Update III

Baby Smith's due date has come and gone!!

As a friend said to me recently, "babies do not know how to read calendars!" I was talking to my cousin Mandy about how I was super ready to meet the baby but I didn't want to evict him/her too early and she agreed and said not to be a pushy landlord :)
The due date is just an estimate - a date to tell the thousands of people that ask you "when are you due?" over the 9 months that you are pregnant. But how the heck do we really know? Only 3% of women have their babies on their due date...I am apparently not one of them and that is just fine with me. Although...I would not complain if it happened sooner than later - I'm just sayin'!!

We had a crazy full day today! The alarm sounded at 7:00 and Ryan and I groggily peeled ourselves out of bed, got ready & had a delicious breakfast at Panera. Then we made our way over to the Warren Clinic (St. Francis) Broken Arrow to meet Baby Smith's prospective Pediatrician!!

 Meet Dr. Sylvia August!

She is fabulous! We weren't as prepared as we could have been...Ryan was googling "questions to ask your Pediatrician" as she walked in the door. But she helped prompt questions and the conversation flowed perfectly. She doesn't attend to babies at St. John's, but another Doctor in her office does. So Dr. Wan will meet us at the hospital when the baby is born and then we will take him/her to see Dr. August two days after that! She was so sweet and personable but maintainted great professionalism. I am really excited about having her as our Doctor :) P.S. She loved that we weren't finding out the gender...she guessed girl!!

Then Ryan asked me if I wanted to come to his work and tootle around while he finished up a few things! It was so much fun! He let me be his personal assistant for a few hours. I got to write checks and red line a report that he had written. His co-workers popped in one at a time to ask me when I was going to have the baby. His co-worker, Jay, sent out an email to everyone starting the betting on 1) What gender the baby will be, & 2) Date & Time of arrival - so much fun!!

 Ryan's view overlooking what my Mom & Grandma named "Ryan Lake" - it is a great dog walking trail by the way...Chloe loves it!

 Toni Smith: Engineer's Assistant

We made our way over to AWS for my Ultrasound/Appointment. We had yet another Ultrasound with our favorite Sonographer, Theresa! For the past few months the baby has been in the exact same position - head down, curled in a ball, and facing my left side. Today Theresa very excitedly let us know that the baby is head down, feet up and facing my tailbone, or Anterior Presentation. This is the optimal position for childbirth - and hopefully means no dreaded "back labor!" We were very happy to hear this news!

I saw Mackie again today instead of Howerton. The nurse said her usual "bottoms off!" as they do every appointment in the last Trimester. (Too much information? Sorry!) Just in case you were wondering...this is the face I make when they hand me the paper sheet...

She did the exam and told me that my blood pressure looks great and that I was at 3cm dilated (haha I found a visual chart that made me laugh - I have to share it...)

There is no change in effacement, so that puts me at 60%, and I am at a -2 Station of Presentation.
She said all of that was great and that she wanted to do a NST (non-stress test) to check how the baby's heart rate was doing, how much the baby was moving, and if I was having any contractions.

We went into an exam room and I laid down while she strapped on two sensors to my belly that were attached to an electronic fetal monitor. The machine showed the digital heart rate as it printed off a graph. I laid there for about 30 minutes and listened to the heart rate go up and down and the thump thump noises as the baby kicked the sensors. Ryan got close to the baby's face and talked a bunch and we watched the heart rate go up as the baby got excited :) Dr. Mackie and the nurse came in and said that everything looked fabulous on the charts!! The heart rate is supposed to show fluctuation based on its own movement. It stayed in a range between 130 and 160bpm which is wonderful. No contractions during the 30 minutes.

They determined that my amniotic fluid was a touch high (l point over the normal) so they scheduled an AFI (Amniotic Fluid Index) test at the hospital on Friday morning. AFI tests are done routinely for patients over 40 weeks. I will have an ultrasound to check my fluid levels, and assuming everything looks okay, we will have another weekend to "will" the baby to come naturally :) Monday, June 14th, we will have what I assume will be our last appointment before mandatory medical induction. We gave our birth plan to Jennifer, our favorite Nurse, and she passed it on to Howerton who said one more week of waiting (as we requested) wouldn't hurt. (Preggo friends: This site was my favorite for making a free Birth Plan!)

So back to the waiting game again! A few of Ryan's co-workers as well as Theresa, the Sonographer, guessed tonight would be the night...we will see!

Thank you for all the inquiries, kind thoughts, positivity & love that all of you are sending me!

It means the world!!