I thought I would update everyone on our baby's development. I went in today for my 34 week OB appointment. A routine ultrasound was done to check on the baby's size and position. I'm very happy to say that our baby is head-down, so my hopes for a VBAC are looking good. The technician measured the baby's head & abdomen to get a close guess on the baby's size. Our little one did not make it easy. In utero, babies will practice breathing movements periodically. Our baby was practicing constantly! The tech had a very hard time finding a moment when our baby's abdomen was still long enough to measure. One opportunity presented itself and she got a measurement. Then our baby got the hiccups :) The result? Well, it's not looking very likely that I'll make it to my due date of June 21st. At 34 weeks, our baby's head measures 36 weeks and the abdomen measures 37 weeks. My OB said that this is not necessarily an indicator of an early delivery. However, seeing as how this is our 6th baby, and both Cameron & Lily were born 9 days early, I suspect this little one will want to come early too. The ultrasound guess on the baby's weight is 6 lbs, 6 oz....today. It is suspected that if our baby were to be born on the due date, we'd be looking at 9 3/4 lbs. Now, you have to take that with a grain of salt. Lily was born 9 days early, but her doctor thought she'd be 10 lbs. She was "only" 8 lbs, 13.5 oz. Anyway, a baby who's measuring ahead of schedule (no, my due date is not off) AND practicing breathing motions so regularly....leads me to believe that I'll be holding our little one on the due date, and will likely be home from the hospital while doing it.
Wait...the plot thickens. My doctor told me that he thinks I'm 1 cm dilated as of today. It's not uncommon for a woman to be slightly dilated like that for several weeks. However, we are planning to drive 6 hours to St. Augustine Beach, FL in about 2 weeks. We'll be there from May 28 - June 4th. My doctor has asked me to come back a couple days before our drive to the beach so he can check me again. It's likely that we'll still be traveling to FL, but if I've progressed too much, then he's going to ask us to stay local. So, we'll see. If he gives us the green light to travel, we're going. If not, we'll respect his experience-based opinion. We have that big 12 passenger van with lots of room, but neither Dan nor I have any intention of delivering in it!
So folks, stay tuned! I'm thinking that I may want to re-adjust my schedule and get my hospital bag packed and birth plan written sooner than I'd planned. I'm not looking to go into labor anytime immediately, but after that 1st week of June, it could happen any time....
~Tiff :)
