Down to the Wire

Today we started weekly appointments with ultrasounds for biophysical profiles (BPPs). To pass the BPP, Emmie has to move a little and show off her breathing skills. She was reluctant to do either. She moved a little when Jenny (the ultrasound tech who we've gotten to know fairly well because of all of our BPPs through 3 pregnancies) poked my belly with the ultrasound wand. Emmie wasn't seriously disturbed, but she wiggled a little. And she tried breathing once. There's a certain number of times she's supposed to breathe within a certain time period. So we waited for her to breathe some more. And we waited. And we waited. And I turned on my side to see if that would get her to do something. It didn't. And we tried talking. And I tried humming. I tried sucking snot from my sinuses to my throat, which sometimes gets me kicked (but not all the time like Neil used to do). Nothing we did seemed to matter much. And I didn't have any snacks with me to try eating something. Then I asked what the likelihood of having to go to the hospital for a non-stress test was if Emmie didn't show off her breathing in time. The answer was 100% if she doesn't breathe in the next 25 seconds. I find non-stress tests to be very stressful, so I sat up a little and said, "Breathe, Emmie. We don't want to go to the hospital." And she started breathing. And she passed her BPP at the last second. Whew! My fluid was on the low side of normal, which for me is better than the high end of normal, which might signal a blood sugar issue, which they are looking for.

My blood pressure was excellent. My weight gain was reasonable, especially considering all the fast food we've eaten in the last week while I've been in a funk. Dr. Reynolds is very pleased with how things were going. And he thinks that Paul Ryan will be the Republican nominee for president. It's one of the least far-out things he's probably ever said to us while talking about something non-pregnancy. :)

I also asked about what he was thinking about timing for Emmie's arrival. We have been assuming 38 weeks (like with Lucy) unless they get antsy and move it to 37 weeks or unless at any visit in the next 8 weeks there's a problem that indicates that immediate delivery is best. He seemed to think the 37 week idea was crazy. I was asking because Susie has to be out of town on the Monday of 38 weeks, the likely delivery date. So Shawn would have Lucy by himself... overnight. Lucy loves Shawn, and Shawn loves Lucy, so we know they'd be fine together, but Lucy with one caregiver at night can be a handful. If worse came to worst, Matt could go home at night. I think we'd both feel better if he could stay at the hospital with me for at least the first 24 hours. But if the c-section is first thing in the morning, then he could be around for at least the first 12 and come back the next morning. We'll make it work. We've got about a month to work the kinks out of our plan and attempt any necessary behavior modifications for Lucy (or Shawn for that matter). :)

It was another long day, but because Emmie passed her BPP, it wasn't as long as it could have been. Hopefully, she doesn't put us through this every week.