Just Another Appointment

Yesterday I had my weekly appointment, and all is well.  My blood pressure and fluids are fine and Elizabeth still seems happy in my womb, because she isn't trying to get out yet. My biggest complaint these days: the foot and ankle swelling.  My lower limbs look like something out of a horror flick. 

No contractions, other than some Braxton Hicks from time to time. No one has checked me for dilation or effacement yet--I'm thinking they'll wait until I pass my due date before they start doing that.  A friend who is a doctor and who had a baby almost a year ago says that isn't unusual.  Apparently, checking that stuff can be quite uncomfortable, but once I pass my due date they'll want to check to see if my cervix is dilated at all.  If it is, then I'd be a good candidate for induction if it came to that, but if it isn't they'd want to wait and see if it would start dilating on its own before trying to induce. I'm hoping that it won't come to that, and that I'll just go into labor in a timely manner.

My in-laws are coming back down next weekend, so as long as Elizabeth doesn't arrive before then, they will likely be here when she arrives.  This is going to be such a big help, especially since we'll need someone to let our dogs out and to feed them when I'm in the hospital, particularly if the laboring takes a long time. It's not that we don't have people here who would be willing to do it, but no one here really knows our dogs and I know that I wouldn't want to traipse into someone's house to feed their dogs without being acquainted with them first.

For now, I'm still hyperaware of every twinge or flutter, and I'm monitoring myself for all the signs of labor. I'm still convinced that I'll be caught unawares--I'll be engrossed in a book or a video game, and I'll just keep thinking, "Man, my stomach is sure upset today" and it won't occur to me that I'm actually in labor until I'm in really active labor. I am reading Game of Thrones now and really old issues of X-Men comics, so it could totally happen this way.