Week 40: We made it!

Today is September 10th, the official due date for Baby G! I can't believe the 40 weeks have come to pass now and that it could be any day till we meet our baby boy. Though we don't know when he'll make his appearance I think Tom and I are doing a pretty good job at this point in being patient waiting for him to decide when the right time is. I'll admit I'd prefer it to be sooner than later because I'm REALLY ready to not be pregnant anymore. But I've made it 40 weeks so a few more days isn't so bad.

We had yet another prenatal appointment this week and there really wasn't any sort of progress to report. I did get a 30 minute non-stress test where they hooked me up to a machine that measures the baby's heartbeat and any contraction activity. They did this test to see if there were any contractions going on, even mild, and to see how my placenta is helping the baby at this point. If his heartbeat looks good then that apparently indicates that my placenta is still supplying enough oxygen, blood, and nutrients to him. My doctor said that placentas can get a bit worn out at the end of pregnancy so it's good to check it out. So anyway, his heartbeat looked great but I wasn't having any sort of contractions at all. The plan at this point is that I'm going to have another prenatal appointment on the 17th when I'll be exactly 1 week overdue. At that point they'll do another non-stress test and see if I've made any progress yet. If not then we'll discuss induction options. Tom and I also agreed that the 17th will be my official last day of work as well. I'm really glad to have an official end date in sight as far as work goes as it's been more challenging to focus there with the baby on my mind so much. Of course, we hope that the baby will decide to come out before the 17th but I'm happy with our back up plan just in case he doesn't!

As for Baby G, this week he has enough fat on his body to be able to regulate his own body temperature out in the world. It'll be so neat to not only see his face, but to also see how much he'll end up weighing and how long he'll be since at this point there's quite a variance to those things. So, who knows, our next post could be an announcement of the baby's birth (fingers crossed)!!