Tonight's the night

Thank you all for the comments of support and encouragement. I really appreciate all the good thoughts.

Friday I had a minor freak-out that resulted in my blood pressure going way up and my having to be monitored at the hospital for a couple of hours. Man. I spent the weekend in serious relaxation mode and my therapist squeezed me in for an appointment first thing Monday morning. I'm feeling a lot better now.

Fetal monitoring went fine yesterday. Baby had his best time on the non-stress test ever. My cervix has been declared "favorable" meaning I am 2 - 3 cm dilated and over 50% effaced. Also, the baby has dropped to -2 station, which I could feel quite clearly last night during his latest bout of hiccups. So we are on for induction tonight.

They'll start me tonight with a Foley catheter through the cervix (can't help but think of you and your balloon, Jenn) followed by prostaglandin and Pitocin. I'll be on the fetal monitors the whole time and having finger sticks every hour or two, and they will control any blood sugar issues with glucose and/or insulin IV drips.

Not the way I would have wanted to go, but hey, I'll do what I have to do to get this baby here safely.

Backup plan is, of course, c-section. I'm not sure what would make them suggest converting, but I'll talk about that with Dr. Cool tonight when I check in and she starts me up. She's my favorite of the OBs in the practice but she won't be on call tomorrow when the baby comes -- however, the one who will most likely deliver is the one I've seen most frequently during the pregnancy, so that's fine, too. I trust them all and I know they're all talented and capable.

I wanted to direct you all over to my main website (again) since that is where my husband will post an update... it's at www.raspberryworld.com and you're all welcome to check there for the first news. My sweetie's not that web-savvy so I'm not asking him to update multiple blogs or try to upload pictures. But of course I'll update here with pictures and details once I'm back home.

It was weird to wake up this morning and know that that was my last real sleep of the pregnancy. In some ways it feels like the past nine months have flown by. In others, it feels like it was the longest year of my life. Thanks for being here with me through it all, and for all the good thoughts. They mean the world.