A-Birthing We Will Go

So, we’ll leave in about an hour for the hospital.  I’m scheduled to “check in” at midnight, and then they’ll do a variety of prep work, which the nurse said might take an hour and a half or so.  She said we should be settled in by about 2am.

The amnio draw went well today.  If you think too hard about the procedure, it can kind of freak you out.  I was certainly nervous, but just tried to hold calm.  It didn’t hurt, exactly, but was the tiniest bit uncomfortable, and my stomache did cramp a little around the needles.  I say needle(s) because the first attempt had to be stopped when baby moved too close for comfort.  The sonographer and doc tried again, and we had success on the second time around.  He showed me the tube of fluid – strange, milky stuff.  Then we moved on to another non-stress test, which showed that baby and I were doing alright after the procedure.

We went to my OB’s office after that and she checked my cervix and chatted with us for a while.  I’m so grateful for her spunk and personality and how incredibly competent she is.  (again – Google searchers! – her name is Wendy Smith at Beaverton Kaiser!!)  She won’t ultimately be the one delivering my son, but she said I “hit the jackpot” as far as the on-call doc tonight – she says he’s the “king of pre-eclampsia” and the perinatal department at the hospital.  Oh…and maybe it’s too much information…but she said my cervix was soft and dilated to a “good 1 cm”.  She was almost apologetic about this, because the reason she signed me up for a midnight induction was because she thought I would need several hours of medication in order to soften my cervix before administering any pitocin.  Turns out I might be in active labor far sooner than she anticipated.  Ah well.  Better to just get things going! 

I had a good laugh when the hospital called us with the results of the amnio test (they were testing specifically for Fetal Lung Maturity).  The nurse said ”Your son is an overachiever!!”  Apparently, they were just looking for a value of 55 or greater, and our baby measured at 123.  She said, “He’s VERY ready to be born.”  I don’t suppose I was overly shocked by this – either the fact that he’s ready or that there will be another overachiever in our family – but there could have been a chance that all the plans tonight would have to be scrapped if he weren’t ready.  I’m glad to get things moving, though.

Everyone – EVERYONE – has said “make sure to take a nap before you go in tonight!”, and my question is “HOW?????”.  Would you be able to sleep????  I’ve tried resting, and I think that’s as close as I will get.  Just a little closing of the eyes and my body on it’s side, that will have to do.  I’m just too eager to meet my new son!

I will post as soon as I can, with pictures, of course.  Take care, everyone!  

ps:  in relation to my 6yr old and his stomache bug….by late Wednesday morning he was TOTALLY fine, so we assumed it was a quick 24 hr thing.  He ate meals, played with his sisters, bugged me about going to school on Thursday.  We figured all was well.  Then at 6am this morning, he was back in the bathroom throwing up!  Ahhh!  We kept him home from school again, and he was in and out of the bathroom for the next couple of hours.  We found a great friend who was willing to watch him while we did all the baby stuff today, and it turns out that by mid-morning, he was TOTALLY fine again!  He’s been his usual self all day.  What the heck is going on?  We have him at another friend’s house tonight, and she’s prepared to keep him if he has to miss school again tomorrow.  I’m hoping he’s finally done with his bug and can just get on with classes – he’s so eager to see his friends after summer break!  So far, no one else in the house is sick.  Let’s hope it’s just some wierd thing and that we’re done with it!  Yikes.