38 Weeks

Yes, I can't believe I am writing that! I have made it to my stretch goal and I am thrilled and all the worry has been washed away! It feels really good to be this close to my due date and now we can just be excited about meeting our little one!

This week I had 3 nights of false labor which was not a whole lot of fun. I would have contractions starting at 12:30 or 2:00 in the morning and they would last all night long until 5-6 in the morning and then dwindle away. They were such a tease as they were regular, every 3-5 minutes, and were lasting :45-1:30 in length. These were textbook labor contractions and based on the "rules" of when to go to the hospital I was there. I just never felt like they were strong enough though. They were only slightly uncomfortable and I just felt like it would be a waste of time to go in if I could walk and talk freely through them. Then they ended up going away so I knew I made the right choice.

So today, I was honestly not looking forward to going to the doctor. I just had this feeling that I hadn't made any progress. Well, to my complete surprise, I had made tons of progress! I even blurted out "Thank you God" when my doctor told me and she got a good laugh out of that. It has just been really miserable to be kept up all night with contractions that go away. For those that like the details: I am now 3cm, 60% effaced, and baby is at 0 station. I was ready for my epidural at 3cm with Eli so it is kind of strange to be that far and still be walking around like normal. I think the biggest piece of that puzzle is the 0 station which really means that labor is probably very close!

There was some concern at my appointment because for the second week in a row my blood pressure and heartrate were high. The blood pressure wasn't too bad, but my heart has been in the 140's-160's and I know it has been racing at home too because I can feel it pounding in the back of my head. The doctor was concerned enough to want to do a complete work-up of the baby just to make sure s/he was handling that stress okay.

So off she sent me to labor and delivery. They quickly got me hooked up to the monitors for a non-stress test which basically means I lay there and they watch the heartrate and kicks for 30 minutes or so. Baby passed that with flying colors! Then the lab came up and drew some blood and then I was wheeled off (they refused to let me walk, so this perfectly fine pregnant lady had to be paraded around in a wheel chair) to radiology for a Bio Physical Profile of the baby. Basically an ultrasound where they have to look at certain markers - like practice breaths, movement, amniotic fluid, muscle tone. The ultrasound wasn't too exciting. The baby was really squished and hard to make things out. We couldn't even get a face profile since the head is so low. But in the important news baby scored a perfect 8/8 on the ultrasound! So then I was wheeled back to labor and delivery where I had to sit and wait and wait and wait for test results to come back and the release from my doctor to go home. It was a long morning spent at the hospital but baby looks good and that is all that matters!

So we are anticipating that we are very very close to baby being born. Of course there are no guarantees and we will have to wait and see, but we're almost there!