August 5th: induction!

It's officially delivery day! I'm lying in my hospital bed, iv in one arm, blood pressure cuff on the other, getting antibiotics, fluids, and pitocin to induce labor. Two monitors are strapped to my belly, one to track the baby's heart rate and one to measure contractions. We've been here since midnight. Our lovely nurse, Nicole, comes in every 30 minutes to take my blood pressure and increase the pitocin.

We should have a good idea by 6 am how things are going to go. I came in at 3 cm dilated and 60% effaced after having lots of (painful) early labor contractions for the past 3 days. Despite the pitocin, I don't think I'm in an active labor pattern yet. I'm having lots of contractions, but they don't seem to be all that regular. I'm uncomfortable, but it's not unbearable. So far so good!

It's interesting that I already started dilating on my own. Dr. P. said she wouldn't expect me to go much longer naturally even if we hadn't planned on inducing labor. I was still fairly comfortable up until Tuesday, however once the painful contractions began that morning, I was totally ready to serve Eli an eviction notice.

I'll write another update tomorrow after the baby is here!

Final stats:
Gestational age: 38 weeks, 2 days
Weight: Dr. P's guess is 7 lbs
Vegetable comparison: watermelon
My total weight gain: 13 lbs

Maternity Photos

I apologize for not posting photos of myself until now -- I'm generally not a big fan of having my picture taken. However, Tracy and Dave were extremely generous and patient with us and offered to do a maternity photo shoot a couple of weeks ago. I'm really happy with the photos. Thank you guys so much!!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Everything continues to go well. I'm off work this week and enjoying my last few days of relaxation. I'll update again on Thursday with the final stats before my induction later than evening (!!).