40 weeks!!!

That's right...yesterday was Baby T's due date!!  We were sorely mistaken, but we definitely thought that his birthday would come well before his due date.  We blatantly ignored the statistic that half of all babies are born after their due dates (especially first babies) and proceeded on the assumption that our little man would be here early, maybe even in September.  As evidence, we had our bags packed in mid-September and we even did some stocking up grocery-wise in late September.  We didn't make any concrete plans for the last week of September, and even our plans prior to the end of September did not seem likely to pan out.  We prepared everyone at work, which is probably why we get confused looks (and sometimes high fives) every day we make it in for another workday.  We thought we'd be able to have our annual Halloween party because our little guy would be old enough by then.  We also thought that we'd be watching the debates with our little guy and already taking long walks in this gorgeous fall weather.  We prematurely went on what we thought would be our last date night prior to baby a few weekends ago.  We even had our families fooled, which is obvious by the birth date guesses which don't go past 10/16 (this one is actually really late...the earliest guess was 9/27 and the latest other than this was 10/12).  We have many friends with birthdays at the end of September and in October, but we always laughed when anyone with a birthday in mid-October or later said, "Maybe the baby will share my birthday."  We thought, "Yeah right."  Needless to say, we were wrong.  This is a time when it's okay to be wrong though.  We're grateful that he's stayed put for so long because only he knows how long he needs to stay in order to be healthy.  With that in mind, he can stay in there for as long as he needs...well, maybe not too much longer :)

We found out at our doctor's appointment yesterday that it actually won't be much longer until we get to meet Baby T.  We learned that Bridget has progressed to one centimeter dilated and is 50% effaced, although Baby T's head is still pretty high.  Bridget's blood pressure was initially a little high, but it came down the second time the nurse checked it.  So, we have another doctor's appointment scheduled for Thursday morning to check Bridget's blood pressure again.  Assuming it's normal, our doctor scheduled an induction for Monday night.  Basically, we'll head into the hospital on Monday night to get things started, but the actual induction with pitocin won't start until Tuesday morning.  So, if all goes well, we'll only have to wait one more week at most to meet our little guy!  In the meantime, Bridget's last day of work before maternity leave will be tomorrow.  Since we're past his due date and Bridget's starting to feel the effects of being overdue, it seems like the perfect time to slow things down a bit prior to the baby's arrival.

As always, we'll keep you updated.  To close, here is a picture of Bridget from Sunday with her 40-week belly and a picture of our little devils ready for Halloween :)

 

Less than one week!

As of today, we're less than one week away from Baby T's due date, October 15!  Needless to say, we're anxious, excited, nervous, and all of the other words that you can use to describe the days leading up to a big life event.  We went to see our doctor yesterday and learned that Baby T seems to still be happy in his current home.  His heart rate is good and he's still moving a lot, which tells us that he's comfortable.  Bridget is doing well in that her weight gain has tampered off (normal at this time in the pregnancy) and her blood pressure remains good.  After not getting "checked" since 36 weeks, we learned that Bridget's body has made some progress in preparing for labor over the last three weeks.  She is starting to dilate and is about 25% effaced.  Bridget was secretly hoping that the check would lead to an exclamation that "it's time!"  As our doctor puts it though, this doesn't tell us much about when he will arrive (i.e., someone can go from no dilation to baby in a few hours, or can sit at three centimeters for weeks).  So, now we wait.  We have another appointment scheduled for 40 weeks on Monday, but we're both hoping that Baby T doesn't hold out until then.  If he does though, our doctor said that she would likely recommend that we schedule an induction for the following Monday night, meaning that October 23 appears to be the latest date that we could meet our baby!!  It seems like it's far off, especially since we thought he'd arrive by now, but it's nice to see a light at the end of this pregnancy tunnel.

In the meantime, thankfully Bridget is still feeling great physically.  Bridget's new best friend is her birthing ball, which she hopes will help induce labor.  Brad also gets a kick out of sitting on it :)  Along with that, we've been walking more, eating spicy foods, and trying other things to get this party started.  Brad's staying busy at work and Bridget's schedule is tapering off, especially since her last day before maternity leave will at most be sometime next week.  Since we feel pretty prepared for Baby T to come home, we've kept ourselves busy with some last minute cleaning (it seems that our house can never be clean enough, especially with two rowdy puppies running around all of the time!), putting up our Halloween decorations, spending time with friends and family, and enjoying nice dinners out as a couple.  We're spending some quality time with our fur kids, of course.  Here is a picture of them after their recent hair cuts and Penny with her buddy, Frankenstein...

We will keep you all updated.  Hopefully our next post will be to introduce the newest member of our family!