38 Weeks & Some Exciting News!!!!!!!!

Well, its official! We have a date for this baby to join the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Monday September 5th 2011 I will be getting induced!!!!!!!!!! Yes, labour day!!! haha

 

I had my regular Monday doctors appointment last week with an ultrasound first. Baby was estimated at 6.9lbs! So hard to believe since that is what A weighed on his first Christmas at the age 6.5 months. I was happy to hear this estimate as baby's growth seems to have slowed compared to what we thought it was going to end up being upon birth. Baby also scored 8/8 on its assessment that they do for breathing on its own and movements....again very exciting!

The doctor never did check my cervix last week or yesterday. The initial plan for yesterdays appointment was to do a stretch and sweep to maybe kick start labor, however I have a pretty bad cold and really did not want to try and get things going feeling this way. I don't think giving birth and meeting your baby for the first time while sick would be much fun at all!

So yesterdays appointment is when we decided on the "plan". And the best part of this plan, besides of course finally getting to hold this little one in my arms?! It is going to be my absolute FAVORITE doctor doing the delivery!!!!!!!!

Monday morning at 6am I will call labor and delivery and will be told what time to come in. She said normally to be ready to leave by 7am to be there for 8am. I think we are going to start with just breaking my water and hoping that contractions will start on their own seeing I am already 4cms dilated. Doctor said we could do that and give it a couple hours to see how things go and if things don't progress they will start the drip of pitocin. Or her other option was to do both at the same time to really get things going. However I am hoping to avoid the pitocin if I can so I will stick with option number one.

She also mentioned that I only have to stay for six hours after delivery and then we can head home. However I do not think I will be comfortable with this at all and plan on staying the one night in hospital.

I can hardly believe that this full term pregnancy journey is almost to an end! I never in a million years thought I would get this far and I feel so blessed! So, looks like 6 days from now we will become the family of FOUR that we have been dreaming about!!!!!!!!!!!!

34 Weeks!!!

Can you friggin believe it!??! I am in my 34th week!!!!!!!!!!!

The past three days have been pretty rough on me. I have been dealing with A LOT of pain and just have not been comfortable. It is very hard to try and do things around here and take care of little man when I can barely move. Thankfully this week he has been in camp so I am able to just lay around and do nothing all day. (Which by the way is VERY hard to do when there are SO many things that I just want to get done!)

So, I am only four short days away from having my cerclage removed. And let me tell you I AM SCARED! If I think about it too much I start feeling very nauseous. I get a lot of questions about when the stitch comes out and how it works with baby being born. No one really knows what will happen. I could end up having the baby that day or I could end up going past due. At this point the cerclage is not doing as much as it was in the past. When a baby is tiny it is very possible for the baby to "fall" through a weak cervix and be born too soon. However at this point baby is bigger and there is less pressure on cervix from baby and as well baby would not be able to "fall" through. I have talked to some women who have gone within 48 hours of having the cerclage out and I know many that went right to 40 weeks.

By Monday I have to let the doctor know if I want to be induced at the end of August and I still have not decided. I really don't think I will last till induction anyways so maybe that is part of my whole difficulty with making a decision. It will be interesting to see how my cervix is after the cerclage is removed! We are in the home stretch!!!!!!!!!!!

We enjoyed some more family time together again this past weekend at the pool.

A Great Weekend, A Great Appointment & 33 Weeks!

Well it was an awesome weekend for us, especially little man! Saturday grandma and grandpa C came and picked up A and I to head out to my aunt, uncle and cousins house for some swimming and a BBQ. Aunty A, Uncle S also came out which was really nice. We spent a couple of hours in and around the pool and then had a great dinner.

Of course A LOVED the pool, as usual.

Sunday we were up and ready early to head to Toronto so that little man could see The Wiggles in concert. But first we got to meet them all backstage!

So in baby news, I am now 33 weeks!!! I am only FOUR weeks away from giving birth to a TERM baby! I know the end of the pregnancy is just going to fly by and before we know it we are going to have a new little baby here in our home that we will be totally in love with!

I had a long day yesterday for appointments. First was an ultrasound. They were doing another estimate on baby's size and making sure that baby was doing well. The baby is now measuring at an approximate 5lbs 11oz which is the 90th percentile for size. Baby also scored an 8/8 on the assessment which is wonderful. The ultrasound tech did an internal ultrasound even though I told her that they do not do those anymore and didn't do one last time. She told me it was on the sheet so the doctor obviously wanted it done. I was confused but since I have had so many did it anyways. Wowzers! I am STILL very sore/tender from the exam I had a week ago here in town. Turns out when I saw my doctor that they didn't want a cervical measurement because at this point in the pregnancy there is no reason to really do it. We know the stitch is doing its job.

I saw cardiology again as well. Not much new there. They did increase the medication that I am on again as my heart rate is still pretty high. Hopefully we start to see some change in it soon! I was also told that I need to start putting my feet up higher than my heart as much as I can in the day and as well try to sleep like that. I have swelling in my feet and legs which can be pregnancy related, but cardiology wants to be safe as there is always the chance that it is heart related.

Anyhow, I of course ended up seeing a brand new doctor and was a little frustrated because I have not seen the main doctor who knows me best in a while. We talked about the pregnancy and how things are going and then I asked about my stitch removal. She told me that it would be at 37 weeks or later. I told her that I had discussed this with my main doctor and she had spoken a while back about possibly removing it sooner. As well I wanted to be sure that it would be her removing it and I was told it would depend on the day I came in. So of course I get upset. My anxiety has been getting worse and I like plans in place so this all didn't go over well with me. I am VERY nervous about the removal as it is and not knowing who would be taking it out made it that much worse. She went and got my doctor for me.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO we have kind of put plans in place. I will have my cerclage removed on August 8th because she will for sure be there that day. If she is not upstairs, they are to page her to come up and do it. This is only 13 days away!!! I will be 34 weeks 6 days, so a bit early for removal, but she is totally okay with it.

I know that I will most likely be delivering a healthy baby, but with my personal experiences and a lot of my social circle, this is not the case. So with knowing too much it makes it hard for me to be 100% positive about how things will go and how things will turn out. Until that baby is safe in my arms there will always be that small fear. Thankfully my doctor TOTALLY understands WHY I feel this way and wants to try and make things easier for me.

She has put in my birth plan that no interventions are allowed during delivery such as forceps and vacuum extraction. If anything is going wrong I will immediately be given a c section. Usually doctors try everything else first, but she will change that for me.

By my appointment August 8th I need to decide if I want to be induced. This was another suggestion from her, but it is totally my choice. The main reasons for this are so that

1. I can plan childcare for A for the delivery day and the couple days after. She realizes that in having A it isn't going to always be easy to find last minute care for him as I only have so many trach trained people.

2. It reduces my anxiety about possibly not making it to the hospital where I see high risk and having to go here to the hometown hospital. With how fast labor has been for me in the past there is a good chance that I would not make it 40 minutes out of town. This makes me very anxious as the doctor I don't want to EVER deal with could very well be on call. I would rather deliver alone than there with him.

The induction would be at around 38 weeks.....so, big decision for me to make!!!! This means baby will be here by the end of August!!!! However with that all being said, there is a possibility that I would not even make it to induction day and end up having baby prior. I have yet to make a choice yet, but will let you know the final decision when I do.

So all in all, we are having a baby soon! It is starting to feel real. It honestly hasn't yet at all because I have been so focused on getting past each day. We are just super excited to finally meet this baby and become a family of four!!!!!!!!!!