41 Weeks (Tomorrow)

In case anyone wants an update, I figured I should record one.  This is mainly for me to remember how things were at the end, as well as for family and friends who keep asking.

My blood pressure has been alright the past couple of weeks.  It's still higher than it was throughout my pregnancy, but it is significantly lower than 2 weeks ago when the midwives kind of freaked out about it.

I went in to an appointment today and asked them where we go from here and when we start talking induction and the like.  I was told that typically, at 41 weeks, 3 days, women are sent in for an ultrasound to make sure everything is alright.  They check things like amniotic fluid, how the baby is "breathing," and moving around.  They give a score out of 8.  If I get an 8, meaning everything is just fine, they'll send me for another ultrasound 3 days later to check the same things.  If the score is anything besides an 8, then we talk about our options.  Depending on the severity of the factors that give a lower score, we could be looking at induction at the hospital.

I will be 41 weeks, 3 days on Saturday and they aren't open on the weekends, so if no baby by that time, I will have the ultrasound on Friday.  If everything is fine, the next ultrasound will be on Monday.  If I don't have the baby by 42 weeks, they won't let me give birth at the birth center, which has been my plan all along.

So, there isn't a specific time that they'll do an induction no matter what; it's more monitoring baby to make sure she's not in distress or anything.  I think they'd like to avoid induction (as would I), but obviously the health of me and the baby are the biggest concern, so we'll go there if we need to.

I'm trying my hardest to keep my spirits up.  I think things would have been a little easier if I didn't think that it was possible to have the baby at 39 weeks.  It's been a full 2 weeks since they said that the best thing would be to get the baby out as soon as possible.  So every day for 2 weeks, I keep thinking "this could be the day" and every night before I go to sleep, I think, "maybe I'll wake up with contractions and we'll have this baby!" Every day, I've had to tell friends and family, "nope, no baby today." And, every day has been a little bit of a disappointment.

But, I'm very grateful that I've had Sam to keep my mind off of things.  She still needs her mom to help her and she still needs to get out and run around every day, so I've been able to think of things other than baby coming.  That's been helpful!

And because no blog post is complete without a picture, here's me at (almost) 41 weeks.