Week 38

Yesterday marked the beginning of Week 38! It's hard to believe that we are so far along and so close to the big day! We had a sonogram and then a Dr's appointment afterward. The sonogram was a bit disappointing to me because since he's so much bigger now that he's nearly full grown than he was at 20 weeks, his whole body did not fit on the screen and it was very difficult for us to be able to tell what we were looking at. His face was pointed toward my back, so we never really got a clear shot of his cute little face. There was a picture that she was able to get of his face and was showing us the nose, eyes and mouth, but neither of us can make out a face in that picture to save our lives! She also printed out pictures of an arm/hand and his little boy parts. Strangely, the boy parts were pretty much the only things that were obvious in the picture! I had assumed I'd have all of these cutsey sonogram pictures to post of his profile and face like last time, but since the only thing that was clear were the boy parts, I don't think I'll be posting those. All in all, it was great to see our little guy on the screen, even though we couldn't make out what we were looking at most of the time. It was really neat to see his heart pumping. It was so neat because you could see the chambers and everything! At one point when she was focusing on his head, trying to make him face the camera, she said 'let's check out his hair and see what that's like'. Turns out he has none! Depending on when he's born, maybe he'll grow some before his big day.

At the appointment after the sonogram, she checked me like usual and determined that there was almost zero change since the last visit. There was a tiny bit more dilation, but nothing significant. I just don't get it! I don't understand why everything was in fast forward just a few weeks ago and now we are just sitting on our hands. Don't get me wrong - I know that the longer he stays in and the closer to 40 weeks we get the better for his development. It's just such a rollercoaster to go from thinking we're having a baby any minute to just sitting around twiddling our thumbs! We're a little more relaxed about it now that he's not going to be terribly early, but now that we're so close to the due date, we can't help but still be somewhat nervous. She said that at 39 weeks she'd be medically allowed to induce or do a c-section, but we have decided against that if my body isn't ready for delivery yet. We are just not comfortable with 'playing God' for the sake of getting him here a week or two sooner. The Dr agrees that this is a good way to go and not force anything. So, we are just going to let things progress naturally and see where God takes us. According to the sonogram measurements, he is 7.7 pounds, plus or minus a pound. This give the Dr and us some hope that we will be able to avoid a c-section. I'm not totally against c-sections - in fact, in the beginning I was so scared of the alternative that I asked if I could have a scheduled c-section! However, now that I've had several months to learn more about each type of delivery and let it all sink in, I'd like to skip a c-section if at all possible. Either way, our baby is going to be born one way or another, regardless of the method of delivery, and that's all that matters! We discussed timelines and she is not going to let me go past 41 weeks. If we reach that point and are still pregnant, she is going to either have to induce or do a c-section, whichever is the best choice at the time.