Update: Week 38

I am really dragging this week. Yesterday was my weekly doctor appointment. I've dilated another centimeter to 4cm, and I am 90% effaced. And the baby has dropped a few centimeters, according to the doctor's measurements, but I can't tell because I've had more difficultly breathing this week than ever. But I guess that makes sense, I'm exhausted, she's only getting bigger, and even if she is moving down some she is still taking up a lot of room.

But without contractions these little steps of progress it don't mean a whole lot! Basically the baby could arrive tomorrow or any time over the next two weeks, meaning that we could go past the due date. We are just waiting on whatever it is that triggers labor to happen. Funny that we still don't know exactly what that is with all the advances in science and medicine.

But it is good in way because the dilation is progress that I won't have to make during labor when I'm contracting. So it's kind of a little head start for me. But it doesn't necessarily mean that labor will be shorter or anything. Also, it's good that she is dropping, because if you start contracting and the baby is still high, then you basically have to wait for the contractions to move her down that much further. So again, it's a little head start that she's moving down before labor starts.

So we are just waiting. My next appointment is the 19th, and then after that if she is still not here, I'll see my doctor again on the 24th. At that point, we'll discuss options for if I do go past the due date (25th). She's already said that she will want to induce within 7 days. So at my appointment on the 24th we'll discuss when I would want to come in for inducement. But hopefully that won't be necessary, and she will arrive by the end of this weekend!

I wish this was my last week of work, but I've said that I would work until the 21st. I am just so tired, went to bed last night at 8pm!