Nine Months Pregnant!

So we're truly in the final stretch now. We're ready (and rather eager) to meet Ziggy - so we're just waiting for him to be ready. The month has passed quickly - and has been rather tiring as we tried to finish things up to get ready for his arrival. He could have been three weeks or two weeks early - and it was tough not really knowing how much time we had left to get ready, so we were always trying to hurry, hurry get everything ready. We're pretty close now - just a few more things to accomplish before he comes - filling out the 2nd round of hospital forms, deciding whether to circumcise him, and make our final decision about whether the Houston Symphony or ExxonMobil is going to provide his healthcare coverage. Not bad! Last weekend we packed the hospital bag. We've finished all of our classes. I've got things relatively wrapped up at work (impossible to ever finish, as deadlines keep getting extended, which means that everyone and their brother wants to give "input" into my Project plans (documents), so daily I continue to revise them). But my replacement is relatively up to speed, and I just copy her now on all the requests that come in and the responses as I form them - so when I finally don't come in, she'll be able to track what's been done and what's left to do.

While we never did complete some of the house projects we'd hope to (a new driveway gate, and removing the sun room), we did complete the projects we really wanted to finish to make more room in our house for a baby and all of his stuff! This is the first weekend where our list seems relatively small - so we're taking some time to do some fun things - last night we went out to dinner. This afternoon we're going to a movie (Knocked Up - which makes me wish I could fit my wedding rings on my fingers so that everyone at the movies doesn't think I'm going to go see knocked up because I am!). Tomorrow, we're treating Willy to some swimming at the dog park (and he'll be treating us by letting us give him a bath afterwards - he smells pretty bad right now!).

It's interesting after all our birthing classes and my complete obsession with preparing for my ideal natural birth, that I'm not really worried about it anymore as we get closer to Ziggy's arrival. A friend ended up with an emergency c-section following her 38-week appointment recently because the baby was in distress (she had no idea anything was wrong). So my catastrophizing has changed from the birth experience (which was mostly about me) to how this little guy is faring within my belly. Like, "he hasn't moved in the last 5 minutes - is he okay?" He's a pretty good mover though (especially with some poking and prodding from his mom), but then there is the ambiguous instructions to call the doctor if his movements seem to decrease. This is actually really hard, because he's not terribly consistent. Usually at least once a day he has a very vigorous exercise session - but it may be in the morning one day, and in the evening the next. So in the 36 hours between those sessions I worry whether he is in distress. I spoke with my doctor yesterday during my 39 week appointment, and she had me do a nonstress test to ease my mind. And it did. Basically, they hook up a heartrate monitor, a contraction monitor (which didn't show anything, because I'm not having contractions), and I push a button when he kicks. He was sleeping through the first 20 minutes, so I had to do a second round, but then he got more vigorous for them (I poked and encouraged him to do so). It was interesting, because his heart rate gets a lot higher when he's moving around - so now when I feel him kick, I can hear the fast wooshing of the monitor they used for his heartbeat (it was set very loudly, I presume so the nurses could hear if everything was working as they walked by my room).

I had my first ever massage this week. We ended up hiring a doula to help us during Ziggy's birth - and the package we chose comes with a labor prep massage (which is supposed to open up my hips to encourage the baby to move down, which worked I think, because it is now very hard to close my legs!), a postpartum massage, and a session on how to give infant massage. The massage was good (a bit painful at times as she worked out tight spots) - but I don't think I'm really that big of a massage person, overall.

So when is this baby going to come? It is funny to hear everyone's predictions. The morning before my 38-week appointment, I was sure something was starting up. I had some weird sensations/cramps in my lower abdomen (I don't actually think they were contractions). I got pretty excited, and tried to finish up handing things over to my replacement "just in case." I tried to explain that I just felt a little different, and was just trying to take a precaution by showing her some of the rest of the things I'd been working on. But she was pretty convinced that I was going into labor at that point. I came in late the next morning, and she had left a couple of voicemails asking if I was in labor. At this point, though, if I don't return someone's call at work within an hour, they seem to assume I'm in labor and not coming back. The doctor performed a cervical exam at that appointment to see what was going on - and there has been some progress made - the baby's at a -1 station, and I'm 50% effaced and a fingertip dilated. We debated whether to have another exam this week, but ultimately decided not to (our doc is awesome that way - she's been really cool about not subjecting us to things that are routine just because they are routine) because if I haven't made any progress, I'd be discouraged. And if I have made progress, I'll be expecting something to happen soon, and then it might not, so I'd be discouraged later.

So in the meantime, we just have to wait! My doctor sounds like she might want to induce when I'm at 41 weeks (2 weeks from now), and I originally thought I'd want to push for her to wait until I'm at 42 weeks, but I am now leaning towards whatever she recommends - I just want to make sure the baby is okay. At 41-weeks we'll be well past worrying about the baby being premature (particularly because we know when he was conceived), and I don't want to run the risks associated with a prolonged pregnancy. Of course, we're very much hoping that induction won't be necessary, and he'll come along on his own. But Mark and I were just talking this morning about how the perfect birth experience doesn't seem so important anymore, and how making sure Ziggy is healthy and we run the route with the least risk to him is what we need to focus on. But in the meantime, we appreciate your thoughts and prayers for this little guy to make his way out on his own before we have to do some prodding! :)

And here is the final picture - 9 months!