Not just sound, ultra-sound!
So, it's 3am and I am sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal and chocolate milk... because I'm STILL PREGNANT! Can you believe that? No, neither can I. Over the course of a short month we went from a pregnancy that looked like it would end dangerously early, to a post-due baby that simply refuses to budge. More than anything, I think this is a testament to the dangers of labeling things. In a medical classification system, you're either good or bad, with no room in between for natural variation. Officially, we're still good, but let it go another 6 days and we'll be bad... very bad.
We had our first ultrasound yesterday. We had declined ultrasounds all throughout the pregnancy because we felt like they weren't necessary and caused unneeded worry, especially the driving into Brookline part! Unfortunately, at 41 weeks an ultrasound becomes necessary, so in schlepped Dan, Oona and me for the big show. Although everyone at the ultrasound office was extremely nice, they seemed a bit dumbfounded that this was our first ultrasound... I think I disappointed them by showing up in sweatpants instead of some sort of African wrap skirt with bells on it. The scan proved fine however; the baby's good and healthy, if a bit raptor-like, and my fluid levels are fine too. In other words, nothing to worry about. Except of course, the ticking clock. 6 more days and then...
I seem to be rapid cycling between assurance and blind terror. If we don't get the baby out naturally within a week, we'll have to go in for a hospital induction, a hand-out hospital induction no less, since we don't have an OB, which is kind of like handing an IRS agent your taxes and saying "I hate math." On the other hand, we have a lot to throw at this problem in the next few days, including membrane sweeps and acupuncture and some rather intense herbs, and most women deliver before 42 weeks. On the other other hand, 6 days is not a lot of time and there's a scalpel at the end of this tunnel.
We've been praying a lot about this, and God seems to be giving us the assurance that everything's okay and the baby's coming soon. It's hard to share this kind of information with other people, since most folks trust doctors more than God. Indeed, it's when I have to share news with other folks that I get most panicked. The fear from my friends and neighbors is contagious, and while privately Dan and I can trust that everything's going to be okay, when I go outside people look at me like I have the dead baby plague and ask me why I haven't already been induced.
Anyway, the baby should be on its way soon, and we won't insult you with ultrasound pictures while waiting for the real thing.