37 Week Doctor's Appointment

So, we're really closer to 38 weeks, but this is the schedule we got on initially. At 37 weeks 5 days we had our 37 week doctors appointment today. There was a lot of discussion because I'm both O negative and GBS positive. Here's a link, Group B Strep FAQs from the CDC, for anyone interested in finding out more. I don't think they did the screening when my Mom and Kathy were having kids. GBS, or group B strep, is "colonized" in about 15-40% of healthy adult women (about 25% of pregnant women - I don't know where they get the statistics) and naturally lives in the digestive tract. You can test positive for one pregnancy and not another, so it is the kind of thing that comes and goes. They don't really know where it comes from, but it can cause some serious problems.

Anyway, there are 2 important impacts on labor. First, I will need antibiotics during labor. It's given every 4 hours and takes about 50 minutes, at least the first time, to administer. When I'm not getting the antibiotic, I will have a Hep-lock (open IV line that is capped off). It will change the rhythm of labor a bit due to the interruptions. The second big impact on labor is that in order to administer the antibiotics, they want me to come into the hospital as soon as my water breaks so that I can start antibiotics because the chance of infection. While there's about a 0.5% chance of the baby being affected by GBS without any treatment, it can cause some serious problems (menangitis, sepsis, pneumonia) in the unlikely event the baby is infected during labor and delivery. There's no risk as long as my waters are in tact, but as soon as they break the chance of infection increases as time goes on. After much consideration of the risks and benefits, we decided to go ahead and go to the hospital right away if my water breaks and get the antibiotics. We really, really hope this doesn't happen, because it would involve being restricted to the birthing and baby area, possibly for a long time, and I wouldn't be able to eat, even if labor didn't start right away. We've talked to our doctor, and we should be relatively undisturbed at the beginning, which will help things out. Also, there's little to no risk to the baby if it is born within 4 hours of my water breaking. Please pray that it takes a while for my water to break so we can wait to go to the hospital and there's less chance of infection for the baby! Just to be clear, the baby should be absolutely fine since we're going to get the antibiotics.

Sooo, since we may be going to the hospital MUCH earlier than we originally planned, we are strategizing ways to make a longer labor in the hospital more comfortable and homelike. The birthing suites at the hospital really are wonderful (recovery rooms are not, but that's another story). Still, we may have many hours there without active labor to keep us occupied. So, we're looking at bringing DVDs (there's a DVD player in the room), books, pillows and blankets from home, and board games to pass the time of early labor like we planned to at home. I'm trying to look on the bright side, one part of which is that if my water breaks really early we don't have to worry about moving from a comfortable nest at home to the hospital in the middle of very active labor. I can just stay in one place! The down side is that "THEY" will be watching the whole time, and we may have to struggle against time limits and more interference. Our doctor seems to be on our side, so hopefully all will be well!

One last note - our doctor will be out of town, starting this weekend or next week, for about a week. If we go into labor in the next week, our doctor will miss the baby! We got checked today, and we're at 0 cm dilated, 50% effaced, soft, and the baby was at a -4 station, and cephalic. Last week the baby was at a -3 station (all other stats the same), so it looks like baby is bouncing a little. Although they say that these checks aren't great indicators, there is also not a whole lot going on at the moment to indicate delivery very soon. She also said that the baby is probably just under 7 pounds (probably close to what Ben was at 38 weeks) and that there's a lot of fluid around the baby. By a lot of fluid, she means more than normal. It may be why I'm so big! Anyway, the fluid doesn't mean anything bad, just a comment. Granted, the weight estimate was from just feeling the baby's position, so we'll see how accurate it turns out to be.

Baby is actively kicking and stretching all the time! I've been working a lot the past few days, so ankles are a little swollen, but other than that everything is going well. Especially since Ben has been doing all the dishes and he did the laundry yesterday. What a guy!