A Baby by September 5th!

I went in for my 39 week appointment yesterday. Since this was potentially my last appointment, I decided to do a little something special for Doc and his nursing staff to say thank you for taking such good care of me throughout this entire pregnancy. And what says thank you like breakfast?!

When the nurse retrieved me from the waiting room and saw that I was holding 2 big bags from Panera, she nearly did a cartwheel.

"That's for us??"

"Yes, it's the least I can do to say thank you for all you and your colleagues have done for me. I have genuinely looked forward to each of my visits here, and I just wanted to thank you guys for making this such a great experience. So please, eat up!"

You would have thought I'd written each of the nurses a blank check or something, they were so appreciative. It made me feel good that such a small gesture meant so much. Nurse even said I'd lost 1 lb from my last weigh-in. Wow, I thought, I should've brought in food earlier-- probably wouldn't have gained more than 10lbs had I known. Ha!

So enough of the sucking up...

My vitals were all good and the nurse said Baby Girl's heartbeat was pumping right along, nice and strong.

Then Doc came in sporting a little color, but not what I would have expected after a week at the beach. He told me that though they had wonderful weather in Duck, he's a lot more careful with sun exposure now that he's getting on in years. As a kid, he said it was like a race to see who could get burned first. Anyway, he said he ate lots of great food and had a really relaxing time. And he said, "See, I told you this baby wouldn't come while I was away!"

We talked about my appointment last week and I caught him up on my latest-- feeling good overall, a little more tired, swelling only on the really hot days, a random contraction here and there but nothing major, no bleeding.

Since there were no big changes, he went ahead and did the internal exam, which revealed that I am still not dilated or effaced at all. Doc said this is normal. Some people walk around 3cm dilated so he knows that their bodies are starting to prepare for the labor process. Other people, like me, don't dilate or anything until their water breaks and then their cervix does all the work at that time.

To be on the safe side, Doc wanted to go ahead and put a date on the calendar for an induction, just in case I come back next week for my check up and still nothing. That way, we've got a spot at the hospital and we don't have to go for more than a week past my due date to get this baby delivered.

I heard from his nurse this morning that I'm scheduled to go into the hospital at 4pm on September 4th, at which time they will apply a gel with prostaglandins to my cervix. Prostaglandins, from what she and Doc said, contain hormones to get my cervix to "ripen" or dilate. If that's not enough to start my labor, then on the morning of September 5th, Doc will manually break my water and give me a drug called Pitocin that is supposed to bring on contractions. If after all that and labor still isn't progressing at a proper rate, then we talk C-section.

I'm still hoping Baby Girl comes on her own, but it's nice to know we have a plan B if she decides she wants to keep hiding out.

The news that I'm going to be a mom by September 5th has started to sink in and I'm getting really excited to finally meet this little person we've created!