37 weeks

Holy Cow, I am SO pregnant!

As of today, I'm looking at exactly 2 weeks from my induction date (which is the day before my original due date). 2 weeks till my little girl's birthday. Talk about holy cow! More about thoughts on being induced in a moment. We had an ultrasound yesterday (I'll be 38 weeks tomorrow) to help determine her size and weight. They told us that she's 6 lbs 6 oz (I'm told that could be off by 1/2 lb either direction) and I'm measuring at exactly 38 weeks. Her heartbeat is right on and we got some fun u/s pictures of her chubby little cheeks and full lips! We also got a full on crotch shot, confirming once again that she is 100% girl! My blood pressure's been just fine this whole pregnancy, and I feel really good, aside from achy hips and the continuing sciatic problem. I've gained 22 lbs so far and haven't dealt with any swelling or puffiness. I woke up with some strange, period-like cramping in the middle of the night and again when I got up this morning, but nothing else to report. I do feel like my stomach is so big that it's going to explode, so the idea of just 2 weeks left really works for me.

This brings me to the issue of being induced. It's funny the reactions I get when I've told people that this is what our plan is. Most of our friends that have recently had children seem to fully understand where our doctor is coming from, and having just gone through giving birth to their first children too, are as eager as we are to just embrace whatever is going to get our daughter to us safely. We've also had our fair share of cool reactions, from both mothers involved and from those who feel like we should let things happen "naturally". The short and sweet of why our generally non-interventionist doctor would suggest that we might induce (again, only 1 day before our due date), is that after 40 weeks a placenta does not function at 100% anymore. Also, if the weight estimates are off from the last ultrasound that we did, as they can be, the baby can start to get so large that I will end up with a c-section, an episiotomy or the baby can be put into distress. He mentioned that after 20 years of delivering babies, he's only had a few still births, but it always leaves him wondering that if they just had gone ahead and induced the week of the due date, if the still birth could have been avoided. I'm due on a Wed and the hospital only does inductions on Tuesdays, so that's how we ended up with an induction date the day before. My doctor is not pressuring me into this and said that we can wait another week if we want to. It's just not his recommendation. Another reason some people are against inductions is that so often due dates are not accurate. Usually the mother is mistaken about the date of her last period, which leads to the wrong assignment of due date. This can lead to inducing up to two weeks earlier than the 40 weeks you think you're at. For me, I'm 100% positive of the date of the last day of my last period, and I and the baby have measured dead on throughout the entire pregnancy. I feel really confident that our dating is correct, so I'm not worried that we're taking her at 38 weeks instead of 40. Last concern is that inductions lead to c-sections. I spoke to my doctor about this in earnest, as I really do not want a c-section if it can be at all avoided. He said that the farther away from the due date (earlier) that an induction is performed, the more likely the incidence of c-sections due to the labor not progressing. He said that a day before the due date, the chance of the labor not progressing naturally from that point out is really low.

So there it is. Maybe I should be surprised that so many people have had such strong reactions to what really was a pretty simple decision for us to make when we weighed the pros and the cons. In the end, like any good parent, we won't do anything that isn't best for our little girl - regardless of how much I would like to be done with being pregnant. As of right now, we think this decision is best for us. Simple as that.

With that, we're on to the 2 week count-down!