SURPRISE Baby News!

We had our last OB appt this morning and the doc was concerned about inducing on Monday- he said there were 8 other women on the schedule to be induced that morning and was afraid we wouldn't get in. I was bracing myself for him to suggest later in the week....when he asked, "How does SUNDAY sound?" SUNDAY SOUNDS TERRIFIC!! So Miss Emily is coming 24 hours sooner than we thought- we are SOOO excited!!! Now we are supposed to show up at 8am and he predicts she'll be here in the afternoon sometime, or early evening at the latest. Woo hoo!!

Just 2 days to go till we meet our little princess!

37 Weeks and a Countdown!

I had my 37 week appointment today and I have a wonderful announcement- Emily's days in Womb Land are numbered!!! We have an induction scheduled for Monday October 22 (38 weeks and 4 days).
The doc said Emily's ultrasounds that we do every Tuesday look great and that she is a great weight for her age. During the visit he said he wanted to make an appointment for next Friday and asked if I was comfortable- hahahahahahahah-- that's a big fat NO!!! He offered to look at induction dates and I told him I'd love him forever if we could talk about it. He left the room for a few minutes to look at the call calendar and came back with either the 21st or the 22nd. The 21st IS a day closer, I know...but it's my puppy Booker's first birthday- so I just couldn't let Emily's arrival overshadow his "big day". I'm sure after she's born we won't even know we HAVE dogs, let alone remember their birthdays! :)
So there we have it! Tomorrow starts the SINGLE DIGIT countdown to parenthood for us! Paul and I are beyond excited and can't wait to meet our little lady. Of course, if she came before then that would be great too, but it's just super nice to have an end in sight. T minus 10 days!! :)

In Good Time....

Emily is still cooking! Can you believe it? After all those false alarms in September and tons of docs saying we'd deliver any day, here we are over 1 month later than when the pre-term labor issues began. Guess Emily is trying to tell us two things- number one, she's a typical girl and is keeping everyone waiting, and number two- that SHE makes the rules!! Let's hope Paul and I are ready for someone who seems to have so much personality already! :)

As always- we'll keep you posted on her arrival (well, if she ever decides to come out!)

Still Ticking!

We're still ticking- just 5 more days till we are considered "safe" to deliver. I am feeling very uncomfortable and I really feel like Emily has "dropped" yet again. I have a lot of pain/ pressure so I'm thinking that means our days are numbered. She is getting so big and strong now- she pushes out so hard with her feet!
Yesterday Paul and I were watching my belly and all of a sudden you could see the obvious outline of a foot! We touched it and could feel her tiny little toes- it was so cute.
I am gradually getting more emotional- I cried watching some news story the other night about an African choir that came to town. I have no idea what was so moving about it but I burst into tears....and then Paul and I had a good laugh at what a crazy woman I've become.

We'll keep you posted if anything changes. For now, Miss Emily is still baking in there! :)

H-O-M-E

This morning we had another u/s and a non-stress test (NST) to monitor for ctx and I again had a "quiet' uterus so I am at home now. I am on modified bedrest- every hour I need to spend 50 minutes sitting or lying down, getting up basically only to use the bathroom. My only outings between now and when she is born will be to go to the doctor. I am going for weekly appointments which will include a BPP (biophysical profile u/s to monitor her growth and check her fluid level), NST, and internal cervical checks. Basically, once the rest of my cervix is gone it will begin to dilate and we will deliver whenever active labor starts--there's no more meds they can/will give to stop it. So, cross your fingers, toes, legs, eyes, everything you've got that we make it at least till Sept. 28-- that puts us at 35 weeks and 1 day, which, if all is well with her when she's born, means she avoids a NICU stay and can leave with us to go home. Woo hoo! Just 16 more days of baking and we can have a baby! :)

I'm so glad I did all her laundry last weekend! ;)

Mommy's Birthday!

Today is my (Allison's) birthday, and I'm spending it in the hospital...not what I expected at all! Last night the ctx were not as frequent so they said if I make it through the next 48 hours and stay "pretty quiet" I may get to serve my sentence at home! So cross your fingers- I'd love to get out of here! :)
PS- You know, at first I was really upset that Paul was on call on my birthday, but now that’s a whole lot more convenient than I had thought before!

We had our 32 week appt scheduled for today after our ultrasound, but we never made it- I was admitted first! We had the biophysical profile and it looks like Emily is tipping the scales at about 4lbs 3oz, give or take some. We got the 4D u/s and got two semi-decent pics of her face, but nothing really great. She's awfully smashed in there! Then we did an u/s to check my cervix, and that's when things got interesting.

It seems during the past week I have lost 1.5 cm of cervical length and I'm now down to 6mm (yes, millimeters) left. The maternal fetal medicine doc was called in to interpret the u/s and started talking about me being admitted to lay upside down in the hospital from now until Emily is born. At one point in the conversation I finally stopped her and said, "So when are you talking that she might come out- are you thinking like, tonight?!" And she said it was a possibility because I had such little cervix left. She insisted I be driven across the parking lot to the hospital and I had to ride in a wheelchair up to the L&D floor...which is looking like it will be my new home while Emily cooks a little longer. If we can make it to 34 weeks they think that is another major hurdle, although personally I'd like to get her to 35 or even 36.

When I was admitted tonight they hooked me up to the ctx monitor again and apparently I've been having little weenie ctx (I haven't felt them) that have been as detrimental to my cervical length as the bigger ones I do feel. I am on magnesium sulfate to try and stop them- they'll do this with me for the next 2 days and then they'll quit. At that point, the ctx will either stay stopped or they will start again. If they start again I guess I'll just be monitored for dilation and we'll think about delivering her if I get started dilating.

The good news with all this is that she's already gotten the steroid shots for her lung development and also she's a girl, which I didn't know but apparently girls have an easier time with being early than boys do. It's totally scary to me to think that she could be here in days or weeks....months I guess are totally out of the question.

Tomorrow's my birthday and it looks like I'll be spending it right here, in home sweet hospital. Funny how life throws curves, huh? It definitely looks like I will NOT be returning to work before she is born- they don't even want me "serving my time" (bedrest) at home, b/c they don't think I'll be compliant enough. Truthfully, as terrible as it's going to be locked up in the hospital, it would be very difficult to completely rest-- there's just too many temptations. This is honestly the best place for me, even if it's hard to deal with.

Keep our girl in your prayers- we really need some more time to cook and hopefully we won't meet her until the last week in September or early October.