Midwife Appointment

We had a midwife appointment yesterday which included a bio-physical profile ultrasound. No, I had no idea what that was either until yesterday. Basically it is a fairly in depth ultrasound where the technician is looking for several things to make sure that baby is doing well in terms of health. She looks, of course, at heart function and heartbeat. She also watches for breathing rhythm (in order to pass he has to do practice breathing for at least thirty seconds in a row... he did this almost immediately when watched). She measures several spots for fluid levels to make sure he has a big enough bathtub. And finally she watches for three large movements.

Well, let me tell you last night was not a good night in terms of sleep for me. I was up every half hour or so for most of the night and at least some of that was directly because Wesley was dancing up a storm. He was even flipping around and enjoying himself on the way to the doctor's office (as he is now). But once again, my son who has not yet entered this world is proofing just how darn stubborn he can be. He laid perfectly still for fifteen minutes of the tech poking and prodding him and my changing positions. It took my downing an entire 16 ounce bottle of orange juice to get those three movements out of him and even then he gave them begrudgingly. We have another of these ultrasounds next Wednesday. I plan to inundate him with juice and possibly chocolate half an hour before it begins!

Because he was sluggish movement wise we also had a stress test (where they put the two monitors on your belly and watch his heart beat). No trouble passing that... either he likes the vibration of the monitor or he really doesn't but either way it gets him to squirm a fair amount. I also had my blood pressure checked which is staying in the acceptable range. The protein in my urine was, according to Jayne, "just a little bit" and I have gained one pound since last week (an acceptable amount). The internal exam reveals that my cervix is still closed tight but that isn't surprising as I'm still in my 36th week (and therefore pre-term). However, his head was fairly low which is a good thing considering up until last week we weren't sure whether he was head down or not!

But, the most important (in some ways) part of our visit was at the end when we talked dates. Jayne said that with my blood pressure issues she did not want to wait for this pregnancy to come to its own natural conclusion. She suggested strongly that 38 weeks is an appropriate time to deliver a baby whose mama is having the medical issues that I am having. Basically... let's give him enough time to cook but also let's get him out before what we currently have under control has the chance to become something we no longer have under control. Makes sense to me.

So... Wes has another stress test on Friday. Then we have another ultrasound Wednesday as well as an exam. And as long as both of those are good and don't call for more speedy action, I will check into the hospital on Friday, January 29th. At that point they'll give me cervidil to "ripen" my cervix (sorry to all of you for whom that is TMI). Then, most likely, we will induce on Saturday, January 30th... which means that Reid and I will most likely be parents in ten days. Yeah, you could definitely say that it is getting real!