Doctor's Appointment

Today I had my first of the weekly doctor's appointments. I wasn't sure if they'd do an internal exam because last time they said they don't start those until 36 weeks and according to them I'm 35 weeks, 5 days, which is not quite 36 weeks. Anyway, I got there, gave my urine sample, got weighed and gained 3 pounds since 2 weeks ago, for a total weight gain of 28 pounds. The nurse took my blood pressure which was a nice 112/60. Then the nurse told me we were going to start internals this week, so to take off the bottoms and use the cover up sheet.

When Dr. D. came in she asked if I had any questions. I asked her if she would give me a guess on how big the baby is. She said she'd feel my stomach and see. Then I asked a couple of questions from the birth plan section of my planner. 1. Can I wear contacts during labor? Yes, unless at some point the anesthesiologist asks me to take them out. 2. What are her thoughts about induction? If I want to be induced, they will consider it on 12/16 or 12/17 (both days that my doctor is on call) as long as I am dialating and effacing nicely. If I'm not ready by the due date, she will usually only let me go a week past the due date. For me, that would be Christmas, so they would probably induce me on the 23rd. We talked a little bit about episiotomies and C-sections too. Again, I'm only interested if it's really needed and I don't think she would do either unnecessarily.

After the questions she measured me, but didn't tell me the number. She felt my belly and said she thinks we're probably average size, about 5 1/2 or 6 pounds right now. Which would put us on track for a 7 or 8 pound baby. We listened to the heartbeat which was good. Then she did a swab for the Group B Strep test. If it comes back positive, I would need antibiotics during labor.

Then she did the internal exam. She said that I am 1, almost 2 cm dialated, 60% effaced, and the baby is at -2 station. For reference, you can be 0-10 cm dialated, 0-100% effaced with 100% being the goal, and the baby starts at -4 (floating in the uterus) to 0 (fully engaged in the pelvis) to +4 (crowning). Things seem to be progressing nicely. We'll see if anything changes over the next week. None of it means much as your water can break when you are 0 cm and my friend Kelly walked around at 4cm dialated for 2 weeks. At least it's nice to know that in some way, my
body has started preparing.

One other thing, after I left my appointment I stopped by Eric's office. When I went to the restroom, I noticed I was bleeding. I'm assuming it's because of the exam. It wasn't really alot of blood, but enough to go through my underwear and to my pants. I went home and changed and added a panty-liner. It's definatly tapered off though the afternoon and evening, but there is still a hint of pink when I wipe. If I still have pink by mornnig, I will call and ask the doctor about it. I'm pretty sure it's just from the exam.

That's about it. Next appointment Wednesday.