1 cm dilated.

I'm 33 weeks and 1 day today. Just got home from the OB. The contractions this past week have done a little something--I've officially begun dilating now. It isn't a huge change, but I have to keep a closer eye on things this week.

My OB and I talked about labor and delivery choices if I deliver preterm. J and I have been talking about it a bit this past week or so and I've been thinking about it longer than that. With Z, everything happened so fast and I was so unprepared that I just agreed to an epidural out of fear. There are lots of reasons for that I won't go into now, and that don't apply as much for Miss R. Mostly they were related to prematurity complications that can result from trauma during birth for a little guy so underdeveloped. It really didn't have much to do with fear of pain for me.

If I do deliver next week, I've decided I'm going to try to skip the epidural this time around. If I get an epidural, I'll have to stay in bed for about 2 hours after delivery. That's not a huge deal if my baby is rooming in with me. But if she has to go to the NICU, that delays when I'll be able to see her, hold her or feed her. Realistically, with Z, it was about 4 hours until I could go to the NICU to see him (though I didn't get to hold him or feed him until days and weeks later, respectively). A large part of the delay was hospital transport. We were waiting for a wheelchair to take me to the NICU because I wasn't allowed to walk there.

I don't want to wait like that if she's NICU bound. If I don't do the epidural, I can follow her as soon as I feel ready. That's a big deal to me. Granted, as long as I hold off delivery until Sunday, Miss R doesn't have an automatic ticket to the NICU. That doesn't mean she won't go to the NICU, she could end up there for 2 weeks or so or she could be well enough that she stays bedside with me and is discharged with me. Preemies in general aren't predictable, but late termers can be all over the board. If she has to go to the NICU, then I'm going too.

So we'll see. I take my last dose of nifedipine on Saturday, May 2 at 10:30 p.m. Next week will tell us a lot.