Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Making Progress

We are now at 37 weeks and that means full term! Yeah! Is everyone doing the full-term dance? I got to visit the doctor and got some great news and some not so good news. First, the not so good news: my Strep B test came back positive. This is certainly not the end of the world. It basically means that I have to have antibiotics during labor. Since I will already have IV fluids during labor, adding one more fluid to the mix shouldn't be too awful. Strep B, for those that don't know, is a common bacteria that women carry. It doesn't mean I have strep throat or anything like that. It can be dangerous for Sadie, but the antibiotics should prevent her from any ill effects it could cause.

Now the good news: I have made much progress since last week. I am now 60-70% effaced and a little more than 1 cm dialated. Woohoo! They always ask me if I've been having contractions and I always say that so far I'm not feeling anything. However, when the doctor was completing her exam she commented that she could feel a contraction. So, I must be having them and just not know it yet. I suppose that's ok with me since I'm certain that my time for feeling them is most definitely coming!

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, my blood pressure has begun to sneak up a little bit. It's still not at the level where it was pre-pregnancy when I was unmedicated, but it isn't as low as it has been for 90% of my pregnancy either. Because of this, the doctor is thinking that if Sadie doesn't make her grand "exit" in the next week and a half, she will probably induce me. She says that because I have effaced and dialated at least some on my own than an induction should go well. But, I'm still hoping that Sadie will decide that she can come on her own. :)

In EXCELLENT news, I had a chance to have a half work-day at school today. We had a "Data Day" where we analyzed our state testing data. We have a second half-day "Data Day" tomorrow. These two half days add up to one full work day. Woohoo! Yeah! And, even if I should not make it to the day tomorrow, I did actually put in a full day's work today. I stayed past noon and put together some final touches on things. I learned what my schedule for the year will be and couldn't be more pleased. Here's my schedule:

Hall Duty
1st Period: Plan
2nd Period: Inclusion Math
3rd Period: Pull-Out Math
4th Period: Study Hall
5th Period: Tutoring
6th Period: Lunch
7th Period: Inclusion History
8th Period: Inclusion Language Arts
9th Period: Inclusion Science
Hall Duty

This is the schedule I was hoping for and it's worked out that I can have it! I'm really, really excited and it certainly makes me feel more comfortable about returning to school in November knowing that this is the schedule I can return to. :)

One final update...this week we are having our electricity updated in our house. We got a brand new 200 amp panel that has proper outdoor wiring coming into the panel and several new outlets being installed in the house. They are also putting in individual circuits for each of our window air conditioners. In addition, they installed an over head light in the baby's room and have created 3 working outlets for the room! (There were 2 outlets in the room previously, but only one was working). They are also making sure that all of our plugs are grounded, which will make Adam feel quite a bit more calm about all of our computer equipment. So, with new electricity flowing there's one more reason why Sadie should be able to arrive!

Tomorrow afternoon I have scheduled a car seat safety check for Adam, my mom, and myself. This will allow us to know that we have installed our car seats correctly and fix any mistakes that we may have made. Again, just one more signal to Sadie that she is welcome to come into the world.

Well, I've got to run because my bladder is screaming at me yet again! More to update later! :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the progress! Your schedule looks great! I was a special ed teacher, until march of this year. I loved having a 1st period plan. Are you thinking of pumping at work? Its nice to have have 2 breaks, a bit apart, 1st and 6th period to do that. I wish you the best of luck!

Cathy said...

Congrats on making it through your data day, and on your cervical progress. Chris was born at 37 weeks, I was induced because of pre-eclampsia, long story, and I wouldn't recommend it. Mention that to Sadie for me, will you? Perhaps she'll be compliant, she was so good about the breech business. You've hit the major milestones and you sound as ready as you'll ever be, great job, now relax. Go on a date!

Suellen said...

OMIGOSH!!!!!!!! A week and a half!!! That's so close. I can't even believe it! :)

I'm back to work and it's pretty much killing me, but that's a story for my blog. (If I can ever stay awake to do it!)

Andrea said...

I was induced and everything went perfectly. Hopefully she comes on her own, but if she doesn't, I'm sure everything will be great! Good luck - I can't believe little Sadie will be here in a week and a half or less! :)

amypfan said...

So excited for you!!
I had Strep B with Bryn and survived just fine. It was just another IV. Admittedly it was rather unpleasant because they had to give me the last bag of fluid at an alarmingly fast rate because Bryn was about to enter the world.... silly, really, as I was in labor for long long, that they didn't give it to me sooner. Anyway.... About the contractions--my doctor tell me that I had contractions with both Bryn and Shay, but I never felt a thing until they gave me the drugs to induce me. Yeah, felt it then. :) Tell Sadie to come on her own--maybe the THINK method could help with this? :)