11.19.08 ~ Still Week Thirty-Eight

I had another CBS appointment yesterday, so I just wanted to post a quick update. This one was with Elizabeth. My blood pressure was the same (130/80), so Elizabeth ramped up the bed rest instructions that Barbara had given me last week. Now I’m not supposed to get up unless I need to eat or use the bathroom. She also told me not to continue doing yoga, which is a little depressing for me.

She also did a quick internal check yesterday and there were no changes in my cervix and the baby still hasn’t really dropped. So, even though the state of the cervix isn’t scientifically predictive of labor starting, one could infer we’ve got at least another week to go. Plus she told me that about half of pregnancies go over their due date and for first babies it’s even a little more than half.

The baby’s heart rate looked good and went up and down with his movements, which is a very normal and healthy sign. I also asked her to take a guess as to his size and she thinks that right now he probably weighs just less than 6.5 lbs. So if he waits another week or so to come out, he’ll probably be born at just over 7 lbs. She moved my next appointment from Tuesday to Monday so that we can get a gage on the blood pressure situation early in the week since it’s a holiday week.

If I go into labor early next week, Barbara is on-call. Later in the week and over Thanksgiving, it will be Elizabeth. She told me she actually really likes working holidays because there are less administrative people in the hospital, the nurses bring in food, and everyone is in a relaxed and festive mood. Maybe she’s just saying that so I don’t feel bad for her if I go into labor over the holiday weekend. Either way, it doesn’t seem like something I’m going to be able to control anyway!