Baby Delays

This morning we had a "biophysical check" ultrasound. The baby looks great - placenta still very viable, plenty of amniotic fluid, moving a lot, healthy and fluctuating heart rate, and measuring (inaccurately, but still!) at a whopping 9.25 lbs!!! Yikes!

After the ultrasound, we had the infamous "membrane stripping" doctor's appointment. Unfortunately, my cervix is still quite high, and it was hard for the doc to reach the amniotic sac to strip the membranes. It kind of hurt halfway through, so she didn't get to do as much as she maybe would normally. Bummer!! Seems like even though the baby is growing and everything looks ready for delivery, my body is holding out on preparing for labor.

Next I went to acupuncture (first time ever) and have another appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'm heading out shortly for some "curb walking" - one foot on a curb, one down, for a block, then switch. It's supposed to help "wiggle" the baby down more.

I have a theory on why this baby is so late (will be 1 week on Saturday, and sans the stripping and acupuncture, I doubt it would have come by then - maybe not even with those things). I think it is my anxiety about the sale of our condo and getting through Lucia's birthday. As I have written before, I'm actually not anxious for the baby to come - and in fact, until the condo signed for sale and inspection finished this past Tuesday, I did not even WANT it to come yet! Then we had Lucia's birthday yesterday, and again - I did not want the baby on her birth day. Hopefully now that those stressors are behind us, I'll be able to relax enough to let this labor progress. Of course, then our condo stager had to be incredibly rude about moving her stuff out (I'll write more on that next week - suffice it to say that I will not be recommending this stager to anyone in future - though I do recommend staging in general). So that happens Monday... hopefully I can get past it, though, because I want the baby to come this weekend! Thank goodness for our AWESOME real estate agent, Karen, who is going to take care of everything with the stager, just as she has taken care of everything so well with the sale (7 weeks on the market for a condo in downtown Portland, not too bad!). It's so nice to have people you can count on.

Anyway, the end of my ramblings is that if there is nothing doing in the labor department naturally (or with my "natural" attempts at prodding) - I will be induced next Wednesday night, and most likely our little one will be born on Thursday, October 15. Fortunately the doctor said that given my history with a vaginal birth for Lucia, getting induced will not significantly increase my chance at cesarean, and from the ultrasound today, we know for a definite fact that our babe is head down, so that is a relief too. But chemical induction can lead down the road of a more intense labor, and most likely WILL increase my chances of other interventions like an epidural. And I'll have to be hooked up to something for the induction meds too, so less movement, etc. Not to mention that then the WHOLE THING takes place at the hospital, so no labor at home. But if that is what we need to do, obviously we're going to do it! All that really matters is getting out our healthy baby.

Some photos for your "enjoyment:"
Ultrasound at 41 weeks (I'd say 2 days shy) - chin and lip - looks like the lip is protruding out, but that is a function of the ultrasound:

My pin-pricked feet! They also had two above my belly button, and one on each hand in the web between thumb and pointer finger.