I know the subject line is far from breaking news but, at the same time, it kind of is. At 37 weeks and 2 days today I went in for a 38 week scan and gestational diabetes consultation and walked out with an appointment for a sweep next week.
Normally, they induce at 38 weeks if you have gestational diabetes but we've been pretty adamant about not wanting to be induced unless there's a clear medical reason. This wasn't some crazy decision we came to on our own, mnd you. We did research and talked with our midwife and felt that, as long as our little acorn looked healthy and my levels were steady without using drugs, I could be treated as an individual without GD when it came to labor and birth.
The next time we'll see this profile, it'll be in person!
The obstetrician today was willing to meet us halfway. For those of you who are lucky enough not to know what a sweep is, it's a rather uncomfortable procedure that, if your body is ready, might encourage you to go into labor. That's the nice, unclinical explaination anyway. If your body's not ready, though, it's a wash but it's at least trying to induce in a semi-natural way that would let me stay at home for the first part of my labor and, fingers crossed, also might mean a smaller chance of interference in the form of forceps, ventouse or c-section. So that's what I'm going in for on Tuesday the 19th. And if it doesn't work, they'll give it another go the following week and if that doesn't work we'll talk about induction.
We came home a little dazed and Matt went to work. Since it was five in the moring in Ohio, I waited a bit before calling my parents to give them an update and goofed around on Ravelry with only half of my brain functioning. It wasn't until a few minutes into my call to them that everything hit me and I burst into tears. Up until now I've felt really confident about labor and bringing our little acorn home but now that his arrival is earlier than the date we've been carrying around for months I'm starting to get scared. As my mind wraps around it, I'm starting to get a little excited as well but...yeah, I'm scared.
Thankfully, other than some bedding for his crib (or cradle in the US - a cot is a crib in the UK), we're ready for him. We're not quite as ready for my parents to visit but that'll all work out. And I did finally finish his little coming home cardigan last week. I'll sew on the buttons tomorrow, add it to my mostly packed hospital bag and cross my fingers that it'll fit him.
And now it's time to attempt to get a good night's sleep...while I can.
