Mid-Week Pregnancy Post

I never realized how many people are actually reading my blog until I start to get messages about my posts. Many of you have asked in the past 24 hours if baby girl decided to give her mommy a special birthday present this year. Unfortunately, she did not arrive yesterday but I did get to spend part of my birthday visiting my doctor. Thank goodness we love her and her nurse so much and thank goodness she gave us good news!

I'm still progressing towards labor naturally. I'm a good 3cm dilated and 90-95% effaced. Our doctor always says how content she must be when we're listening to her heartbeat because it's always strong and loud. I had the option of having a little more intense of an internal exam yesterday in hopes that she could strip my membranes and help get labor started. I gladly accepted this little birthday gift and promised nurse Tory I wouldn't let me water break in the exam room because she really didn't feel like cleaning it up at 5pm on a Tuesday. My water didn't break but she certainly got things going. I’ll spare you the details other than to say that the contractions have really picked up and I’m feeling a lot more pressure. My doctor said that if her exam was successful, I would likely go into labor within 24-28 hours. If not, I could still go into labor naturally or baby could still be in there a little while longer. The good news is that we have set an induction date for next Thursday, February 24. At least there’s a definitive end in sight! My doctor did say that she was setting the induction date fully intending to cancel it – she’s still convinced my body will naturally go into labor in the next week. Either way, things look good and I am so thankful that my body is doing what it needs to do to allow labor to progress naturally so that I don’t have to have a c-section.

Today is a little bittersweet for us as a year ago today we found out that our first baby had stopped developing and that we were going to miscarry. I remember sitting in the doctor’s office last February 16 listening to the doctor explain what would happen over the next 24 hours. I went home with the medication that would help induce the miscarriage and in the early morning hours of February 17th I had miscarried. Throughout this pregnancy, knowing that our baby girl’s due date was so close to this date, I’ve said that I really don’t want her to be born on February 17th. It was just a date that held so much pain for me. When our doctor said labor could come within 24-48 hours I was reminded of that fact that she very well could be born on February 17th. Dave said yesterday that if she were to born tomorrow, on the very day I kept saying I didn’t want her to be born, that it would be because it’s God’s plan. My mom reminded me of this a few days ago as well – she told me that maybe things need to come full circle and maybe it’s all just a part of the healing process. I think they’re both right. If my daughter is born tomorrow it will be an incredibly wonderful day filled with so much joy. It will become a day of blessings rather than pain. It will remind me of God’s grace and mercy and His ability to bring joy during times of healing.

On a side note, since I have started to hear that people are following the blog aside from those who are official followers listed below, I want to let everyone know that I am considering making my blog private following the birth our baby girl. With all the technology today and the amount of danger the Internet can bring, especially to children, we want to do what’s best to protect our daughter. We’d love for you to continue to follow our journey. To ensure that you can still follow our private blog, you can click the “follow” button on the lower right side of the page or you can let me know that you still want to read and provide me with your email so that I can allow you access. I’ve loved hearing that people are following our life journey – there are more of you than I ever anticipated when I first created this blog. I look forward to being able to continue to share more as we begin our parenting adventure!