Merry Christmas! 3 days to go!

Merry Christmas!  

There is no doubt that our best Christmas gift is yet to come in just a few short days!  We are so excited to share today with our family and friends, anxiously anticipating Annie's arrival! 

I had my last appointment yesterday and everything is set for the induction on Thursday night!  See?  These are my only two appointments left on myCarle!  Crazy!!

We had a growth scan ultrasound yesterday at my last appointment and they estimate Annie to be about 7 pounds, 10 ounces right now (61st percentile)!  So, still right about average but slightly above.  Sounds like we will have a good sized baby girl, but not too big :)

Dr. Fulfer checked me yesterday and I am about the same as far as progression goes as I was a week ago...1.5 centimeters dilated, ~50% effaced, and her head is still really low!  That should help things when I come in for my induction!  

The plan is to call around 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon and Labor and Delivery will tell me what time to come in - or, if they are really busy, tell me to call back in a few hours to see if they have a bed for me.  I really hope that it's not too busy and I am able to get in Thursday night!  What a letdown that would be.  But, the hope is to get me in around 7pm on Thursday night for cervidil and a good nights rest :)  Then at about 7am on Friday they will start pitocin!  Dr. Fulfer said if everything goes well, to expect a baby sometime Friday afternoon/evening - or even Saturday morning!!

Please say a prayer for a safe delivery - can't wait to announce the birth of our daughter! :)

 

Daycare Decision!

The decision on where to send your infant to daycare is a difficult one - I'm sure many working moms/parents know the feeling!  You are trying to find someone that you trust with this precious little life that you love more than anything - and in our case, when she is so young, starting around 2 months of age. 

I had a pretty difficult time with this - throughout the last few months, I have put off finding names for daycare options in town, then I put off emailing or calling them once I had a list of names, and then of course after we met with a few, I put off calling them back for a few weeks.  We decided to go with the at home daycare route for a few reasons...1) I really like the smaller size of at home day cares and 2) this option fit into our budget a little bit better :).

We ended up interviewing 3 people all together....the first 2 were pretty good.  Overall, they had many great things about them and how they run their day care.  And, I think either of them would have done a great job in the end.  But, of course, I kept focusing on those couple negative things and couldn't get them out of my mind.  And, when I left the interviews, I just felt uneasy - I didn't leave there with this overwhelming sensation of, "yes, we love that day care!"

I didn't have that great, positive feeling UNTIL....the last interview :)  We interviewed her a few weeks ago - we left her house feeling really excited and happy about who we had just met.  And I must say, after having struggled with this decision for a few months, actually having that happy, positive feeling after the interview definitely told us something.  I emailed her last night to ask if she would be willing to have Annie in early March and she said yes!

I'm so happy that this decision is finally made - and that I feel nothing but good things about our final decision.  While I know nothing will make going back to work easy in March, I am hoping that feeling so good about who is taking care of Annie will make it just a little bit easier :)

Merry Christmas everyone!  3 days to go....

Full Term - 37 weeks!

Woohoo!  Full term!  It feels so great to make it to this point, but as everyone who has had a baby knows, this is also the point where you get so anxious and ready for your baby to make his or her arrival! :)

To start things off, I was SO excited to find out that I am indeed progressing (my hunch was right!)!!  At my appointment yesterday, I found out that I am definitely 1 centimeter dilated, if not almost 2 centimeters!  And, 50-60% effaced and her head is really low (station "0" for those who know the lingo).  So that is all good news!  Of course, doesn't mean that things are guaranteed to happen early, but, having some progression is better than none!  And, if I do make it to my induction, hopefully this will help things go smoothly!

But, as the doctor said yesterday - he was really happy to see her head so low for labor and delivery, but of course that also means that it is much more uncomfortable for me right now in the meantime.  That is indeed the case...

I hate to even use the word "miserable", because I don't ever want to think of carrying our daughter as miserable.  However, over this past weekend, I definitely have hit "that point" where I am READY.  One of the main reasons is that I pulled muscles in my leg/groin/pelvic area late last week and that has really made things hard to deal with.  It is very hard for me to walk - the waddle is in full effect! - and then going from sitting/laying to standing up is very very painful.  Just ask Ben, he has literally had to help move my legs when it hurts too bad for me to stand up from either sitting or laying!  Sometimes I feel like such a baby, but there isn't much I can do about it :(  My pulled muscles have started to feel a little bit better, so that's good.

"Woah!  Are you here to deliver today!?!?": says the women in the bathroom at Carle yesterday.  I guess that is what you have to look forward to when you are full-term!  This lady couldn't get over how large my belly is - she asked all of the classic questions like "is there just one in there?" or "you still have a couple of weeks?".  That's the first time I have had that kind of reaction!  I was actually kind of surprised...I don't think my belly is that big - I definitely have seen pregnant bellies larger than mine :)  Maybe it was what I was wearing...haha, who knows!  Didn't bother me too much since I am full-term and should be larger...but I can only imagine how much it would bother me if I wasn't this far along.

Here is my 37 week picture!  Must say, I will admit that I have that late pregnancy "look" (i.e. chubbier face, tired eyes, bigger nose) - not my best look, but it's worth it :) :)

All About the Induction!

I was just telling Ben yesterday how happy I am that we actually have an "end" date - which I know is very unusual for most pregnant women.  And, I still feel that way - it's nice to say "only 2 and a half weeks at the most!!".  If it wasn't for my scheduled induction on the evening of the 27th, I could be saying..."wow, it could be any day now, or it could be like 4-5 more weeks".  I'm a planner, so I like that I'm saying the first thing :)....not to mention, we KNOW we'll have the tax deduction for a baby this year :) :)

BUT - after talking with my doctor today about how long of a process inductions can be, boy oh boy do I hope that miss Annie decides to make her appearance before my induction date on the 27th!!!

After hearing in baby classes that inductions don't always work (news to us!!) and sometimes people are sent home after an unsuccessful induction, I wanted to get some clarification from Dr. F on whether or not I could fall into that boat.  Good news - no, I won't - mainly because I actually have a medical reason to be having the baby early (the "trial" inductions where people get sent home happen if someone is doing an induction only because they just want to deliver the baby).  Therefore, there is no way we will go home without a baby after I've gone in on the 27th.  But, I wanted to get more information about what would she do then in the case that the induction doesn't seem to be working.

Basically - it boils down to this: I (we) are really crossing our fingers that I have some sort of progression before my induction - i.e. some sort of dilation or effacement at my appointment next week (when they first check for this) or my last appointment on Christmas Eve.  If I am not progressing naturally, there is a much higher chance that the induction could be a very long process.

If I am not showing progression by the induction date, I would go in for cervidil the night of the 27th and then start pitocin at 8am on the 28th.  If pitocin does nothing to start contractions and labor just isn't progressing at all that first day, then they would stop pitocin and give me more cervidil overnight on the 28th.  Then - they would start pitocin the next morning for round #2.  If the pitocin STILL doesn't start labor, then that evening (the 29th), I would most likely have a c-section.  If pitocin does start labor on that second day, then they will let labor progress as it wants to - meaning (and this is the kicker)...that if my labor at this point wants to take another 24 hours, I could go into DAY 3!!!!  Haha....wow, that's crazy.  I knew inductions could take longer, but I never imagined possibly that long!

I am happy that Dr. F wouldn't jump into a c-section at the end of the day one - I would love to avoid a c-section if possible.  I am also thankful to know ahead of time that this could happen.  Of course, that's the worst case scenario and hopefully it will not be that long.  And, let's REALLY hope that I am progressing at least a little bit by my 38-week appointment next week or on Christmas Eve!  Cross your fingers with me please :) :)

So I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens :)....(and we all know Annie has her own "plan" anyway....)

Less than one month to go!

It's hard to believe that there is less than one month to go!  Monday marked exactly one month to my due date - but because I'll be induced early, we are now at 23 days and counting (at the most!) - eeks!!!

We are SO excited and just cannot wait for her to be here!  There are still some big "to-do's" left like packing the hospital bag, getting those final things off our registry, and actually writing up my birth plan - but overall we feel really ready! 

Overall, I have been feeling really well!!  I haven't hit that "miserable" point yet - I mean, yes, there are things I won't miss....like having to pee every 5 minutes (and then nothing coming out), or the terrible hip pain I have from sleeping on my side, and the constant worry that something is wrong with the baby....but overall, I would say my attitude is staying pretty positive :)  

Luckily miss Annie has cooperated and stayed head-down over the last few weeks...no more flipping breech recently (phew!).  That is always a nice thing to hear when we go to our ultrasounds on Mondays.  One of the things I cannot WAIT for when she is here is to kiss her chubby cheeks - they look so cute and chubby and kissable on the ultrasounds! :)

We had another growth scan last Monday (the 26th) and Annie is measuring right around 5 pounds, 10 ounces - which is in the 52nd percentile, so she is "average"!  We are so happy about this - it means that my insulin shots have really paid off!  Everything has been going well with my diabetes too - my units are up quite a bit at every meal, but the most important thing is that my blood sugar numbers are controlled and she is growing at a decent rate! 

One odd "symptom" I have been having recently is that every now and then (maybe once every other day) I see spots in my vision.  I didn't really think much of these until I was reading an article yesterday that was about "the top symptoms you shouldn't ignore during pregnancy" - well guess what was on there?  Yup!  Spots in your vision.  Of course I had a mini-freak out moment, but called the nurse after hours and asked her.  She said it could be a sign of developing preeclampsia, but since I didn't have the corresponding headaches, my blood pressure has always been normal, and no protein in my urine at my appointments - she wasn't too worried.  I am definitely going to talk to the doctor about it tomorrow though at my appointment.  The nurse thinks it's just one of those equilibrium things when I go from laying down to standing up (which is when it happened last night).  Sometimes I'm amazed at some of things that happen to your body during pregnancy that are actually connected to pregnancy (does that make sense?) - like I would have never guessed seeing spots could be the result of something having to do with pregnancy.  Well, I guess I know now :)

We were SO bad about taking our bump pictures for a few weeks!!!  But we FINALLY did this week, so here is my 35 week picture!  It's funny to look at my 35 week picture compared to my 26 week picture (which is the last one I posted) - it's amazing how much I grown!!!

And a bare bump photo too :)  I don't know if my belly button can be stretched anymore than it already is...! haha