Week 40 -- My Due Date

It's my due date! I've made it all the way to 40 weeks! Wow! I had hoped she'd arrive early but it looks like my body and our daughter have other plans. I am so ready to be done being pregnant and to hold our little girl! Time feels like it has come to a stand still. The waiting is so difficult.

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday with Dr. Anya. She stated I've made no progress since last week and that I'm still finger tip dilated -- given that I was told no progress at all last week, Dr. Anderson either wrote down I was finger tip dilated previously and didn't tell me, or finger tip dilated still equals no progress. Either way I'm less than 0 cm dilated and 0% effaced. Plus, she still has not dropped. Dr. Anya was really great though -- very patient woman. She's one of my favorite doctors in the practice so far. I've now seen them all. She has me scheduled to come in this Friday if I haven't delivered by then. I will then have an ultrasound to check how big she is and make sure my amniotic fluid levels are ok. I'll also have a non-stress test in which they monitor the baby's heart rate for an hour to make sure all is well. After all that, we'll discuss induction for the following week, probably around June 4 or 5. I'm really hoping to avoid an induction. With induction, the chances of needing an epidural and ultimately a c-section go up -- both of which I'm trying to avoid. So hopefully, she comes on her own this week!

Today, to celebrate my due date, I got a wonderful prenatal massage!! So relaxing. Emile and I also went to see the Indiana Jones movie and went out for dinner -- really spicy Thai food! On the way home, I bought an exercise ball which I'm sitting on now and rotating my hips around to help open up my pelvis for labor. I'm willing to try any of the Old Wives Tales in hopes of jump starting labor. I've tried walking, pineapple, spicy food, and now the exercise/birthing ball. Tomorrow I'm going to go get raspberry leaf tea. Something has got to get this show on the road. The waiters at the Thai restaurant at first suggested I not get a spicy dish when they saw I was pregnant so I didn't start labor. I told them it was my due date and that was exactly what I wanted -- they then suggested a spicier option :) Our little girl has been moving around a lot since eating dinner but that might not be related.

I have officially started maternity leave. My last day was yesterday and wow, was this week long. I decided to not wait till she was born given how uncomfortable and tired I've been feeling. So I'll have off until she arrives and then I'll be taking another 12 weeks off after she's born. That will probably put me at returning to work around the end of August/beginning of September. I'm so looking forward to this time away from work -- and more importantly, the time with our daughter.

We thought it would be fun to take a movie of me at 40 weeks and to show you our nursery. This is the first time using the video camera so let's see if this works:

Also, because we love our cats so much, we thought we'd add another video of Picus sleeping. He's always in the strangest, non-cat like positions.