Final Pregnancy Update: 38 weeks & baby is coming!

So wow, since I just posted the last preg­nancy update only two days ago, I hadn’t planned on post­ing another one soon. But, things don’t always go accord­ing to plan– espe­cially where preg­nancy & babies are con­cerned. So, this is the final preg­nancy update and the last belly photo!

Here’s what’s been going on:

Yes­ter­day was my crazy Dr.‘s appoint­ments day. First up, I had a won­der­ful meet­ing with a pedi­a­tri­cian who is also a cer­ti­fied lac­ta­tion con­sul­tant (due to all my breast­feed­ing dif­fi­cul­ties), then I had a great NST at the hos­pi­tal. After that, I headed off to my Dr.‘s office for a fluid level check ultra­sound & my 38 week check. Things went down­hill from there. The amni­otic fluid level was 5.1. Any­thing below 5 is too low. So, that was cause for concern–especially because of the two-vessel cord and all the other data (basi­cally, my fluid lev­els have been drop­ping a lot at each ultra­sound for the past 10 weeks which I didn’t know until yes­ter­day & his growth per­centiles went down from the 80th to the 60th). It could all be an indi­ca­tion that his pla­centa & cord are start­ing to not work as well. But, my doc said his posi­tion & my cervix weren’t as favor­able as she’d like for an induc­tion (and we are really, really hop­ing to avoid a c-section). So, she decided we’d do a re-check of the fluid today & make the final decision.

We tried to get as much done as pos­si­ble last night. But then, we got to deal with the joy of our neighbor’s GIANT tree break­ing in half at 11:30pm and falling into our yard on top of our large, fully mature orange tree. Plus, it threat­ened our patio, all of our kid play equip­ment, and fence. That could be a whole post in itself & I won’t bore you with the details, but suf­fice it to say, the day was beyond stress­ful (espe­cially since they weren’t inter­ested in tak­ing care of it or pay­ing for any­thing) & we got very lit­tle sleep last night. So, I dealt with that all day today before my appoint­ment. Plus, the tim­ing of all of this was extra unfa­vor­able as my dad was hav­ing a rather major surgery today that will have him in the hos­pi­tal through the week­end. ACK! Thank­fully, it went well & he’s recov­er­ing nicely already.

So, after all the stress, I headed off to have the doc­tor re-check my fluid her­self. And, unfor­tu­nately, she couldn’t even find as much fluid as the tech did yes­ter­day. WHAT?! Good grief! So, an induc­tion it is — and soon! The hos­pi­tal can call any­time in a 24-hour period. Ugh–I SO wish it could be more of a set thing! So, some­time in the next 24 hours we’ll be headed to the hospital.

This isn’t the way we wanted it and not what we had planned. I cer­tainly wish the 24 hours prior to going in hadn’t been so stress­ful, emo­tional, & exhaust­ing. But, it’s hap­pen­ing none-the-less. So now, after a really good cry, I’m try­ing to just remain calm, de-stress, and get excited about meet­ing this lit­tle guy.

So, STAY TUNED!!!! I’m not sure what posts will look like in the upcom­ing days, but there are some fun things com­ing (some great give­aways & even some fun guest posts). Some posts are already sched­uled, some not. So, things might be a lit­tle ran­dom com­ing up. Sorry in advance! I’ll try to update when I can–most likely on face­book and/or twit­ter at first.
Thanks to all of you for read­ing & those of you who’ve been send­ing prayers & good thoughts!  Now, I need to go try to get some sleep & see if we can finally decide on his name!