A trip to the hospital...

Yet another week has gone by and still no Ethan...doesn't he know that we want him to come out now?! We had another perfect BPP 8/8!! We also had another efw which estimated him to be 6lbs 11oz (34th percentile). Both the circumference of his abdomen and the length of his femur plot him out as a 36weeker, but his head circumference on the other hand...40wks 5days...YIKES! At our OB appointment Wednesday I had my membranes stripped. (Having your membranes stripped involves separating the bag of water from the uterine segment.) CERVICAL UPDATE...I am now dilated 3cm, 80% effaced, and he is still hanging out at a -2 station.

Wednesday I kept busy with errands and a long walk after my appointment in hopes to get something started. I was contracting on and off but nothing painful enough to make me head into the hospital. So I decided to hop into the bath tub and attempt to relax. As I was getting out of the tub I felt something...and sure enough I had lost my mucus plug! Then about thirty minutes later my contractions were pretty uncomfortable and I was having some bloody show!! So I called the hospital to talk to the girls I work with...because I wasn't sure if I had ruptured or not. They of course said come on in we've got a big room open for you. PERFECT! Ryan and I show up around midnight Thursday morning and go through all of the evaluation questioning. I was tested to see if indeed my water broke, and then put on the monitor. It turned out that my water didn't break. This only meant one thing for me...I had to prove I was in labor or else I would get sent home. And as all of my co-workers know the only way to prove you're in labor is by changing your cervix. So my cervix was checked and I was the same as I was earlier that day in the office (3/80/-2). Meanwhile I was having contractions every two minutes!! After having my cervix checked we got an hour to walk around in hope of changing my cervix. Not only did Ryan and I speed-walk...but we ran up and down the stairs SEVERAL times! After all of that work I came to find that my cervix had not changed. I seriously wanted to cry. I tried to talk my OB into breaking my bag of water since I was already there and my cervix was favorable...much to my dismay she wasn't on that bandwagon. So here I am...still pregnant!

As if that weren't enough action, on our way home at 3:30am we got pulled over by the state patrol!! We were on Hwy 52 south where the speed limit changes from 55 to 65 and I had apparently accelerated a mile or so too soon. Funny thing is that the officer had asked me if I knew why he pulled me over...then he asked if I knew what the speed limit was. I heard Ryan telling me 65...so that's what I told him...we looked up and a 65mph speed limit sign was about 50ft in front of my car. We both knew I was doing 70 in a 55, not 65. Thankfully he let me go with a verbal warning!! I think it probably helped that we had pulled over directly in front of the 65mph sign and that my back seat was overflowing with a baby car seat, labor ball, and luggage! Oh yeah, and the fact that I have a huge pregnant belly probably didn't hurt the situation either...

Sunday I will be 39 weeks...we will be holding a prayer service in hopes of labor or rupture of membranes...or BOTH!! Haha, just kidding....

Ethan's Room

I have become a little bit of a slacker when it comes to blogging! So let's get caught up to date...

Wednesday September 12th we went in for a normal OB appointment followed by my weekly BPP. A lot was accomplished at this prenatal appointment...I made the big switch from lovenox to heparin. My hemoglobin was checked and it was 10.2; previously it was 9.5. I guess taking iron twice a day along with my prenatal vitamin is finally doing the job! I also had my GBS (Group Beta Strep) status checked, and I had my cervix checked. Thankfully I am GBS negative; this just means that I won't need antibiotics during labor to protect the baby. I am dilated 1cm, 30% effaced, and he is at a-3 station. I think that's a pretty good start considering I was 36 3/7wks! My OB doctor and I made a detailed master plan for my delivery/postpartum stay regarding treatment of my factor v leiden. Great news with that....I got the "OKAY" to deliver on 2300!!!! Once again Ethan decided to be slightly stubborn at our BPP. Our final score was 6/8...we were docked for tone. Two points for movement were almost lost as well...but in the last few minutes he decided to make a couple of small movements. Of course by the time I got home I could feel him moving around like crazy!! I definitely needed that reassurance because the entire way home I got myself all worked up worrying about him.

Today we had another BPP and OB appointment. The BPP couldn't have gone better. Ethan was extremely active throughout the ENTIRE ultrasound and had more than one episode of breathing. Needless to say I was thrilled with his performance during this ultrasound!! The prenatal appointment went very well too. My cervix was checked again this week and I'm proud to say there was change! I am a "loose" 1cm dilated, 50% effaced, and he has moved down to a -2 station. Not a huge change...but change nonetheless!! Everything else is still looking great. My blood pressure is nice and low, there was no protein or glucose in my urine, I'm back to a 10lb weight gain, and I am measuring at 38wks. I am 37 3/7wks today and feel totally ready to meet this little guy. It is getting so hard to wait for his arrival...we want him here in our arms NOW!!!

I finally got around to taking pictures of Ethan's room. It took all of 45 seconds to do, but for some reason I kept procrastinating! I tried to make the pictures go in a complete circle around his room...haha, I am the farthest thing from being a photographer so bear with me.From the doorway looking in.
Closet.

We almost had a shot of Ryan peeking in but my camera took too long!!

For now we have been storing his travel system, highchair, swing, bouncy chair, activity center, etc...in his room. So during the "photography session" I cluttered our hallway with baby stuff. This weekend Ryan's parents (Joe & Cindy) and my dad (Frank) will be stopping by to take a look at Ethan's room...they bought us the crib and dresser unit and still haven't gotten the chance to see it yet. Hopefully they will be impressed with all that we've done! We still need to hang a few frames and stuff on the walls...but I'm in no rush!