It is officially 5 DAYS until my due date so I thought I would give a quick update on pregnancy status. I finished up at work on Friday the 17th and started maternity leave this week so I have some time to relax/nest for baby. So far, I've done more of the relaxing part :)
*Disclaimer* This was originally going to be just a quick update but as I was writing, it became more informational and lengthy. Just a warning to any who choose to continue
The whole pregnancy, we assumed that I'd have the baby by this point. It is very common to be induced at 39 weeks when you have gestational diabetes, but we are still waiting for Baby. My doctor has pretty tight monitoring of high risk pregnancies. I've been going in twice a week for non-stress tests (NSTs) since I was 32 weeks. Basically, they hook me up to a fetal monitor (like the kind you have when you're in the hospital for labor and delivery) for about a half hour to make sure the baby is not under any stress. They expect to see the heart rate raise about 10 times during the monitoring. There was one time when it did not, but that was because Baby was sleeping (I hadn't felt her move at all) so we just had to wait a little longer. She is always very active and so most of the time it hasn't been a problem.
We did have one scare at 33 weeks when her heart rate dipped to 102 (her average is about 135-145) so the doctor sent us to the hospital for continued monitoring that day. We had additional tests and just made sure her heart rate didn't dip again and everything was fine but this baby sure knows how to make us worry already!
Anyway, the point of the story is that our doctor has been very cautious and closely monitors my blood sugars/insulin usage. The reason many doctors induce at 39 weeks is because of the risk of the placenta breaking down. My basic understanding is that if the placenta is breaking down, this will cause the baby to be under stress so even with movement, the heart rate does not raise. This is why we've been doing the NSTs so regularly for so long. Anyway, Baby always passes these with flying colors (minus the time we had to go to the hospital).
Another risk of gestational diabetes is that the baby grows very large. This in and of itself is not the reason for induction, as I thought, but can cause for a more difficult delivery. Our last ultra sound was almost 3 weeks ago and she was 5 lbs 10 oz, which is in the 26th percentile (so definitely not too big). Part of this is genetics- Kris was only this big when he was born at 38 weeks- but part of it is because I have been so diligent with following my dietary restrictions. It's actually been a struggle for me to put on weight and I still don't even weigh as much as I did when I started the pregnancy, though it's close now.
Basically, the status right now is that we do not have an induction planned. The baby is healthy, my blood sugar numbers have been excellent, and she is not super large. I'm also not really dilated at all and generally when you are induced without your body already being favorable for labor, your chance of having a C-section is quite large. When looking at the benefits/risks of induction at this point, we determined it would be better to wait a little longer for my body to do some of that work so I (hopefully) won't end up with a C-section. As long as Baby is healthy, we're fine with going to full term even though it's a little disappointing because we thought we would have her by now.
I do have an ultrasound scheduled for Thursday to make sure she's still growing well. If everything is still all well at that point, the latest we would want to induce would be Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I'm hoping it will be sooner because I'm so antsy to meet her and I'm sort of sick of being pregnant and not being able to have a Blizzard :)
So, that's the story with why I'm still pregnant even though we thought I wouldn't be at this time. I hope this all made sense and wasn't too boring!
In other news, Kris started his internship at Cook Polymer on Monday. We are excited that he has this opportunity to be working this summer and getting some good experience in that field. He's only had one full day but he said he enjoyed it and expects to stay busy with his project for quite a while. Last night as we were going to bed, he mentioned that he never really understood how I was always so tired at the end of work, but he understood better now :)
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