40 weeks 2 days......and still waiting!

**April 30th - 40wks Preggo - last belly pic and ready to pop!**

A May baby she will be!! April 30th (her due date) came and went but baby girl stayed right where she is! Comfy and cozy in Mommy's belly. Well I'm not sure how cozy as big as she is getting, but I'm thinking she is more comfy than me at this point! I think she didn't realize that was her last chance to be a diamond girl. Can't say Daddy is complaining about that! lol So Emerald it is.

Thursday we had our 40 week check up with my Doctor (friday was actually 40wks but he wasn't in the office that day). BP and urine were still good. I lost a pound. Probably from all this dang walking that doesn't seem to be working! This is normal in the end, though. So time for my internal AGAIN and what would you know......1cm. Nothing changed again. So at this point being at 40 weeks it was time to talk about our options.
My Dr. does not like his patients to go over 41 weeks as medical problems can start to occur. So the plan is on Monday morning (if she still didn't want to come over the weekend) at around 7:30am we will go over to Labor and Delivery at the hospital we are delivering at, Memorial Hospital West, for an ultrasound. This ultrasound that my Doctor has ordered includes NST, BPP and EFW. I'm sure most of you are wondering what the heck all this means! lol
A biophysical profile (BPP) is a simple, painless test used during pregnancy to assess your baby's well-being — specifically, whether he's getting enough oxygen in the womb. It's typically done if you've gone past your due date, or sometime in your third trimester if you're having a high-risk pregnancy. The test consists of:
• A detailed ultrasound to observe your baby's body movements, muscle tone (flexing of the arms and legs), and breathing movements (the baby's ability to move his chest muscles and diaphragm), and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding him.
A nonstress test (NST) is to assess whether your baby's heart rate changes when he's moving. For this, you lie on your left side. A technician straps two devices to your belly: One monitors your baby's heartbeat and movement; the other records contractions in your uterus. The technician listens to and watches your baby's heartbeat on an electronic screen.
And of course the Estimated Fetal Weight (EFW) to tell us approximately just how big baby girl is now!!

If all is still ok we will go home and then Tuesday the hospital will call us to tell us what time to come in to start induction. They usually have you come to be admitted at night between 8pm-Midnight. Once we arrive to Labor and Delivery they will first try to start labor by inserting a medication called Cervidil. This medication helps to ripen the cervix and may also stimulate enough contractions to start your labor. By morning if the Cervidil has not started labor they will start me on Pitocin. It's given through an IV and used to start labor or augment contractions you've been having on your own. If all goes well hopefully she will arrive sometime Wednesday at 40 weeks 5 days. There is always a chance of very long labor which means she could even possibly arrive Thursday but we are hoping for Wednesday.

I was a little upset after our visit with my Doctor to find out there was no progress and now Induction is a possibility. This makes our plan of natural childbirth much more challenging as we will not be able to do most of the laboring at home as we planned. Also we have been told by our Bradley teacher and friends that Pitocin usually will bring on contractions much stronger and quicker making it harder to refuse an Epidural. As it says in our Natural Childbirth book, a forced labor is an extremely hard labor. Along with several other things is says about it not being right and possible problems, ect.. Basically I could have done without reading that section about induction. It even made me start having doubts about inducing at all. But as the days go by there are also chances of the placenta problems, amniotic fluid and also the baby just starting to get too big increasing the risk of C-Section.
So after a quick cry and some thinking I have realized whatever gets her here healthy and finally in our arms is what matters the most to us both. I just want her here and safe. To finally cover her with lots of kisses from Mommy and Daddy.
We will continue to keep you all posted!! We still continue are daily multiple walks around the neighborhood that we have been doing the past 3-4 weeks. The last week we have even been going 2-3 times a day! My legs are getting pretty sore carrying around this extra 30 pounds! lol Our neighbors even stop to ask, still doesn't want to come out huh?!? I'm thinking she might just not really care too much about these walks, but either way the walking is good so we will continue the next few days. Either way we will finally be meeting our little girl within the next week. And we can't wait for you all to meet her too!!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy to Be!