Baby's on the way!

Chris and I went to the doctor's office for our weekly check-up today. The baby's heartbeat sounded wonderful! I was still about 75% effaced and 1 cm dilated. At the same time, my amniotic fluid index was a little bit low - about 7 or 7.5 cm. That was 1 cm lower than last week's reading. By itself, this wouldn't have caused too much of a reaction from our doctor. But the ultrasound also showed that the umbilical cord was wrapped loosely around baby's neck, possibly twice. This combination of circumstances prompted Dr. F. to recommend induction today. The lower the amniotic fluid gets, the more likely it becomes that the cord will become compressed. There's no emergency at this point, but he wants to help keep one from arising by delivering the baby sooner than later.

Now we're sitting in the lobby of the Women and Children's Center at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. As it turns out, "there is no room for us in the inn!" Hee hee...ok, not exactly. The thing is that every single hospital room in maternity is full, and every single bed in triage is also full. So, here we are in the lobby waiting for someone to come tell us that there's a bed somewhere for me. Once there is, then I'll be set up in triage with the fetal monitor and they'll administer the ...

While I was typing that sentence, I got the call that a bed in triage was ready for me :-) So, now it's 6:30p and I'm on the bed with the monitor on my belly. Baby continues to sound great! I'll probably be spending the night here in triage, but should get my own room sometime in the morning. If you read this in time, please pray that I'll get a room to labor in sooner than later. It can be pretty uncomfortable laboring in a big public room with all kinds of strangers constantly walking through. But, if that's what God has for me, His grace will be sufficient for me!

At some point this evening the nurse will administer Cervidil to try to get my cervix to soften and efface and also to try to get me to go into labor. It's not usually all that effective at inducing labor, but it might, and we are really praying that it will. If labor hasn't started after 12 hours or so, I'll be given Pitocin on an IV drip to start my contractions. For now, we'll keep praying and waiting and trying to have fun...our baby is coming soon...my arms can't wait to hold him or her!

That's all for now. We'll try to keep you posted as quickly as possible. Thank you so much for keeping us and our baby in your prayers. We love you!