One week or less!

It's somewhat hard to grasp mentally, but a week from today Baby Easter will have made her entrance into the world...one way or the other! Life will never be the same again. We had a fairly uneventful check-up yesterday. I'm now a "true" 2 and still the same degree of effaced. My doctor seemed somewhat surprised that the baby isn't here by now, given where we were three weeks ago. Blood pressure is holding at a normal level, although slightly high for me. Swelling's still bad. Baby's heart rate and all else look good.

But we did have one interesting development -- my doctor's vacation starts next Saturday, August 9th...not the 16th like we had thought. Given that and all the size concerns, we decided to schedule an induction for Thursday night at 39w 5d. I think my doctor understands it's not my preferred route, since I've been looking to minimize the drugs, so we gave her as much time as possible to come on her own first. She said that they wouldn't induce unless medically necessary until Monday and didn't think four more days would make much of a difference either way. If Baby E doesn't appear by then, she will have the 08.08.08 birthdate. I was kind of shocked they still had had spots available, but we will take it. Kind of cool!

It's nice to have an end date to plan for, although I'm still rooting for her to appear before then. I just wanted to try tub labor and avoid an epidural as long as possible, but I think she's calling the shots on those two items at this point. We've got a nice quiet weekend planned here, although I am sort of sad to miss the potentially-last Decatur Celebration ever and the Plain White Tees concert there on Sunday! But I think that would really be tempting fate. In the meantime, just squaring things away at work and trying to get a few things done around the house. My feet swell up if they are down for more than about a half-hour though, so I'm kind of limited if I want to walk much :) My last day in the office will be Tuesday, if not before.

My mom and dad were up last Sunday, brought us lunch and hung out most of the afternoon. I'll post a picture here that will suffice for 38 weeks. You can definitely see that the baby has a) dropped and b) got to be pretty close to fully cooked! But we are hanging in there. Steve and I appreciate all the phone calls and well-wishes and will keep you posted.

PS - I also posted a new poll on her arrival date. Check it out!