porkchop & paul: Another Update (someday it will be an announcement!)

Today I took the day off from work since I had several baby-related appointments scheduled. First up was my regular appointment with Jo. Before I left the house I did the rest of our packing (bathrobe, slippers, pillows, blanket for Paul) and put the bag in the car. I told Paul it was just in case Jo told me I was 10 cm dilated and we needed to get our asses to the hospital before this baby popped right out! Wouldn't that have been nice? ;0) Sadly, it was not to be. I'm still at 2cm. She thinks I'm a little more effaced now, about 80%. She said she definitely could tell it's softer and thinner. The baby's head is fully engaged, which is encouraging! It also explains those unpleasant pains when she's twisting her head around in my pelvis. That's okay though, it means she knows the way out and is working on getting there! She tried stripping my membranes again but said I'm positioned too far back. We were most disappointed by that, we were counting on having another try to move things along a bit. But who knows, she still might decide to come tonight!

I had my non-stress test after lunch. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor. (ha!) Of course the contraction monitor showed absolutely nothing. Darn it. I was secretly hoping I was just one of those women who don't feel anything and all of a sudden a baby's popping out. I guess that wouldn't be a good thing if I were home or driving or something, but as long as I was in the hospital that would have been an ideal situation, don't you think? Anyhoo, she's doing just fine in there. They wanted her to move twice during a 20-minute period. Her heart rate was supposed to jump each time she moved, which tells them that the placenta is still giving her enough oxygen. She moved about 7 times, her heart rate went up each time. She's just having a swell time in there, happy as a clam!

After that test we had an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid level. Everything looks good, she's got plenty in there for now. HOWEVER, they're estimating her at over 8 and a half pounds now! Yikes! She really needs to come out soon. 9 pounds is my limit I've decided.

So we asked for a DVD but they were out of blank ones. They ordered them last week and they never came in. We were so disappointed! Especially since at our first ultrasound we didn't know we could have asked for a DVD of it until afterwards, and they told us it was too late then. Arg. It took me a long time to get over the disappointment from that. So she dug up a regular CD and saved some pictures to it for us. Unfortunately, the pictures on the CD are not as good as the ones she printed out for us. The print outs are clear and her face looks a lot less squished and fuzzy, and she's even smiling in two of the pictures! My sister Kathryn said she's mocking us. ;0) But you can still get a good idea of what she'll look like in the picture below--she definitely has the Peppers family chubby cheeks! We think we can see some hair in some of the print outs too. The fuzzy blob at the bottom of her face is the placenta. I know, kind of gross, right? Annie, come out so you don't have placenta all up in your face anymore!