Hallelujah Moment

Everyone told me I'd get to the point in my pregnancy when I was just miserable. I had a pretty easy pregnancy so I wasn't so sure I'd get there. And I decided that when I did, I would try not to complain about it too much, since I'd had it so easy early in the pregnancy. Well, two weeks I hit that point. I'll spare you the complaints, but the thought of four or more weeks brought me to tears. :)

Things are looking up, though! I went to the OB last week and she said I'm still measuring about a week ahead and the baby still looks large. She said that if I want any chance of birthing this baby myself, then we'll need to induce by the 20th. (Cue angels: Hallelujah!) Logically, I know that is only one week early, however it seems so much more manageable. Part of the relief is the fact that there is a definite end date. Of course, I knew that I wouldn't be pregnant forever, but knowing that it definitely won't be later than the 20th made a huge difference to me. The doctor also said that she'll be on-call the weekend before the 20th (MLK weekend) so we can induce then if we prefer. At first, I thought I wanted the extra weekend to get ready for the baby. I also thought about the date and I think that since the 20th this year is inauguration day, it would be a really cool birthday. (Not to mention, it is my friend Meg's birthday too) But...if I have her over the weekend, it would give me three extra days of maternity leave, and three more days with my baby! So, we think that we're going to go ahead and be induced MLK weekend.

Then this past weekend I started having more contractions. On Saturday they were inconsistent but by Sunday they were 10 minutes apart. They continued throughout the night Sunday night, increasing in intensity, but never closer than 7 minutes apart. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much Sunday night. Monday morning the contractions were continuing to increase in intensity and some were as close as 4-5 minutes apart. Unfortunately they have to be 4 minutes apart for an hour before you are supposed to go to the doctor. Then, by Monday afternoon, the contractions began to ease off. Monday night I did not have many contractions at all and had a great night's sleep. Today I've had a few really strong contractions but they're not consistent.

So, after all of that stressing about when to induce....we may not need to after all. I go back to the doctor tomorrow and I'm eager to see what she has to say!

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