June 17, 2009

• Post 40 week Dr.’s appointment/Pre induction update

  Good morning all. It is Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM.

  Mom got here early Monday morning (9:00), an hour and a half earlier than planned. So that was incredibly exciting!! I picked her up at the airport and our day together started. We had breakfast at Panera Bread first, then to AT&T to look at a few things and then on to Wal-Mart to get some necessary items. From there we headed home and just relaxed a minute. We were both tired and giddy and just enjoying each other. Tancy had gone to pick her Mom up and run some errands… I don’t even know what all they did!! Once they got home we all had some time together. I was really glad for Mom and Ms. Sue to have some time to get to know each other. The other times they have been around each other there has been so much going on that I don’t think they got any time together. We cooked and talked and laughed. It was a wonderful evening. Mandy got here after work, we ate together at the table and then all cleaned the kitchen together. We sat and talked and again, just enjoyed all being together. Mandy and Ms. Sue headed home around 8:30 or 9:00 I guess and the three of us left here headed to bed very shortly there after.

  Tuesday morning we started fairly early. I was up at 6:15, I think Mom was either already up or just starting to stir. I made coffee, Mom fed the dogs. We just sat and had coffee together. Tancy was up before long. We all took our time waking up and before long it was time for me to get in the shower and start getting ready for the doctors appointment ahead. Sometime between my getting in the shower and putting on clothes Ms. Sue got here, stopped by on her way home. So we spent some time together before she had to leave and wished like hell she would decide to stay. Once we got her on the road we all got moving, getting ready to leave. We got to the doctors office early and had to wait to go back… they’ve either gotten busier lately or gotten bad about not moving people through or something. Anyway, Mom waited in the waiting room… I was going to have an exam and just didn’t want to coordinate all of that. So we go back finally. I gained 2 pounds since Thursday, I think alot had to be fluid because my hands and feet were terribly swollen almost immediately yesterday morning. Not sure to be honest. Anyway, my blood pressure was 116/72. Got the exam, wow! Not like the rest, I will tell you that. I don’t know what she did differently… but it was certainly different than the exams prior. She said my cervix was softer and I had about a finger tip dilation, but no significant changes. So, induction it was going to be. We went over everything, all the questions we had, what would happen, etc. So I’ll give you the run down about what is going to happen.

  We will go to the hospital around 4:00 today to be admitted by 4:30. They’ll get all my paperwork and orders together and us into a room and then I’ll get a medicine called Cervadil placed on my cervix. Cervadil is used to soften the cervix before the use of medicines to dilate the cervix. Softening has to be happen before dilation will. So the cervadil will stay in place for about 12 hours. They will remove it Thursday morning around 5:00. I will be able to go to the bathroom and such, but for the most part I will be in the bed once the medicine is in place, they want it to stay right where they put it.
  Thursday morning around 5:00 they will come in and remove the cervadil. They will give me about an hour or so to get a shower or move around a bit if I so chose and then they will start the pitocin. Pitocin is a synthetic version of the chemical that your body naturally produces that causes contractions and thus dilation. I don’t know how long I will receive pitocin. I do know that our doctor said that she will do everything she can to get the baby here quickly, that’s her job. So she will be fairly aggressive. That means she will probably break my water earlier than they might consider it if I were laboring naturally. It also means I will get an epidural earlier to help manage the discomfort of an aggressive process. She will use the pitocin to move labor along quickly by controlling the dose. She said that if I am not progressing as she would like a C-section is possible. I do not know that there is a time frame where she will decide that this is the best course, only that she will if it is necessary. We hope it isn’t necessary.
  So that is what’s going to happen.

  After the doctors appointment we went to Cracker Barrel and had lunch while I sent out the word to everyone I had a cell phone for that I thought might want to know. We left from there and went to Books-A-Million and picked up some books for the hospital. Then home. We rested for just a bit. Then off to Tancy’s physical therapy. We dropped her off and headed to Wal-Mart for milk, biscuits and yogurt. Then back to pick Tancy up. We were planning on dinner out and a movie… so when we got home I set about looking for show times and locations… my movie isn’t playing anywhere in NC. Bummer! So we decide to go to dinner and then see how things go. We had Red Lobster for dinner. Yummy!! Hit the spot. We laughed and cut up and just had a good time.

  At the movie theater we looked at movies coming on and show times. We decided to watch “My Life In Ruins”. I have to say that it was cute, but I wasn’t overly impressed. There were other movies we could have watched, but I needed something light and funny. It was light and even funny in places, but probably not the best movie we could have seen. Oh well. We were the only three in the theater!! So we talked, cut up, threw pop corn, and just behaved… well… like we might have if we hadn’t been the only ones there. LOL. Just kidding. We acted like we owned the place. It was fun all in all and a great distraction for me.

  We got home and talked to Aunt Jan on the phone for a bit, she wanted to know what the process was going to be like once I get to the hospital. We had great laughs and conversation. I think we all wish she were able to be here. She’s with us, even if she can’t physically be here. After we talked to her we all went to bed. My belly and back were so sore. I was happy to lay down and get comfy in bed. Aunt Jan joked that Lillie would come on Wednesday on her own since induction was scheduled now. This thought tickled her, I think the idea of an ornery kid makes her happy. Anyway, Tancy watched TV for a bit, but I laid there and did my best to sleep, which came pretty quickly. I woke up twice in the night for potty runs but otherwise slept pretty good.

  At 7:15 the dogs were so restless and moving around that it was impossible for me to sleep any more. Once I was up I felt like I couldn’t sit still. So I made coffee, fed the puppies, unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded it after putting away all the dishes. In just a bit I’ll make chocolate chip cookie dough so that we can have home made cookies when Dad gets here (as I promised him). I also want to move some stuff in our hospital bag so that the chargers and such are in with the books and not with our clothes. I want to double check that I have what I need to take for us and for Lillie. Just a last run through of what we have vs. what we need. I also need to strip the bed and put clean sheets on it. Mom will be home taking care of the puppies and fish for us while we are at the hospital. But we have a few things around the house that we want to get done before we actually leave for the hospital. I don’t want Mom feeling like she’s got to clean the house or anything like that.

  So that’s all I’ve got for today. Pops will be here Friday. Hopefully we will be on our way home from the hospital around that time too. It’ll just depend on when Ms. Lillie turns loose and comes out and how that happens. I doubt I’ll be posting much before the end of the weekend… I am not taking the computer with me. We will, however, both have our cell phones and I’ll post updates on facebook as I care to (assuming we have a signal in the room). I expect that there wont be much to report until tomorrow afternoon sometime.

  Sending all my love out to all of you this morning. Thank you all for the well wishes and love sent yesterday when I sent out the text updating everyone. It is greatly appreciated and felt. I hope you are all having a great week.

  And, very important, before I forget…. Happy 1st Birthday Marlie!!!

  Love to all!

  • 8:17 am
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