Weeks 40&41

Weeks 40&41 update-8/30/13 (after the fact—I delivered at 41 weeks 5 days on 8/24/13)

How big is baby? Another big one.  You can really clearly feel where baby is and body parts.  Kind of strange.

Appointment Updates: I had one last appointment with my preferred Dr. (Anna) and we discussed our plan of continuing to wait for things to happen naturally, then to induce by breaking my water (AROM) on Tuesday 8/27/13 if I had not delivered already. Then Anna went on vacation and the rest of my appointment were with Dr. Kate, the Dr. who delivered Joseph. She was willing to abide by Anna and my plan. Then when I still hadn’t delivered by week 41 I started twice weekly non-stress tests (NSTs) where I would go to the hospital and have baby’s heart rate and my contractions monitored (this is standard practice). Then, after one NST Kate did an ultrasound test and baby did not move at all (besides her heart beating) for 30 min, completely failing the test. Kate and I agreed she was probably sleeping, since she had been moving all over the place on shortly before, but it was still kind of scary. Kate said I should come back in the next day for another NST, which looked fine. Then another NST a couple days later showed two small heart decelerations. Kate said she believed that baby was fine but that these decels were concerning. So they kept me at the hospital and all hooked up for the rest of the afternoon. Everything looked fine, but Kate decided she thought I should be induced right then. This totally freaked me out. She actually said, “I don’t really think there is any problem with your baby, but I can’t be sure and you are so close (5cm) I recommend we break your water now.”  She said I would have to spend the night at the hospital if I didn’t get induced. I continued to resist medical intervention and said I did not want to be induced. At 8 that night, after all day at the hospital and nothing on the strip looking concerning for about 7 hours, she said I could go home!! This was a big deal for me.  I normally do what doctors tell me and the whole “trusting my instinct” thing does not come easy. 

Sleep: Once I stopped working I started sleeping quite well!

Food aversions: Nope

Food cravings: Same—cranberry juice, sweets, lemon, fruit…

Symptoms: Very big, pressure.

Maternity clothes: Not much fit at the end! Same few shirts and skirts.

Weight: I basically stopped worrying about it since I had done pretty well and I was pretty stressed with the whole going overdue thing, but by the very end I was up 35 pounds.

Mommy movement: LOTS of walking. About a mile every night and often more. Didn’t seem to help get baby out though…

Baby movement: Sometimes tons, sometimes not much at all.

Gender: ????????????????????

Birth story--because this baby did finally decide to come out--coming soon!!!