On Saturday we cleaned the house for most of the day. Rachel arrived in the evening for her last weeklong visit before she comes to live here. This trip was already booked and although it seems kind of silly to have her come for a week, go back to New York for a week, then move out here, it will actually be a good thing to give her a vacation and allow her to get enrolled in the school before she moves out here. Her stepdad, Dan, came to stay with friends in Ann Arbor for the week so he dropped her off. It was so nice not to have to deal with the airport chaos. We spent the evening relaxing and watched The Emperor’s New Groove.
Sunday we went to Ally’s 3rd birthday party then visited with my parents. It was a fun day. Since Carol so kindly volunteered to attend to me as my own personal massage therapist during labor, I brought her directions to the hospital as well as the forms to fill out for her and Grant to be Lily’s godparents. I think it is very appropriate that since my parents are Carol’s godparents that she be my child’s godmother.
Monday was Rachel’s 11th birthday. She spent the day at Kassiana’s then we brought both girls home for a sleepover. My parents came down and we had dinner at Red Robin then ice cream cake and presents at home. I think Rachel had a good birthday. Paul was sure that Lily would be born today but it didn’t happen. Here are some pictures from the evening:
The week was spent living day to day waiting for Lily to arrive. Rachel ended up staying every day at Kassiana’s while Paul and I continued to work. Everyone keeps asking when I am going to have the baby and they all seem amazed that I am still working. I continue to feel fine with occasional pains and cramps.
Wednesday night we had Thai food to try to kick Lily into arriving on her due date (Thursday, February 19). I got mine hot instead of my usual medium, which is already super hot at Thai Express. It was yummy but nearly unbearable. Later that night I thought my water broke. I was using the bathroom, finished, and stood up only to have a gush of fluid come out of me. I hurried and sat back down so everything went into the toilet. Since it was all mixed together, I could not tell the color or odor of what came out so I could not tell if it was urine or amniotic fluid. I waited for two hours but no labor pains started. I called the Birthing Center Triage phone number and asked for advice. They told me that if my water had broken, it would probably continue to leak so to watch it for the next few hours. It was already midnight so I ended up falling asleep. Thursday morning (my due date) I called again to report that I did not appear to be leaking so they told me to wait and tell my doctor about it at my appointment Friday morning. I didn’t really feel comfortable with this since you are supposed to deliver your baby within 24 hours of the water breaking or you can get an infection so later that morning I called my doctor’s office and talked to one of the nurses there. Since I was in the building, she agreed that I should go over to the Birthing Center Triage and just get checked out although she didn’t think my water had broken. I spent about an hour there. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and checked Lily’s heart rate at rest and made sure that it increased with activity. They also did an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels and did a pelvic swab to see if my water had broken. It had not. They said what probably happened was that when I got up, Lily shifted on my bladder releasing more urine that I couldn’t hold back due to the stress she put on my pelvic floor muscles. How embarrassing but it was worth it all to know that she is doing okay. During my pelvic exam they said that I wasn’t dilated at all and still only 50% effaced. That made me so disappointed as I have been having cramping all week, apparently with no results!
Friday was my weekly OB check. He said that everything still looks good. If I am still pregnant at my next visit, we will discuss induction. He also had me schedule another fetal non-stress test (the heart rate monitoring I had done yesterday) and amniotic fluid index check for Tuesday. The good news is that between Thursday and Friday, I made some progress. I am now almost completely effaced and one centimeter dilated. It’s not much but I will take any progress I can get! While I was at my doctor’s visit, Paul took Rachel to Navigator School to get her enrolled and have her take a tour. Navigator is the Pinckney school for 5th and 6th graders which is somewhat like middle school in that the kids do change classes but there are no bells and the kids are escorted to their next class by their teachers. They do have lockers, though. Rachel seemed very impressed by the school. She loved the mural in the cafeteria, the rock climbing wall in the gym, and the rec room with skeeball, table tennis, and air hockey. She had a number of kids come up to her and say hi. We were all relieved that everyone seemed so friendly. She is all set to start school on March 2nd. I left work early on Friday because the check engine light came on in my car on the way to my doctor’s appointment. We definitely need the car working when we bring the baby home! It ended up being the EGR valve which translates to super expensive car part. They also replaced my back shocks which I knew were bad. $850 later, I was back home. We spent Rachel’s last evening here having breakfast for dinner and watching the new episode of Monk. We have to meet Dan early Saturday morning so we turned in early. Rachel said that she finally isn’t sad to be returning to New York because she knows that she will be back to us in a week.
Overall, we had a good week with Rachel. We were all disappointed that Lily wasn’t born when she was here but what can you do!
News from the womb…
The last of the vervix is disappearing. By this time, about 15% of the baby’s body is fat. About 80% of this fat is located directly under the surface of the skins while the other 20% is found on organs and muscle tissue. If born now, the baby will weight about 7.5 pounds and measure about 14 inches from crown to rump. Of course, baby’s length at birth will be measured from head to toe.
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