Went in for a Check up and Got Induced ...

It all started on Tuesday, September 11^th. Since I was 2 days past my due date, we had an ultrasound scheduled in the doctor’s office at 3:30pm to make sure everything was still ok to continue the pregnancy. Of course, Mike was running late and I was already in the ultrasound room when he arrived. He arrived just in time for the ultrasound tech to tell me that my fluid was low. I didn’t know what that meant but she left the room to ask the doctor if she should continue. The doctor said she should and I got 6/8 on the rating scale. I lost the two points for my low fluid. The doctor then put me on a non-stress test for about 25 minutes. In that time I had 4 contractions. None hurt but they were happening pretty often. The doctor came back in the room and said that there appears to be no reason to continue this pregnancy since I’m already past my due date and that we should go to L&D right then to be induced tonight and that we shouldn’t even stop at the house. I was in shock. It was not what I was expecting at all! Walking out of the office I was having a mini panic attack. I was supposed to go to my parents house but called and said they needed to do more tests and we would be late. I did call Denise and tell her what was happening. We went up to L&D and they got us in a room pretty quickly and on the same non-stress test monitor. The doctor came in after a while and we discussed induction and other options. I chose just to be induced. They also said I could get an IV all night long and hope the fluid levels rise but most likely that would mean I would just be induced in the morning. They said my fluid levels weren’t that low, they like them to be at least 5 and mine was at 4.8. Most people’s are >10 though. They said inductions could take days and I won’t be able to eat the whole time, so they said get a nice dinner in me now and I will be induced after that. We called my parents and they brought over the meatloaf and I ate that for dinner and it was an excellent dinner! Mike went with my dad back to our house to pick up the baby bag and car seat and drop of his car since we had both cars at the appt and also to shower and change. My mom stayed with me at the hospital and at about 8:45pm, they started the Pitocin. They started it at 2 mL/hr and upped it every 30 minutes by 2 mL/hr. When I arrived, I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Within an hour I was having regular contractions about 5 minutes apart but they still didn’t hurt. I had to go to the bathroom all the time it felt like and a lot of them were for #2. It was an endeavor to go to the bathroom with all the cords and IVs but Mike helped me and it worked out pretty well. By 2:30am, I was in serious pain with contractions every minute and a half. I wanted pain relief at this point. I asked Mike to call the nurse and at first he just said to wait for her to come but she wasn’t coming and so I asked him to please call. He did and she said she would be by shortly. After some time she still wasn’t there, so I asked him to call again. He did and she finally came. She checked me and said I was between 3-4 cm dilated. I was very disappointed by this because I was in so much pain and I hadn’t dilated at all. I thought that would mean I would be on an epidural for days potentially. So they offered Stadol which is an IV medication that would “take the edge off.” I decided on that because I didn’t want the epidural for such a long time. But then Jemma was sleeping and they cant give me those meds when she’s sleeping. They were trying to wake her up by having me drink cold juice and pushing on her but it was taking forever. It was over an hour now since I decided I wanted medication and I was still in serious pain so I asked if I could get the epidural faster. They said that the anesthesiologist was in a C-section and I could get it when she gets out. They said it had already started but could take up to an hour. I was getting very anxious at that point and I said just to give me whatever I could get first. 

Past my Due Date ...

So I am concerned I'm going to have a large baby. Denise had a 9 lb baby at 41 weeks and she never measured large during her pregnancy, just like me. It was a pretty rough delivery for her. I am just 1 day past my due date and I have an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow to check the size of the baby. I brought it up to the doctor last week and she seemed to think it was a legitimate concern. She asked about how big both our husbands were when they were born. Her Mike was 7.5 lbs but my Mike was 9 lbs 3 oz!! Eeep! So that got me even more nervous. I don't mind going past my due date, I feel fine, I'm just really worried I’m going to have a really rough delivery with a large baby. 

Everyone at work today was surprised to see me! They didn’t expect me to make it into work today. But Jemma isn’t here yet and I’m planning to work right up until she arrives! I wasn’t very productive at work today though but that’s ok.

DUE DATE!

DUE DATE!! No little baby Boteler yet … that’s ok though. I am sleeping much better recently. I have had to go to bed much earlier too but I don’t seem to be going to the bathroom as much and the hip pain doesn’t seem as bad lately. I met Rifat for a crepe lunch at Café de Paris which was really good! We talked about all kinds of baby stuff and took some pictures together. Mike mowed the lawn to get ready for the baby. We keep doing stuff to get ready for the baby and she still doesn’t come. I did 3 loads of laundry today also. I meant to get a lot more done around the house, but I ended up just doing a little. I did work in my scrapbooking room a bit and finally got all the baby embellishments organized which makes me feel a lot better! I also worked on the baby album a bit instead of cleaning the room but that’s ok, I was having fun. Ben came over and we checked out his new car. I made them dinner while they watched football, then I went to bed. I fell asleep almost instantly. I was really tired!  

Due any day now ...

Since Jemma is going to be born any day now, I really needed to get some errands done. We dropped Mikes car off at Midas to get its oil changed and tires rotated then I dropped him back off at home while I ran errands. There was a baby yardsale at the Howard County Fairgrounds where there were over 140 vendors! It was the most amazing yardsale I have ever been to! I am going to have to go to the next one in a couple weeks also. I will probably have a better idea of things I need as well. I went there looking for a few things and only found a couple. I did get her two cute UMD outfits though ($2 and 75 cents)! And I found a super soft blanket that matches Erin’s crib set ($4) which I’m super excited to give her! I also got a little collage frame to hang on the wall for Jemma’s keepsakes ($4) and a cute little turtle blanket for her also ($1). I also “splurged” ($3) on a super cute outfit that I absolutely fell in love with! It was a little white and blue dress with a little white jacket that goes on top of it and the lady threw in a cute pair of matching white shoes also. I am really excited about it! We also found quite a number of little outfits for Kenzie that we are going to send with Mrs. Tosh to Hawaii soon. After that I went to Wegmans for the first time and we ate lunch there. I am going to have to go back for real grocery shopping one day! Then I made a number of stops in Columbia to make returns: Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Babies R Us, Party City, and Target. Some of the returns were more successful than others. At Target, we finally dropped off all that film that has been laying around at my parents house forever waiting to be developed. Mike called looking for his car but I wasn’t done yet. It turns out he was working in the basement pulling off the insulation and spraying the mold on the walls and he wanted to drive it to the dump. But I didn’t get back in time. Oh well, next weekend. After we got home after getting his car, we were both exhausted and took a nap! We woke up at around 9pm and ate dinner, then watched TV and went back to bed.    

Doctors Appt

So just a little update on our little BabyBot ... I just had a doctors appt this morning and things look exactly the same as last week. I am still 1 cm dilated, my cervix is nice and soft, and she is super far down. Both the doctor last week and the one this week said this implies that the labor shouldn't be too difficult, which is just about the best news they could give me! Since the baby is way down and the cervix is soft, i shouldn't have any trouble dilating or getting the baby into position.

She did say my blood pressure was a little toward the upper end of normal (120/90) but it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Jemmas heart rate is normal (upper 150s) and I am still measuring right on track. So everything still looks good. I have been gaining a little more weight lately, i have gained 31 lbs. But I am sort of at a point at the end of pregnancy where if I want to eat something, I do, so that really isn't surprising. :) Plus I have been craving carbs non stop! cereal, waffles, pasta, it's all good right now! I did bring a salad for lunch yesterday and today though, so hopefully that will help. But I also ate an entire bag of peach gummies yesterday which probably counteracted the salad. :) And today I ate my entire lunch by 2pm and by 5pm I was really hungry, so I went and got a Snickers bar out of the machine. I am not being very good lately …  

They had me schedule an ultrasound for Tuesday in case she hasn't come by then to check on the progress. To make sure the fluid isn't too low or the baby is too big or anything.

Honestly, since it's so close to the weekend at this point, I wouldn't mind having another weekend to relax and do stuff around the house before she arrives. So I'm kinda hoping she holds off until next week. :)

I also brought up the concern of having a 9 lb baby like Denise and the doctor seemed to think this was a valid concern and asked a bunch of questions about if Denise measured big (she didn’t) or if she had very bad tearing. She also implied that if I am not doing any more walking than what I’m used to, that it won’t help progress labor, which was a huge disappointment! I thought the fact that I have been very active this whole time that I would go into labor early, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. Only if I’m doing more this week than what I’m used to will cause the labor to progress further. Oh well … that means I’m going to sit on my butt this weekend.

I also bought a Groupon today for Sears portrait studio to get newborn photos! I’m really excited! I will have to schedule that right after giving birth because they suggest you should do them within 5-10 days of birth.