Thursday, February 9, 2012

Due Date Appointment

I decided I'm going to forget about back-tracking and accounting all these days off that I've had, because they've all blurred together now (now that I'm finishing up day 9!). I can summarize: tons & tons of eating out, waking up without an alarm clock, walking around town, cleaning, and eating out some more.
Ok, let's skip to missy's due date, 2/7 (also my mom's bday!)
We were so hoping we wouldn't make it to this appointment! I thought for sure we'd have her before then. No valid reason why~it was just my wishful thinking ;) Alas, we arrived at 8:30am for our appointment with Dr. Chou. 
First, she checked my cervix. Still only a cm dilated, possibly 1.5. Bummer. At least it didn't hurt quite as much as the last exam did. 
Then, she did an ultrasound. We got to see the screen but she didn't spend much time explaining what each white blur was; it was more about checking her fluid levels. I told her my concern about how full-term babies are at risk for low fluid levels, based on what I had been reading. She happily reported that we were in good shape. She asked if the baby is as active as ever. That's the one question she would ask us at every appointment, especially towards the end. I said yes. 
Then she said I'd go to a different room and monitor the fetal heartbeat. Afterwards, we would meet up again and talk about what we wanted to do. She said that we could induce if we wanted to, especially since my cervix was a bit dilated and effaced; meaning it was in good shape for induction. She then asked if we wanted to be induced. My response was 'we want to do what you recommend.' And Greg's response was 'we do want her to come naturally, on her own.....but we also value your opinion' to which I nodded in agreement. Dr. Chou said that she agreed; ideally, she would come on her own. Yet she had the concern that the longer things go, the bigger she will get. This part I didn't really get, because she's probably only about 7 lbs, and really that's no cause for concern. (In recent news, a woman gave birth to a 13 lb baby in Iowa, and another to a 15 lb baby in China(!)). 
Anyway, we went and monitored the heart rate, as seen in the photo below:
haha. I look pretty funny. And my belly looks huge. Those are the same bands they put on you when you're admitted into labor and delivery, so that you're constantly listening to her heartbeat, and there's also a squiggly line that indicates contractions and her movement, like what you see on the news when there's been an earthquake. Here was hers:
What you see above is all good. Steady and strong heartbeat and movements, indicating good activity coming from her. After 20 minutes we got to go back to the other room and Dr. Chou joined us in there. She said everything looks great, there's no cause for concern, but until she arrives we'll need to monitor things closely, so we agreed to return two days later, for the same appointment. She said, depending on that appointment, we would then talk about possibly inducing. She mentioned the weekend, we didn't ask why. We later deduced that the weekend is best for her since she doesn't have appointments that she'd have to cancel. Fair enough. We said goodbye and realized we had been there for almost two hours(!)

So we continued on with our day. By the way, Sunday, 2/5, was Greg's last day at work for three weeks. So he's officially on 'paternity leave' to coincide with my maternity leave. He had to give notice way in advance so we took a risk and decided on the 5th. He returns to work on Monday 2/27, yay!

Amongst more restaurant-dining, we talked about how we felt about inducing labor. It's a tough decision that we didn't necessarily feel ready to, or compelled to make. I think we've remained hopeful that by the Thursday appointment, I'll have dilated more. And/or maybe we wouldn't make it to the Thursday appointment!

To be continued...

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