Two Days Past Due Date
Even our doctor knew that we were hoping for a fun birthday date...like sharing one with a family member or a cool number combo...10.20.10 would have satisfied both. Today is my brother and uncle's birthday. It would have been so great to have another nephew/uncle birthday, but that is not how it went. You can see here that we were all still feeling pretty good before heading out to our weekly OB appointment.
We went to our weekly appointment--our first post term appointment--with the intention of talking about what our options were. While we were not interested in any type of formal induction, we were becoming very aware that our time with Grandma was running short. We were no longer thinking about having her help for a few weeks after the arrival of the baby, but rather simply hoping that he would arrive before she had to leave!
After talking to our OB, we agreed that I would have my membranes stripped. It certainly isn't the approach that most natural birthing mamas like to take, but I trusted that if baby was ready, then something would happen. If he wasn't, then it wouldn't change anything. When I arrived at the OB's office that day I was 2.5-3cm dilated and 80% effaced. After the stripping, I was a good 3cm. This was all good news. While I was at this visit, I also had to do a non-stress test (NST), where a monitor is placed on the baby's heart beat and one is place on my stomach to measure contractions. During the 30 minutes I was on this monitor, the baby had a number of 'variables' in his heart rate. Variables=decelerations. Despite the fact that decels were one of the main reasons we had to have a c-section with Eisley, I remained quite calm about it. As we were preparing to leave, my OB reviewed the printout from the test and decided that she'd rather play it safe and sent us promptly over the hospital for another NST and a biophysical profile ultrasound. Super.
So, after being at the OB's office from 1:45 to 3:30, we then had to head to Ft. Lauderdale to go to the hospital. Thank God, Grandma was at home at the ready to give Eisley dinner (and put her to bed). We were told that I should get some food on the way, as it could take up to an hour and a half. Ha! That would have been nice. We arrived at the hospital around 4:30 and waited quite some time for a spot to be made ready for us. We were both really quite tired, as we had not been getting to bed early enough all week. We were in a semi-private room for the tests, which reminded us of how much we were willing to pay to get a private room once the baby came.
Unfortunately, the NST was not showing the most confidence-inspiring results, which resulted in a number of calls back and forth between the nurse and the doctor. Our biophysical profile, however, did go extremely well, indicating that the baby was doing fine, that I had plenty of fluid and that my placenta was still in good shape. We ended up staying long enough to see the shift change at 7:00pm and were told that we would have until 8:00, at which point another call would be made to the doctor. I decided to drink some more juice and try to get our little guy moving. While the variables (decels) were not enough to make us stay the night for observation, the nurse was actually concerned because she wasn't seeing enough accelerations. Really?!
Our first nurse set us up to return in 2 days for another biophysical profile and NST. But after the additional time on the machine, our OB determined that we should come back in 24 hours for another NST. But around 8:45pm, we were allowed to leave the hospital. It was such a relief to be able to go home, although ultimately we wouldn't end be able to see Eisley before the baby came, which was disappointing. We arrived home exhausted around 9:30pm and tried to relax, get a little more food and fill my mom in on everything. We finally made it to bed around midnight, utterly exhausted. But no sooner did I start to fall asleep, I awoke to the most startling sensation...my water breaking!
We went to our weekly appointment--our first post term appointment--with the intention of talking about what our options were. While we were not interested in any type of formal induction, we were becoming very aware that our time with Grandma was running short. We were no longer thinking about having her help for a few weeks after the arrival of the baby, but rather simply hoping that he would arrive before she had to leave!
After talking to our OB, we agreed that I would have my membranes stripped. It certainly isn't the approach that most natural birthing mamas like to take, but I trusted that if baby was ready, then something would happen. If he wasn't, then it wouldn't change anything. When I arrived at the OB's office that day I was 2.5-3cm dilated and 80% effaced. After the stripping, I was a good 3cm. This was all good news. While I was at this visit, I also had to do a non-stress test (NST), where a monitor is placed on the baby's heart beat and one is place on my stomach to measure contractions. During the 30 minutes I was on this monitor, the baby had a number of 'variables' in his heart rate. Variables=decelerations. Despite the fact that decels were one of the main reasons we had to have a c-section with Eisley, I remained quite calm about it. As we were preparing to leave, my OB reviewed the printout from the test and decided that she'd rather play it safe and sent us promptly over the hospital for another NST and a biophysical profile ultrasound. Super.
So, after being at the OB's office from 1:45 to 3:30, we then had to head to Ft. Lauderdale to go to the hospital. Thank God, Grandma was at home at the ready to give Eisley dinner (and put her to bed). We were told that I should get some food on the way, as it could take up to an hour and a half. Ha! That would have been nice. We arrived at the hospital around 4:30 and waited quite some time for a spot to be made ready for us. We were both really quite tired, as we had not been getting to bed early enough all week. We were in a semi-private room for the tests, which reminded us of how much we were willing to pay to get a private room once the baby came.
Unfortunately, the NST was not showing the most confidence-inspiring results, which resulted in a number of calls back and forth between the nurse and the doctor. Our biophysical profile, however, did go extremely well, indicating that the baby was doing fine, that I had plenty of fluid and that my placenta was still in good shape. We ended up staying long enough to see the shift change at 7:00pm and were told that we would have until 8:00, at which point another call would be made to the doctor. I decided to drink some more juice and try to get our little guy moving. While the variables (decels) were not enough to make us stay the night for observation, the nurse was actually concerned because she wasn't seeing enough accelerations. Really?!
Our first nurse set us up to return in 2 days for another biophysical profile and NST. But after the additional time on the machine, our OB determined that we should come back in 24 hours for another NST. But around 8:45pm, we were allowed to leave the hospital. It was such a relief to be able to go home, although ultimately we wouldn't end be able to see Eisley before the baby came, which was disappointing. We arrived home exhausted around 9:30pm and tried to relax, get a little more food and fill my mom in on everything. We finally made it to bed around midnight, utterly exhausted. But no sooner did I start to fall asleep, I awoke to the most startling sensation...my water breaking!
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