High Expectations

Since my condition has been stable, and I’ve lasted through almost three weeks of hospitalization, my doc has high hopes for me making it to 34 weeks (which will be on 10/28/10).  What happens at 34 weeks seems to be all about risk management.  At that point the risks of infection outweigh the risks of prematurity, so the standard of care is to deliver the baby.  Since my baby is still breech, the doc started to talk about scheduling a C-section at the end of this month.  He’ll do another ultrasound to confirm the baby’s position before C-section (and if the baby turned around attempt vaginal delivery), but he thinks it would be extremely difficult for the baby to change position because there is so little fluid around him.  Nothing is scheduled yet, but it’s hard to believe that I’m going to be a mommy in less than two weeks!!!  It seems weird to be able to schedule the date of birth of your child.  I wonder how much flexibility I’ll have in choosing a date.  Of course, everything may change really fast, and the baby may decide to come earlier…

Until then, I’m continuing to play the waiting game.  The nurses come to check on me every 4 hours, get my vital signs, and listen to the baby’s heart beat.  Every time they come in, they ask if I feel the baby moving.  I am supposed to let them know if the baby’s pattern of activity changes, since that may signal that the baby is under some kind of stress.  Because of this, I’ve become extremely obsessed with tracking baby’s activity patterns.  I even have an app on my cellphone to help me keep track of his movements.  This morning I was concerned that the baby was moving less, so the nurses put me on a monitor, and luckily everything turned out to be okay.  It is nice that I’m getting to know my baby through his activity patterns, but it’s sometimes tough to make the judgment call on whether he’s moving more or less than usual because every day is a little bit different.  I think my expectations on the regularity of these patterns may be a bit too high.