Baby On Board

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all so much for your thoughts, calls and emails letting us know that we are on your mind. There is no baby to report yet, but we are remaining patient that she will come in her time. I thought I would send out an email letting you all know about our doctor appointment today and what Dr. Witzke was able to tell us.

As of today, I am one week over due (now 41 weeks pregnant). I was scheduled at my appointment last week to come in today to have a Non Stress Test performed. The NST takes about 30 minutes and involves me having two belts strapped around my waist - one monitors the baby’s heart rate to ensure that the baby is still doing well and the other identifies any contractions I may be having (none to report). In addition to having the two monitors strapped to me - they asked me to push a button every time I felt the baby make a movement. When I would push the button, it put a mark on the chart that was printing out and showed the doctor where she should expect to see a slight increase in the baby’s heart rate due to her “exerting” herself to make the move. She still moves a lot, especially considering that she has to be out growing her current accommodations, but during the first part of the NST she was sleeping and not moving much. We were determined to not let her “fail” her first test just because she was snoozing - but if the doctor determined that she was not able to see enough to know she was doing well - she could have sent us over to the hospital today for an induction. Luckily - Emilia is not the first baby they have encountered to be “sleeping on the job.” They were able to wake her by putting a mini noise maker on my belly. This worked and we were able to show the doctor a series of movements / heart rate increases that verified she is doing well therefore allowing us to continue waiting “patiently.”

After the NST - the doctor examined me and was able to report that my cervix is soft and I am 1 centimeter dilated but still not “thinning.” We’re just happy to have progress on 2 of the 3, but until my cervix thins out, Emilia will probably remain comfortable with her head on the “pillow.”

We are scheduled for an ultrasound tomorrow to ensure that there are adequate fluid levels and we have another NST scheduled for Thursday. We are hoping she will come on her own, but if she doesn’t, we have an induction scheduled for Monday, June 18th. I will be officially 42 weeks on Tuesday, June 19th and they do not want me to go past this point, so I would be a high priority for a “bed” on Monday morning when I call the hospital.

So - that’s all for now. We’re hoping the next email we send out will have pictures / stats on the little bambino! Thanks again for your thoughtful love and support. She will be here soon!

Love,

Sarah and Jeff (and Emilia soon…)