Baby Update

Kristin says this much better than I ever could, so here is the copy of her e-mail:

Baby has, somehow, mananged to make it to week 37 (probably due to all your prayers), so when she comes she will not be a preemie! YAY!! Now on to the medical details.

During the past week (week 36) I was in the office being checked out and monitored every day except Friday. On Wed morning and Sun night (early Mon morning, really) we had some false alarms. Last night (about 1am) I thought my water had broken, but the nurses at the hospital said otherwise and, since I was still only dilated to about 3 1/2 and not having contractions, they sent me home. :-(

This morning, at my 11am appointment, I saw both the doctor and the nurse practitioner/midwife, who said "I can't figure out why you're not in labor, you're dilated to 5cm." Then they hooked me up to the monitor and confirmed what my own experience told me: I'm not having contractions right now. In fact, between being sent home from the hospital at 3am and going to the doctors office at 11, I only felt contraction. So I'm not sure how I went from 3.5 to 5 so quickly, though I highly suspect those prayers for baby's continued development are why it didn't happen sooner. :-)

The doctor told us (Michael arrived at the office towards the end of the monitoring session) that it's dangerous to be walking around dilated to 5, as the baby could decide to slide out on her own. So, he's going to give me today and tomorrow to go into labor on my own, and then on Wed morning, if needed, he will induce labor by breaking my waters (the amniotic fluid/sac surrounding baby).

So baby should be arriving soon! (And it's just as well, the waiting was starting to really mess with my mind.) Looking forward to seeing all of you, and showing off the little one (who has hair, remember).