Today is the big day… or is it?

Despite today being the big “due date” for the baby, it doesn’t look that he/she will be making an appearance. Tara and I went to the doctors this afternoon and basically, things are progressing slowly but steadily. Following the appointment, he sent us over to the MJ Hospital for a stress test on the baby – I guess it’s a routine procedure to monitor the baby’s heart and fetal movements. They actually had Tara do this test in one of the delivery rooms which was actually nice because we got to familiarize ourselves with the room. Anyway, the results of the stress test were fine. What’s the next step? Well, we wait and if nothing happens before Friday, we have a scheduled ultra-sound and another stress test. If those results are fine and things still haven’t progressed by next Tuesday (Dec 27), they plan to induce. We’re hoping it doesn’t come to that.

Right now, our real concern is Christmas day. Yes, it would be unfortunate for the baby to have his/her birthday on Christmas, but that is only half the story. Our doctor informed us that he’ll be out of town that day, so we’ll have to see one of the on-call doctors. Also, the nurse at the hospital said that getting an epidural on Christmas day will be somewhat hit-and-miss. Apparently, if they don’t have enough nursing staff, they won’t even give Tara the option of an epidural. So as you guessed it, we’re kind of praying the baby doesn’t come on the 25th but we’ll take it as it comes.

I’ll continue to keep you posted on all the exciting developments.

Continuing to wait,

Mike and Tara