31 week sonogram and 32 week check-up

We scheduled a 31 week sonogram on Tuesday, June 1 and invited both sets of our parents (Anders's future grandparents) to the big show. All was well! The images and video were in 3D which was pretty incredible, but the fact that our little one actually looked like a baby boy and not an alien anymore was a true delight! He showed us his cute face, his hands, his boy parts, and he even stuck out his tongue a couple of times and smiled! You can tell that he is just as anxious to meet his new family as we are to have him arrive. (He has been in the "head down" position for over a month now so he is definitely ready to go!)

This past Tuesday, June 8 was our 32 week check-up. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just like most of the previous visits, they checked and measured my stomach and listened to Anders's heartbeat. All sounded and looked great. The doc says that we are still a "by the book" pregnancy so we couldn't be happier that this has been as smooth as it has.

We only ran into one kink in the visit when we asked the question of "what happens if I go into labor on a night or weekend where you are not the on-call doctor?" And maybe the answer was already mentioned to us in a previous visit, but I cannot recall ever hearing about it.

Basically, my doctor is part of an ObGyn practice made up of several doctors. Of those doctors, mine is the only one that delivers at Baylor Frisco, so if I go into labor when he is unavailable then not only will someone else deliver Anders, but I will also be at Medical Center of Plano, a completely different hospital. The hospital is certainly nice, as well. I have had two minor procedures done at their surgery center, but needless to say, that was slightly shocking news. I love my doctor, and I would never leave him, but come on, dude! Knowing that information sooner might have been helpful for my mental state....and consequently Adam's mental state from dealing with my emotional roller coaster.

Oh, well....that is out of our control soooooooo the next question became "okay...what are our options if we want to definitely deliver with you at Baylor Frisco?" We were told that if Anders doesn't come early, that beginning after the 39th week, we can schedule an elective induction. My doctor is typically very conservative so to hear him suggest an induction was pretty much shock #2 of the morning for both Adam and me.

We left the appointment with many, many thoughts swirling around in our heads:

• What if Anders isn't ready to come, and we push him too soon?
• What if my body isn't ready to labor, and the process goes too long and we end up in a c-section?
• Would our insurance even cover this since it is called "elective?"

The flip side of everything is that my very, very conservative doctor totally believes that your baby is baked at 38 weeks and so after 39 weeks there should be no problems. Also, I have had a few friends do this very thing, and it has been smooth sailing and worked out very well.

Anyway, we went ahead and scheduled an inducement for July 29th just to keep the option open (only 5 days before my due date of Aug. 3) because they told me we could cancel if we decided it wasn't for us. We have our last two-week spaced appointment coming up, and then we go every week so we will have five appointments before the induction to ask tons of questions and decide if we are 100% comfortable with the process.

To be perfectly honest, if I had to commit to it today, I would probably opt out. We scheduled the induction to have the option of a guaranteed doctor/hospital/delivery date, but I am not feeling like we will go through with it at this point. That may change over the next month if things are progressing very smoothly and it is looking like Anders is ready. In the meantime, we are going to pray about it a lot, ask many, many questions, read as much as we can, and see how the pregnancy is progressing over the next few visits. We will know a lot more around 35 weeks and will hopefully be able to make a more informed decision then.

Other than that, all we can do for now is tour the other hospital, meet and visit with the other potential doctors, get my doctor's vacation and on-call schedule, and hope that Anders decides to come when we need for him to. He has been quite a performer up to this point so I find comfort in that he may just be my little angel and come exactly when he is supposed to (which will just by coincidence line up with Dr. E and the hospital's schedules). :)

Until that day, I will constantly be repeating the Serenity Prayer....or as I like to call it, My Sanity Prayer.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.