Monday

We had another checkup this morning, and this time, my doctor did an exam to check for dilation, effacement and the froglet's placement. One of the things I like about my doctor is that these are not standard parts of his prenatal appointment; he doesn't feel the information acquired is worth the discomfort. Since I've been having mild contractions off and on for the last week or so, I was hoping to be magically found to be dilated 5 or so centimeters. I had visions of being whisked off to labor and delivery and having a baby in arms by tomorrow.

Not so much.

I am neither dilated nor effaced, and the bug is not descending into the birth canal at all. My cervix was deemed "unfavorable." Ouch.

Because I am already a week past due, my doctor isn't comfortable letting me go more than another couple days without some sort of intervention. Initially, he mentioned induction, but since I've done some research on induction and its success rates, I was wary. Basically, how successful an induction will be is based on, well, how favorable one's cervix is. See above. So we asked our doctor about the likelihood of an induction in my case leading to a lengthy labor, fetal distress, and an ultimate cesarean birth. His opinion was that I would labor for 24-48 hours, get to about 5 centimeters dilation, then stall and ultimately need a cesarean.

So instead, we're going straight for a cesarean birth.

Its not what we expected; in fact, its vehemently what I said I did not want three weeks ago. I'm dreading recovering from abdominal surgery with a newborn at home. But really, all we want at the end of this is the froglet, safely and healthily delivered. And this way we'll have that.

So on Monday, we'll get to meet our son.