40 weeks, 1 day.

It's hard to believe we made it this far. Awesome, but I wouldn't have guessed it. I'm pretty content with everything. I know a lot of women are really ready to deliver and want the baby out at the end of the pregnancy. I feel like I'm just finally at a place where I can relax and not stress. I had so much trauma and difficulty in the first and second trimesters. Plus the bed rest and the concerns about preterm labor again. Then I came off of bed rest and different meds. With each step, there was so much tension about the fact that the change meant she could come any minute. I spent 3 months thinking this baby was going to come tomorrow. It was exhausting.

Then I told myself if she hadn't come by the end of Memorial Day weekend, she wasn't coming until her due date. I just let go of the expectation. It has been great--really liberating. I felt relaxed about it--though others certainly haven't been. I think I feel more stress about when she's going to come from certain family members than I do from J or myself. I'm just so grateful to have it not be stressful and panicked about the birth. I'm just a little anxious about missing Z's 3rd birthday this coming weekend. That's my only stressor at this point.

Anyway, I had an OB appointment this morning. I lost another pound. She said I'm about 4.5 cm and 60-70% effaced. We talked about a lot of options. She said since I chart she knows my EDD is not way off like it can be for people that just go off of LMP. For charters, she likes to follow the 3 days rule, meaning that you can ovulate on the 3 days before or after your chart's peak, which means your EDD can be off by 3 days. That means that +3 will be Wednesday for me.

I'm not sure how I feel about induction at this point. She said the odds of complications for me are very small because my cervix has already progressed so far. She's willing to induce as of Thursday if the hospital has an appointment. She said if I choose to not induce (which is fine by her, she's not pushing for anything this week--just giving me my options), that on Friday she'd want me to go for an AFI (fluid check) and a scan to make sure the placenta is working well. If either of those comes back unsatisfactory, she'll want to induce on Friday. That means I wouldn't be home on Saturday for Z's birthday. After much discussion with J and with my OB, I've decided to schedule the induction because it is more difficult to get a time than it is to cancel it. If I decide on Wednesday that I want to wait longer, I can cancel it and my OB is totally OK with that.

Oh, and she stripped my membranes this morning at my request. My hope is that will help things along and I won't need the induction appointment at all. In the mean time, I'm happily waiting.

ETA: I don't have an induction appointment at this time. My OB's office is working to schedule it for Thursday, but they haven't called me back to confirm that the hospital has a slot available. All of this is tentative anyway--I might decide to cancel it. I just don't know what I want to do yet.