Month Nine...(April 2012)

This month was supposed to be another two weeks of bed rest and then I was allowed to be more mobile, knowing that at 37 weeks, we were in the "safe zone". Our Dr.'s and midwives referred to this as the "safe zone", because if you were born now, you would likely not have any time in the Special Care Nursery, unless something didn't go well at your birth. Everyone around me was SHOCKED that week by week, you were still in my tummy!  I think your Dad and I were surprised the most.  Every week that you kept "baking", made it that much easier, knowing we would have an end to this soon...you'd be born.

I spent half of the month at home on bed rest and that was really hard!  I wanted to help Daddy cook, clean, prepare for you to come home to a finished nursery and to just spend time relaxing on my own terms.  I had up and down days...down days, mostly because the pain was getting to be unbearable in my back and hips and sleep was pretty much non existent!  We were dying for you to come, so that we could hold you in our arms and not have to deal with the silliness that was pre term labour anymore!

My last pregnancy photo taken at home!

At my 37 week app't with the Midwives, I was taken off of bed rest and couldn't have been more grateful!  I could barely walk/move at that point, without assistance, so I was ready to try to get more mobile before you arrived.  Everyone always said to us, "I bet that the second you are off of bed rest, you will deliver this baby", but I had a hard time believing that you would ever come, having stayed in so long!  I was determined to help around the house more ("nest"), walk with Daddy everyday and spend some quality time together!

I tried to re book our maternity photos, before it was "too late", booked a hair app't for the following day (I hadn't had a haircut in 12 weeks!!!) and wanted to "get ready" for your arrival, hopefully before I went overdue! HA!

Secretly, I met with the OB we saw when we were in the hospital, as the Midwives wanted me to discuss with him, an early induction, if possible. They were quite concerned with the level of pain I was in, as well as your size and lack of movements at times.  You gave us yet again, another scare by not moving for a day and sending me to the office for another NST and BPP.  They predicted at the ultrasound, that you were 8lbs 6oz, had a head measurement of 34 cms and a length of 21 inches.  You were measuring 3 weeks and 1 day ahead.  YIKES!  I saw the OB and he agreed to book an induction date for you of: April 20, 2012.  His prediction though: Anytime I make an induction date, it seems the Mom always goes into labour before then.

So, after the app't, on April 10th and a lovely procedure to kick start some labour (which only works sometimes and is not proven to REALLY work), I felt really uncomfortable and was told it was "normal".  Little did we all know, the next morning, labour signs started to show and by 4pm, Dad and I "WALKED THIS BABY OUT", as the Midwives like to say!  We went for a walk around the block to try to kick start better contractions than I'd been having for the last 7 weeks and little did we know, half way through our walk, I WENT INTO LABOUR!!!!!!!  It was an incredible, yet painful walk, that really set your Daddy into high gear once we got back home!

While this is an EXTREMELY unattractive photo of me, Daddy decided that he needed to take a photo while I was in labour at home...he'll pay for this one, one day!

To be continued... :)