What Do Mickey Mouse & Emily Drinks Have in Common?

Apparently, a birthday! "Steamboat Willie" came out on November 18th, so the Disney Corp. recognizes this date as Mickey's birthday.
So what does this have to do with my doctor's visit today? Well, I was so happy to get an induction date, and when I showed up, my doctor was in a C-section. I was asked if I could see Dr. N who is new. I said "sure". Little did I know that she's very new, not well liked, and slightly cantankerous. She tried to fight me on induction! She said, "Come back next week and we will schedule it then." Ummmm....how about NO?! I pointed out that both of my other doctors had said we would induce between 38 and 39 weeks and I am 38 weeks this week. She then said she would induce me 2 days before my due date as a favor to me so I wasn't in the hospital for Thanksgiving.....are you kidding me?!?! I told her, in no uncertain terms, that I had already delivered one baby at 40 weeks, and if she considered shoulder dystocia and an almost 10-pound birth weight to be "successful", we were not on the same page, buddy. She did a quick take-back, checked my chart, mumbled "Oh, I didn't know that", and said she would check the induction schedule. Long story short....check in at 4 PM on November 17th at MWH for Cervadil to get my cervix "favorable" for labor, then Pitocin started the next morning. If I'm lucky, baby girl will be hanging out with me while I order lunch on the 18th.
Oh, and for those keeping count, this is the 3rd Scorpio in my family...in a row. My mom, me and Carrie, now Emily. Heaven help all the men who deal with us :)
STATS:
Weight: Down one pound. Total gain up to this point: 21 pounds
Blood pressure: 123/68.
Baby Heartrate: 121 bpm
Fundal Measurement: 37 weeks
Next Visits: Tuesday (tomorrow) and Friday for NST at perinatalogist, back to OB next Monday @ 2:30 PM
Likes this week: packing my hospital bag!, getting an ending date, Tim making dinner every night, the time change, nesting (my bathroom is sparkling), Garrett's final soccer game!
Dislikes this week: sick dog (more on Sable later), telling the kids that Sable is not going to get better, driving to town 3 days for dr visits, cats sneaking into my room and waking me up, swollen feet, calling out sick last Friday, grading papers

Mother's Intuition

Call it what you want, but Thursday morning I had the feeling that something was off with Baby. I woke up several times to make my trip to the potty and never felt the kicks and shifts that usually accompany my settling back into bed. I was very aware of the lack of movement when I got up at 5 AM and ate my waffle and pb. I drank a huge glass of water and still nothing. I got the kids ready, headed off to work, and promised myself that I wouldn't panic. After first period, I made the conscious effort to sit in my reclining desk chair, which usually causes a few stirs. But nothing. Ignoring my GD diet, I downed a regular Coke. Nothing. So when it reached 10 AM and I hadn't felt a movement since the night before, I decided to call the doctor's office. Their response: "How soon can you get here?" I was off like a shot and made the drive to Fredericksburg in 19 minutes. They immediately took me back and hooked me up to the monitor. It took the nurse about 15 seconds to find the heartbeat, and I am pretty sure I didn't breathe that entire time. Once I was all hooked up, the doctor came in and checked my progress. Baby's heartbeat was steady between 110-125 bpm, but was not fluctuating with activity and I still had felt nothing. The doctor pointed out that I was having contractions, too. Add that to the GD and insulin, and she sent me to L&D to be monitored. I got an NST at the hospital, then headed down to radiology for a biophysical profile. Baby looked great on that (score: 8/8) and when I was wheeled back up, the doctor said "We're admitting her, take her to room 3077. I will be in to explain." Well, that will freak you out! So Dr. M came in and explained that when I was monitored earlier, baby's heartrate fell to 95 bpm for a couple of minutes. She was going to be overly cautious and monitor me for 24 hours. Also, I had a UTI and needed IV antibiotics.
Long story short.....IVs in your hand hurt like a bitch, IV fluids make you pee every half hour, UTIs apparently don't always cause burning, and baby had a beautiful read out from the monitor. She had great accelerations and decelerations and was very active from 5 PM on. I was allowed to go home 10 AM Friday morning. I will be back at work tomorrow with the hopes that my doctor appt @ 3 pm gives me some great news--an induction date.

37 Weeks

Side view--baby don't feel tiny
Very side view--thinking I dropped a little recently

My photographer--she had to turn the camera around on herself

Me: 36 weeks, 5 days

My stats: Baby's heartbeat was a jolly 145 bpm. My blood pressure was 130 over 70, which was higher than usual but not high. Weight up 2 pounds, which Dr. said seemed to be mostly water weight (my feet are balloons). She gave me the good news that my foot swelling is not likely to go down during the night like it has in the past--these puffy things are here to stay til baby arrives.

Dr visit: Today I saw the midwife because my OB GYN is out of town. The midwife asked how my visits to the perinatalogist are going. I told her about the growth scan and she asked if I was having weekly ultrasounds there. I said yes, usually on Wednesdays, and I had another scheduled for this Wednesday. She did my fundal measurement, which was 36 weeks (better than the 2 weeks behind like I was measuring 2 weeks ago). She was very pleased with my blood sugar numbers (said she wished she could get her patients to keep such good track of their numbers!). I told her that Dr. E (the perinatalogist) recommended I be induced at 38 weeks. The midwife nodded and said "I'm all for an induction between 38 and 39 weeks. The hospital doesn't like to do them at 38 weeks because it increases the incidence of breathing problems at birth. With your great numbers and how well you have controlled your diet and everything, I think we can safely plan for around November 12-14. Let's have you come back next Monday and we'll check your cervix to see how favorable it is for induction and we'll put your induction date in the schedule".

So now I have to wait a whole SEVEN more days to get an actual date, but at least I got a range of dates! And my appt. next week is with Dr. S., who is such an induction nazi (She loves to schedule them)...so maybe I'll get lucky and she'll say "Why wait another week? Let's do it tomorrow".

Anything New? After my enlightening meeting with HR at work, I have come to the conclusion that I can't take off work before the baby (translation: working until the day of induction). For every day I take off before, I won't have a day for after. This sucks on several levels: (1) I am dead tired from the minute I wake up until I go to bed; (2) I sleep worse than an infant--I get up several times to go to the bathroom and rolling over makes my hips pop, which wakes me up; (3) the students are royally on my last nerve because I have no patience anymore. So this Bitter Annie is not going to be such a pleasant person to be around for the next two weeks or so.

Likes This Week: baby kicks; baby presents from students (thanks Cailey!); lower blood sugar numbers; insulin injections that don't hurt/sting; weekly ultrasounds

Dislikes This Week: baby using her head as a battering ram against my cervix; feeling like someone punted a football into my pelvic region; sleeping like crap; working in general; driving to Fredericksburg 2-3 times a week.

What's Next? Biophysical profile with perinatalogist on Wed, 38 week appt with OB next Monday @ 3pm