Waiting...

We are still waiting on Ethan to arrive, but we have an official "eviction notice."  While I am thrilled that we will be meeting our son within less than a week, I'm not thrilled that he has an eviction notice.

I said all along that I did not want to be induced unless I absolutely had to be.  I never really thought that "have to be" would become an option.

We went to the doctor yesterday for my 41 week appointment.  While I won't be 41 weeks until Friday, the time has come to begin discussing our options.  We were hoping for as long of a waiting period as possible to give Ethan every chance to come on his own, as well as some progress to avoid a cervical ripening induction.  While I realize and understand that Cytotec or Cervadil inductions combined with Pitocin are administered successfully everyday, they include more risks than I want to be exposed to or expose my son to.  I feel like we've been exposed to enough risk.

We didn't get what we wanted.  We were given an ultrasound to check the levels of fluid, placenta, and cord placement to make sure that everything was acceptable to continue to wait a  little longer.  Thankfully, our OB deemed it acceptable to wait a few more days, but told me it was time to set a date.  Jason and I decided prior to the appointment to select the absolute last possible day that we could safely allow us to remain pregnant.  On a positive note, Ethan looks 100% like Jason and has chubby little cheeks.

There is no progress towards labor at this point.  Thankfully, my cervix has been determined as "soft enough" to not need Cytotec or Cervadil to begin labor.  I expressed my discomfort with these drugs and my OB agreed that they are only used in a very necessary case.  Our case is not necessary.  He feels that jump starting contractions will make my body progress the way it is supposed to without the cervical intervention.  I was happy with this news, although I'm not a pitocin fan either.  However, if we have to use interventions, I want to use as few as possible.

Our hope and plan is still to go into labor naturally.  However, we have a deadline of Tuesday, June 28.  Ethan will arrive one way or another by then.  We are incredibly discouraged by the thought of even setting a deadline date, and had been hoping that it would not come to this point.  A natural delivery was our hope for something to go right in this pregnancy, but it certainly doesn't look promising.  So our new hope is that the risks of pitocin and inducing labor do not impact us the way that they have impacted others.

So for now, we are still waiting...