The Baby is Coming!

Today was our final prenatal appointment and it was a very exciting one! The doctor checked to see if there was any progress. While she thought the baby had dropped even further, I still was not dilated at all. She wanted to revisit our options of doing a c-section if I didn't go into labor. So she asked if we wanted to wait it out another week or go ahead and schedule a c-section for this week. Because we have a feeling that I am not going to go into labor natually (I haven't even had a single contraction yet), we decided to forego waiting another week and go ahead with the c-section this week. We also felt that this would be the safest route for the baby since there was less risk of stress or a problem with the cord or any other type of emergency situation. The doctor asked us which day we wanted to do it. And she gave us the option of tomorrow. So we decided to do it! The surgery is scheduled for 9:30 tomorrow morning and we have to be at the hospital at 7:30.

I also had what is called a non-stress test performed because I told the doctor I was feeling less movement and have been occasionally concerned about it. I think the test was named as such so that the parents don't get alarmed... because I would think calling it a stress test would be more appropriate. Basically what happened is they put the fetal heart monitor on my belly and checked the baby's baseline heartrate. Then the nurse pulled out a metal bedpan and a spoon and asked me if the baby was head down. Since it is, she banged on the pan about 5 times right next to the bottom of my belly. The monitor started speeding up as the baby's heartrate increased and then the poor thing got the hiccups. I felt terrible! Obviously that scared the crap out of the baby. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut about it not being as active. The good news is the baby is doing fine and is not deaf!

I don't think it has fully sunk in that I will be having a baby tomorrow. We are so excited and can't wait to meet him or her. I can't imagine what that moment will be like. After the appointment we both rushed to work to get things taken care of since we will be out for a while. Everyone so far has been pretty shocked (and so have we) that all of a sudden we know that we are having a baby in less than 24 hours. Before our lives completely changed, we decided to have one last dinner just the two of us. It was an awesome evening to sit outside and eat. Now we just need to finish packing the hospital bags and do a little more cleaning around the house. And Brett is giving the dogs plenty of attention since they will surely be a little neglected in the upcoming days. He is drinking a couple of beers so he can get some sleep... I wish I could do the same. I'm sure I will be up all night with excitement.

Only about 12 more hours until we find out if we have a son or daughter! I can't wait! Too bad we still don't have names picked out...