Thursday, October 16, 2008

40 Week Appointment

My first ultrasound showed that I was due on 10/17, but then at some point the doctors changed it to 10/16, so today is my official due date according to my OB. I had an appointment this morning at 9am that didn't go so well, but looking back it was due to a number of different factors. Basically, the day started off with Lucas waking up from 4:30-6:30am for no apparent reason... just wanted to be awake. He hasn't woken up during the night for a few weeks, so it was strange. I never went back to sleep, so that was strike one. Strike two was that my OB practice has 3 midwives, but one is out due to a broken arm and a second will be out in about 10 days due to a vacation she's had scheduled for a year. Looking back, it's totally clear that the doctor that I saw was stressed out due to scheduling issues, but I didn't figure that out until later. So when she came in and told me that if I wanted a midwife for SURE that I might want to consider an induction next week. I told her that I'd pass on that and then she suggested that they strip my membranes to help labor progress so that an induction wouldn't be necessary in a couple of weeks. I was overwhelmed by the choices since I didn't think it was a big deal that the baby hadn't arrived by 9am on my due date. Anyway, they ended up checking my cervix, but not stripping any membranes (I don't even know what that really means!). I am 2cm dilated, but I could have been for the past month, so it doesn't really mean anything. That info will be useful when they check again and can see if there has been progression.

The good part of the visit was that I ran into Kristen and baby Elizabeth in the lobby and got to talk to Kristen about the appointment (a fellow Bradley mom) and then got to hold her baby while she had her appointment. It got me in baby mode : )

Sandy is coming in this afternoon and we're all excited. She's going to go with me to get Lucas from school this afternoon. The temp is supposed to drop tomorrow, so that could help start labor from what I hear...

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Just don't let the baby get too big. Ouch! All the strippig is.....is thinning the lining of the cervix. You know what else could push this thing along..... What got you into this..can get you out!haha

Kelly said...

FYI, stripping can hurt like heck, but it will only work if you're ready to go into labor anyway, so it's sort of a "gentler" induction method.. Sorry you're appointment wasn't so great, and fingers crossed for labor soon! :)

Jennifer said...

Hey Shan,
I'm sorry that your doctor dissapointed you today. You sounded really stressed when I spoke to you earlier, but you sounded better later. Anyways, I know you want to meet baby girl really bad, but just enjoy Lucas right now. Newborns take all of your time! I love you