Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Eve! I had to do a 24 hour urine test over the weekend so they could check for protein in my urine. We took it to Bethesda on Saturday, and my level was right at 300. I spoke to Sue on the phone Saturday and she said if it had been above 300, they would want to induce me due to a risk for preeclampsia, but that they would continue to monitor me.

We had our follow up appointment today with Cheyenne, had more bloodwork done, and a nonstress test and ultrasound in the office. I'm 3 1/2 cm dilated, but Ethan is still sitting high. I haven't been having contractions that I could feel until today when she did the nonstress test, I could tell that I was having some contractions - they felt like belly cramps - and Daddy could see the contraction lines on the strip. Cheyenne did the ultrasound to measure the fluid around Ethan and everything looks good! She wants me to do another 24 hour urine test today and wants to schedule an induction for Thursday if no progress has been made by then. I do not want to be induced, so hopefully Ethan will decide to come join us. She did suggest that if no other methods worked to get labor going that I could try to drink castor oil. We will see!

Mommy and Daddy made Ethan a "Happy Birthday" cake last night! It was fun to do something relaxing together and to decorate the cake for when Ethan comes to join us :)

We went to Heather and Brian's house to celebrate New Year's! Mommy's modified bedrest :)

Bedrest at 40 weeks...

Today is Ethan's due date! He seems pretty comfortable inside mommy, and there isn't any signs of him coming out yet. We went to our 40 week midwife appointment and my blood pressure was high for the very first time. Gwen was our midwife today and she was very nervous about my blood pressure, and there was trace protein in my urine. She did an ultrasound at the office to see if Ethan was head down, and he is. After the ultrasound, she wanted us to go to Good Sam to have some tests run and to monitor me and Ethan since my blood pressure is high. She was afraid that I might be developing preeclampsia. I have had no issues in my pregnancy until now so this made me really nervous! Daddy drove us to Good Sam and I didn't make any phone calls because I didn't want to do anything to make my blood pressure go higher. Once we got to Good Sam, they put us in a room and started blood pressure checks on me and fetal monitoring on Ethan. They drew some labs and took another urine sample. All went well and my blood pressure went down each time they took it. There was still trace protein in my urine, but Paulette, the midwife on call at Good Sam, said I was okay to go home on bedrest. So we will patiently wait Ethan's arrival!

39 weeks!

Ethan is 39 weeks along today! We met with Nancy at our appointment today. It is so hard to believe that he could be here anytime - his due date is just a week away!! Mommy's taking off through the next few days so we can celebrate Christmas and relax some before the due date. I'm dilated one centimeter, and Ethan hasn't dropped yet.

38 weeks!

Ethan is will be 38 weeks tomorrow! We had a Wednesday appointment so we could meet the midwife Gwen, she was the only midwife we hadn't met yet and we like her very much! She did the Leopold maneuver to feel on Mommy's belly and asked us if we would like to feel the head, and of course we did! She pushed down on Mommy's belly where Ethan's head was and put our hands so we could feel as well. So awesome!

Getting ready!

Mommy and Daddy went downtown to Palomino last night to celebrate Daddy's birthday. Today we made our packing list and got the suitcase all packed for the hospital!

Just 3 more weeks?!

We start our weekly midwife appointments now. It is hard to believe that Ethan is due in just 3 weeks!! Everything was pretty much the same as last week's appointment. Mommy's belly is still measuring on track and Ethan's head is down :)