40 weeks

How far along: Well well.  Here I am at my expected due date!  YAY!  And guess what else?  No Parker.  Hehe.  Little stinker has decided to be stubborn.  But I'm okay with it...I like being pregnant.  :)

Stretch marks: Okay, I have a new one...

Movement: He's still shifting a lot.  But the movements do hurt more often.

Sleep:  Definitely tired more often than I was even a couple of weeks ago.  I'm talking sleeping 9-10 hours a night with a couple of naps during the day.  Of course this doesn't work during the week, but I rock it out on the weekends!  :)

Best moment this past week: Had my weekly OB visit this past Thursday.  I was at a "tight" 2 (yeah, loved that!) and no change in the effacing.  I still didn't / don't want to be induced, so we scheduled an induction date of the 21st.  I have an appointment on Friday and she's going to do a non-stress monitor to make sure everything is okay.  I'm ready to hold my sweet boy so it is getting a little hard waiting.

Belly button in or out: It's transformed into more of a "flatty" now that the belly is so big.

Cravings / Aversions: Been craving salad a lot here lately...kinda cooky but MAN those things are good!  And of course I still love my sweets!  ;)

Symptoms: Fatigue...cramping...SWELLING...mood swings (yep, been riding the emotional roller coaster)...and my nose is freaking huge!

Alright, that's it for now.  I'll be sure to update you all after my appointment on Friday...and of course if anything happens!  ;)

40 weeks... Yep. Still Pregnant.

So, we had our appointment this morning. Here is a picture of me at the doctor's office at 40 weeks pregnant:

The Good:

Progress! Yay. Last week I was barely 1cm and Dr Loh still had to go in practically up to her elbow to check me. This week I'm 1-2cm and 40% effaced, and she barely had to go in to her wrist. So, cervix and baby are much much lower. She's very happy with my progress. Especially for a first timer. AFI is great. Baby has awesome movement. And like I thought, I have 2 little feet (we saw toes and all) kicking my liver. I keep telling the baby s/he can't get out that way. We'll see if it sinks in!

Oh - and at 40w - my total gain is 19 pounds!! I couldn't be any prouder of myself. I celebrated by coming home and having some dark chocolate hershey kisses and I'll be having pumpkin pie for dessert.

The Bad:

She brought up inducing at 41 weeks. I expected that to happen. The conversation, i mean. I was just hoping to avoid it if there was progress. Her deal: she's a single doctor practice, and I already knew that she doesn't guarantee her availability past 41 weeks. No problem. Based on my history and family history, we had no doubt that I'd deliver early. So much for that. But now it's an issue. I asked her if all signs point to healthy, if she would consider letting me go past 41 weeks. She said she would, but I should know there are 2 days that week she will not be in town, and her coverage would be delivering. I said that of course I'd want her to deliver, but not being induced is very important to me, and we might have to take that chance. At least it's out there now.

The Plan:

Non-Stress Test (NST) at the hospital saturday morning followed by NST and exam in the office on monday.

The Crunchy in me:

I've been thinking for awhile now that maybe the red raspberry leaf (RRL) tea was doing TOO good a job toning my uterus and it was holding the baby in. DH thought that was dumb. Well - i called my acu - who told me to stop the RRL for exactly that reason. So, i'm stopping the RRL as of today, and will start it again post partum for toning. I have a 4oz bottle of Castor Oil which will be my "i've tried everything else, so I have nothing to lose" backup plan (more on that later). I haven't done acu in 2 months for financial reasons, but called her on a whim earlier this afternoon, and went in to start my acu induction. I had a 45 minute session today, and I'll follow it up with another on monday if I haven't delivered yet.

My acu wants me to start drinking peppermint tea (already have it and brewing now), eating dark chocolate (no problem) and garlic (i married a sicilian).

We're going to continue our nightly mall walking and just keep our fingers crossed.

The Inconvenient:

Because I was forced to take FMLA to do IVF (my job sucks), and because i've been out on disability since 32 weeks, my FMLA actually runs out at 41 weeks exactly. So technically, my job can fire me as of a week from today if I don't deliver. On one hand I don't care - because i don't plan on going back there anyway. However, in NJ we have NJFLI, which gives me another 12 weeks of job protection, which I was planning on using to find a new job. I can't apply for that until the day I deliver.

So, right now, we're working on finding out the following:

I know I am entitled to my STD for the 6 or 8 weeks following delivery regardless of when work separates me. So, i'm covered for that period. We're trying to find out, that if my job separates me at 41 weeks exactly, if I can apply for unemployment once the STD runs out. If I can, then we don't have a problem. If I can't, then the last ditch castor oil option happens at 40w5d.

Meanwhile, the intermittent contractions continue and are clearly doing something. PLEASE wish me labor. Even Mr DB is begging baby to come out now... and he's been the one telling Smudge to take his or her time.

Acu - don't fail me now.

Babywatch 2010 continues.....

Today is my due date and no baby!

In my head I know all the statistics that say half of all pregnancies go over, but in my heart and my aching body, I'm ready for Baby Hopeful Bud to be here already. For weeks I've been anxious and nervous about her arrival, so I would say to myself that she can "bake" as long as she wants. But now I'm at complete peace and want her here now so that I can hold her and start our the new adventure as a family of three, Mr. Hopeful Bud, Baby HB and me!

Last night I timed contractions for over an hour and they were between 8-10 minutes apart. I drank my Raspberry Leaf tea, Mr. HB and I had some sexy time, I sat on the yoga ball and the contractions went away. I woke up a couple times during the night feeling contractions, but most of the time I just got up to use the bathroom because now that she has "dropped" I pee a lot more!

At my last appointment on Wednesday, Dr. O (my favorite doc of the practice) said that we could schedule an induction this week. He mentioned that he was on call this afternoon (Monday) so we could schedule it for today and he would deliver Baby HB. As tempting as that sounded, I didn't want to rush the decision to have an induction. I've been dilated to a 1cm for the last three weeks, only this last week had there been a change of 75% effacement, so obviously my body isn't ready. If my body isn't ready and we force an induction, I believe the rate of c-section increases and I really want to avoid a c-section if at all possible.

So if Baby HB doesn't come out to play on her own in the next couple of days, our next appointment is Wednesday afternoon and we will decide on a game plan.

Come on Baby HB, you have so many people that love you and can't wait to see you. Your adorable room is all ready. You have so many cute little clothes all washed and ready for you to wear. All we are missing is you. Your daddy and I are so excited to see you and love you.

If you don't hear from me for a bit, I hope it means that I'm crazy busy and tired with a newborn. Otherwise, I'll post something after our appointment on Wednesday about next steps.

Take care and stay hopeful!
:) Hopeful Bud