The beginning of waiting for the end

It has officially started. The extremely impatient, anxious feeling of waiting for labor to begin. Every pregnant woman goes through it. I knew I would really struggle with this portion of pregnancy, so I tried to hold myself off for as long as I could. Patience is not my strongest attribute. In fact, it may be one of my biggest weaknesses.

I got my hopes up SO HIGH 2 days ago after my 37 week doctors appointment. I'll let you in on the story:

The night before my appointment, I noticed that my feet had swollen up MASSIVELY. This wasn't gradual swelling.. It was literally within a matter of hours. My feet were aching. And my heal literally cracked open because of how much my skin was being stretched. I didn't think too much of it since I know that swelling is just another glorious side effect of pregnancy. So I went to sleep and headed off to my appointment the next morning. 

On the way there, I started getting a pretty bad headache. But again, didn't think too much of it. When I checked in, the nurse did her normal routine and checked my blood pressure. She noticed it had spiked far above what I normally was. So when the doctor came in, (my normal doctor was out of town) she instantly asked if I had any swelling recently. When I showed her my feet, and told her about my headache, she told me there was a good chance I was in the beginning stages of Preeclampsia. She did a dilation check. I was dilated to a 3, still 70% effaced, and my cervix had begun to soften. She also informed me that baby boys head was, "incredibly far down in my pelvis," which would explain why my bones constantly feel like they're going to break in half down there.. I will never again judge a pregnant waddling woman- there is just so much dang pressure down there!!

She told me that I needed to come back in the next day for another blood pressure check, and if it hadn't gone down, she would be inducing me that day [que my internal freak out]!! 

I then had to do a non-stress test to check on the baby, and go in for an ultrasound to make sure he was big enough to come the next day if it needed be. The non-stress went well and baby boys heart was beating along just as strong as ever! The monitor also showed that I was having contractions the entire time, which was odd because I couldn't even feel them. And then I went in for an ultrasound. I asked the ultrasound tech if she could possibly try and peek at his face since we had never seen it at previous ultrasounds.

When she finally managed to get a shot of his face- my heart stopped, I swear. He had these perfect, big, round cheeks. In one second, my heart filled with an immense love for that little boy. And I wanted him out. I wanted him out so badly so that I could kiss those cheeks a million times over. 

She measured some things and determined that he weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces. Of course that weight is just a guesstimate and can vary up or down an entire pound. But regardless, he was indeed "big enough". So the doctor told me to go home and put my feet up. Modified bed rest. 

To say the least, when I talked to Chris, we were both freaking out. We could have a baby in one day!!!! I made him clean the house, and we finished packing our hospital bags. We were ready. And it felt so surreal.

The next day (yesterday) we went to my appointment. She took my blood pressure (which felt like 15 minutes waiting for those numbers to pop up on the screen). 135/88. It was still a lot higher than my normal blood pressure, but it had gone down a couple points from the day before. I should have been happy, but I was kinda really sad! They wouldn't be inducing me. They are still keeping a close eye on me, but my dream of meeting my babe that day was short-lived. 

My next appointment is in 3 days. So we'll see what happens from now until then! I have been feeling pretty awful these past couple days (which is abnormal for me since my pregnancy has been a dream) so hopefully that means labor isn't too far away! 

Isn't it funny how by the end of pregnancy, women are basically BEGGING for the immense pain of child birth? Haha what I wouldn't do right about now...

Ill keep you posted! I'm just going to go bounce on my exercise ball for the rest of the day! Just kidding mom ;)