2003-08-19 - 4:49 p.m. - Cycle day: 38 weeks, 2 days

First, the OB update ... today's stats read as such:

Weight: 140 lbs.
Blood pressure: 108/64
Fundal height: the vaguely disconcerting nurse measured me big again, at 39.5 cm. She seems to start at a different point than Dr. Hippie, though, so it's probably somewhere between 38-39 cm.
Fetal heart rate: 160 bpm

We told the nurse that we didn't know the baby's sex, and she then proceeded to make educated guesses about what it is based on the heart rate, activity level, etc. Wouldn't you think that us not knowing at 38 weeks would indicate to her that we don't want to know? Anyway, today was also the first internal exam, so we've got even more numbers to throw out there ...

Dilation: a fingertip
Station: -2 to -3
Effacement: 80%

The station and dilation didn't surprise me - I can pretty much tell that the baby's still floating. I was a bit taken aback by the effacement, though. I had to ask if that meant I was 80% effaced, or had 80% left to go. Dr. Hippie assured me it was the former. I've seen women go into the hospital with much lower effacement percentages, so it's exciting and slightly terrifying news to hear that I'm at least partially on my way.

Dr. Hippie also said that he'd been talking to the nurses at the Big Shiny Hospital about me - apparently they were working with their Risk Management department to get me a waiver that will allow us to waive the use of antibiotic eyedrops. He seemed to think it was pretty silly that the eyedrops are mandated by the state, and that we as parents have to make a big official legal issue out of refusing a treatment for diseases we know the baby doesn't have. It was nice to know that they'd read through my birth plan and were preparing in advance, though. I was barely expecting anyone to read the plan, let alone make that much effort to adhere to it. Maybe the introduction I added that was a major suck-up to the nurses ("Thank you so much for caring for us! We deeply value your training and talents!") actually did some good.

In other news, I've been a bit overwhelmed by the outpourings of generosity from our friends and family. We never really had an official baby shower, and I was starting to get a little panicky about the must-haves that we were still lacking, but in the last week or so pretty much everything we need has been dropped off by the UPS guy. Above it being great not to have to spend the money on this stuff ourselves, it just takes a lot off my mind to have it in the house and not have to worry about what we're missing. I finally feel like we could bring a baby home tomorrow and we'd be fine. Still missing a few things (no one sells real diaper pails anymore!), but we'd definitely survive.

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