Week 36- Still Week 36

Less than 72 hours from now Baby Shell will be joining us! Hooray! Spencer and I are enjoying these last few days (as best we can in a hospital room) as just a 2 person family. It is really sinking in what life change is about to happen...and we are thrilled! Baby Shell has been doing great for the last few days with 2 exceptions. On two different nights (both with the same night nurse that we don't care for), Baby Shell's heartrate has dropped for longer than is typical. Our nurse has had to call the OB late at night and we've had to do a longer NonStress Test both times, but eventually his heartbeat has returned to normal. Possibly, he was laying on the cord, but I think he just has a sense of humor and acts up for attention.

So today is my last day (unless any labs change drastically) that I will be living in Club 127 in the Women's Center at Northside Hospital. Tomorrow between lunch and dinner time, I will be taken to a delivery room and begin the whole induction processs. Tomorrow night I will get Cervidil to start the dilation. In a perfect world, that will be all it takes and baby will come overnight. More than likely though, Tuesday morning I will be given Pitocin and the labor fun will begin. Hopefully the Pitocin combined with my Preeclampsia will cause the delivery to occur sometime on Tuesday. If not, I may be put back on Cervidil and then try again with Pitocin or eventually given the option of a C-Section. I've met with my doctors and we agree that whatever is best for the baby is what we'll do. I told them not to worry about my health too much. I figure I can bounce back a bit more easily than a 5lbs 4 oz newborn which was his estimated weight a week ago. I'm guessing he'll be around 6lbs on Tuesday, but what do I know??

The last 13 days have not been my idea of how I'd like to spend my last days of pregnancy, but I've been so incredibly blessed with friends and family that I've had very little time to be bored. In fact, many of my friends have visited multiple times and I'm beginning to wonder if they have nothing better to do with their time! :) Just kidding. I have enjoyed every minute of their visits and couldn't ask for better friends or family.

It has been very interesting to be "surprised" with this illness and the subsequent hospital bedrest. Spencer teases that I like to plan my life in 15 min increments and these last two weeks have thrown me off! I guess this is God's way of telling me I'm going to need to learn to be more flexible.

During these last weeks, my mom has been spending each day at the hospital with me and we have been having such a good time together. It's been years since we spent this much time together and I had almost forgotten how much I really like her! I mean, she's my mom so of course I love her, but I really like her as a person too- not just because she's my mom. At night, Spencer comes to stay with me and my mom goes back to our home to play "housewife." She's been cleaning and doing chores and taking care of the dogs. She's been great and worked so hard to make this easier on us. I don't think I could have done all of this time without her and I'm pretty sure Spencer appreciates all of her help too. Spencer did spend the night at home last night and my mom spent the night at the hospital. When I asked Spencer why he didn't want to stay he replied, "Sweetie, I just want to sleep in my own bed!" I think after seeing the look on my face he started to backtrack and said, "oh, I'm sorry. I guess you do too." Well yes, I've missed my bed quite a bit, thanks! :) However I'm glad Spencer can keep some sort of normalcy right now- he needs it!

And so now we are on the downside of the waiting game. I'm anxious to see what the next few days hold for us, but I'm sure Baby Shell will be worth it. Thank you to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. It's almost time!!