. lol I'll find out for sure at my appointment on Wednesday.

And so the frustration begins! Things happen, but none of them are any kind of reliable indicator as to when labor will start. It's all such a tease! Oh well - I will continue to post updates as things continue to happen...

2nd Draft

Well, we've already had a slight name update. Thanks to my mother's outrage (okay, I'm definitely exaggerating here) at having this child's first name be a "nickname", Andy relented and says we can name him Benjamin. He'll just call him Benny. So we'll see if that sticks!

I'm officially eight months pregnant now and tomorrow will be exactly 36 weeks, so I guess we're in the home stretch. I am definitely looking forward to my appointment this Wednesday to see if I've started dilating yet. I hope I'm not too disappointed if things haven't started progressing yet. :)