Still here... still waiting... still freaking out....
We're doing ok. Freaking out, of course, since we're inside one week of our due date. We had our tour of the birthing center on Tuesday afternoon. It was great--the place is really nice and the nurses are awesome. Our doula came with and she did her "interview" about what our expectations are, etc., and that was really interesting. I made Spouse answer everything first so that he didnt just say "yah, me, too" to everything. I loved hearing what he said about what he wants to happen, what he doesnt, what he's worried about, etc. He's starting to get so excited. I love that.
I was supposed to be finished with work yesterday (although I still have to file my final grades) but I have to pop in this afternoon for a quick meeting with my Chair re: mat leave and stopping my tenure clock. I have no idea what he wants now... we settled all of it a while ago. He gave me 8 weeks. If I have the kid soon, it will be more like 10 since my start date is technically Jan 1, but so far we've no signs of "progress." Anyway, Chair just emailed and said "When you have a minute, drop in..." so I have no idea what this is about....
I'm becoming a paranoid wreck lately. I'm trying not to worry about things that I can not control, such as the length of labor, the amount of pain, whether or not the baby is ok, etc., but I think I will have to completely stop reading anything baby/labor/delivery related to facilitate that. Last night I read the updated "what's up with your baby during week 39" on babycenter.com and the part about "Your practitioner may have you count fetal movements. Even if you aren't asked to formally count movements, call her immediately if you notice a decrease in your baby's activity. Your baby should remain as active as ever right up to delivery, and a decrease in activity could be a sign of a problem — meaning that you need to deliver now rather than later."
What does this mean?? Seriously... I've been freaking out ALL MORNING because he's not moving around much, but does he ever move around a lot in the AMs? Sometimes... but not all mornings. I'm usually too busy to notice patterns. When do I call? Should I torture him by drinking lots of cold water to get him to move around? Should I worry that there is something wrong becaue he's NOT poking me over and over again in the same exact spot like he did 2 days ago? GAH! Fucking BabyCenter. I'm going to lose it soon....
Our last appt (Mon) was interesting. I measured ahead--43cm (this is the one that they do with a tape measure to measure the size of your uterus and the #cms=#weeks you are). Anyway, the midwife was like... "Whoa... you are suddenly huge... and you hadnt gained any weight in 3 weeks but you gained 3lbs in a week..." He ordered ANOTHER ultrasound to check on size. He said that if for some reason the baby is OVER TEN LBS we would start talking c-section. I was like... "Um... yeah.... WTF? What causes a 10 lb baby?" He said, "Mostly diabetes..." and I said, "I'm not diabetic. And all of my gestational diabetes screens came back negative." He said, "i know... Its actually very unlikely that your baby is that big but I want to be sure." He said that I could be measuring so big because the baby is sitting really high. He is still way up under my ribs and that can cause the uterus to expand out even more--hence the big measurement. The estimate from a month ago was 5.5-6lbs and there is just no way in hell he grew 4 lbs in a month.... Plus, Spouse and I were under 7lbs when we were born, and they say that is the best predictor anyway, barring factors like diabetes.
So, we probably wont know anything tomorrow since our u/s tech is very stingy with info ("I dont read them, I just take the pictures..."). I suspect that if there is an issue, we'll get a call tomorrow afternoon and they will want to either induce me or talk c-section ASAP. In all likelihood, we'll talk about it on Monday, he'll tell us how big the baby is (prob more like 7 or 7.5 lbs, I hope), and we'll go back to waiting....
Oh, the joys of waiting!
I wish I knew when he was coming so I could plan around it! If I knew I had until after Christmas, for example, I'd plan to do a few more things. Keep your fingers crossed that he comes before or after Christmas, though, and not ON it. Poor boy. It would be such a bummer to share your bday with the Lord.