The day has been set....

Tomorrow, October 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm, I am scheduled for a C-section delivery.

Today's Dr appt was the "same ol" news with elevated BP, protein in my urine. My cervix STILL hadn't progressed any to be favorable towards induction. Avery is fine inside of me - meaning she's thriving.

The Dr hooked me up to a NST monitor for over an hour where they look at baby's heartbeat, any signs of fetal stress, monitor movement and any contractions. In the hour and a half I was hooked up to the monitor, I had 2 contractions - and they weren't even "real" contractions but rather little 'practice' ones. Avery was very active and not under any stress.

Then Dr. D said the inevitable. C SECTION. He's worried that because of her size (8 pounds now) and my cervix being "non-induceable" AND the looming Pre-E/Toxemia, that if he were to wait until Cervix was ready, she would be too big or I would have developed more severe case of this pre-e crap and if he were to induce now, that the cervix isn't ripe enough to open and I would be in a lot of pain for a long time without getting anywhere fast and more than likely (75% likely) to end up w/ a C-section after hours of labor.

Here's the Rock... here's the hard place...

So - I asked to schedule the surgery for Wednesday - to allow my mom to fly in... Apparently late week surgeries are popular because the only opening was for tomorrow at 12:00 pm. And the dr didn't feel comfortable letting me wait until Saturday.

It's done... it's scheduled...

It's not what I wanted but I feel better knowing we have a definitive plan in place now and I won't get toxemia and Avery won't be in any danger.

Please keep me in your prayers tomorrow. I have never gone through any major surgery until now and I'm scared to death about it. I don't like needles, I don't like drugs, I don't like the idea of being awake while I'm being opened up.

However... that being said, I am so so so excited to meet my daughter tomorrow and become a MOTHER. How freaking cool is that????

We'll have you in and out in 15 minutes or less!!!

Yesterday was our first "standard" pre-natal appt. I hit the 16 week mark (40% done!) on Sunday. Does that mean I'm technically "twice" as pregnant as I was last time? (as if, I'm LEAPS AND BOUNDS ahead this time!)

We got to the Dr's office right on time and they saw me right away. Took my weight - I had gained 2 pounds in a week but considering the amount of CRAP I ate over the weekend combined with actually keeping food in me, I'm not terribly worried about it. I'm still down -10 pounds for the pregnancy. My blood pressure was normal. The nurse brought me into the examination room to listen to the heartbeat

The nurse was trying to find the heartbeat and kept missing it. After what seemed like an eternity waiting to hear those little heartsounds, I told the nurse that I *think* I usually feel the baby in my lower left abdomen. She moved the doppler in that direction and bam! There it was! The heart beat was in the 160's so perfectly healthy and normal. After we heard the heartbeat, the doctor came in and felt around on my belly. He said everything looked perfect, to take it easy and assured me that I can't squish my own baby. (Irrational fear maybe? I don't know - but I have been starting to half way listen to Robert about bending over and what if I break the baby?)

From the time I signed in at the reception desk to the time I jumped off the table was less than 15 minutes total. Gotta love that

I wasn't terribly worried about the heartbeat, but I was worried that I might be losing my mind about feeling the baby. NORMALLY You don't hear of someone feeling movement until around 16-20 weeks, however I have been feeling flutters for about 4 weeks now. But... I kept thinking that maybe it was just my imagination and I was making it up. Heck, for all I know, it could have been indigestion movements, I don't know. However, my fears of insanity quickly vanished after the heartbeat was found exactly where I feel the little tickles.

For the record, I hope this little one is TICKLISH because I am going to tickle the crap out of it when it comes out because all day I feel like I have ants in my pants. In a panic I have felt around for a bug crawling around just to realize it's the baby tickling me from the inside. It's a wonderfully sickening feeling and I can't wait until the movement is more severe and Robert is able to share this amazing feeling with me.

Last Monday's appt, the technician guessed we're having a little girl. I'm getting more and more used to the idea of a little girl (I still don't care either way though if she might have been wrong). And I really do hope it's a girl for my mom's sake - since she has started compiling little girl clothes for the baby. Even I haven't purchased anything for the baby yet! I can't wait until I can though!

Maybe I'll get brave enough to take pictures of my belly soon. I'm still worried it just looks like pudge and not baby belly.