Tick Tock, Tick Tock....

Ok Ella, its time to come out!! I am exactly one week from my due date, and boy am I ready! Its not that I am miserable like a lot of women at this stage in pregnancy, its that I am just ready to meet her and have my body back! Well whatever my new body will be, not the old one :( I am ready to be able to get up out of chairs and the bed with minimal effort. I am ready to be able to see my feet, and for my feet to not be the size of Africa! I am ready to not have to make 100 trips to the bathroom everyday (and night), and more and anything else I AM READY TO MEET MY DAUGHTER!!!

Luckily I am still sleeping like a rock, and not having many problems. I have A LOT of braxton hicks contractions.... A LOT. And some are getting pretty intense... I am wondering of those are real ones?! Sometime the bh contractions are so frequent and consistent I can time them and they can be anywhere from 5-8 mins apart for several hours, but then they just go away.

Last Wednesday at my appointment my Dr said I was "very very effaced, and dilated about 1/2 a cm". Ok thats not a lot, but hey its definitely good progress! She said Ella had moved down a lot and she could touch her head when she was checking me. Too cool! I told her to tap her on the head and tell her to get out :) So she said that if at this week's appointment (which is tomorrow at 11am) if I am dilated to at least a 2 then she will scrape my membranes and try to push me into labor before she goes out of town. Because as luck would have it my Dr. is going to be out of town from July 15th-July 22nd! Of COURSE I just know Ella is going to come while she is gone and I am going to have to deal with some Dr. that I don't know and has no idea what I want and expect from labor and delivery.

So anyhow, we are hoping that by scraping my membranes it will be enough to start the contractions and get this show on the road!! For those of you who aren't sure what that means it was explained to me like this...Once you start dilating every time you touch the cervix it releases oxytocin which is what dilated you and makes you contract essentially putting you into labor. So by going in and scraping the outside of the cervix it will release a lot of oxytocin, and for some women it triggers labor. For some women it doesn't do anything and it still takes weeks to go into labor. Lets pray I am NOT one of those women!

My Dr. said that if I don't have Ella this week then I will see one of her partners in the practice next week and they can schedule me to be induced next Friday when my Dr comes back in town. I really don't want to be induced so please send your thought and prayers to me that it happens on its own!

This weekend my Grandparents made the 18 hour flight from Iran to witness the birth of their first Great Grandchild! I only get to see them every few years and they haven't been here since our wedding. So yesterday we went and hung out with them, my dad, aunt & uncle, and cousins which is always a good time! I recently bought a new awesome Nikon 5000 camera and brought it with me to take some pics of me and my belly with my Grandparents. Once I download the pics I'll post some :)

So now I am at work, hopefully today will be my last day here!! And hopefully my next post will be to tell you that scraping the membranes worked and I am having some real contractions!!

Ella,
Your Mommy and Daddy are so very very excited to meet you! We already love you more than you will ever know. You also have a TON of family members and friends that are dying to meet you... I am pretty sure that both of your Grandma's are sleeping with one hand on the phone waiting for me to call them and tell then you are on your way to see us! So come on out, there is a lot more room out here than in my tummy and its a lot more fun out here too!! Oh and one more thing... please be nice to me in delivery because I am a little nervous about that part! HA!

I love you so very much,
Your Mommy