At each of your now-weekly visits, your caregiver will do an abdominal exam to check your baby's growth and position. But even armed with this information, there's still no way for your caregiver to predict exactly when your baby is coming. If you go past your due date, your caregiver will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it's safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don't go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you're between one and two weeks overdue — or sooner if there's an indication that the risk of waiting is greater than the risks of delivering your baby without further delay.
While you're waiting, it's important to continue to pay attention to your baby's movements and let your caregiver know right away if they seem to decrease. Your baby should remain active right up to delivery, and a noticeable slowdown in activity could be a sign of a problem. Also call if you think your water may have broken. Membranes rupture before the beginning of labor in about 8 percent of term pregnancies. Sometimes there's a big gush of fluid, but sometimes there's only a small gush or a slow leak. (Don't try to make the diagnosis yourself. Call even if you only suspect you have a leak.) If you rupture your membranes and don't start contractions on your own, you'll be induced.
Not too much has happened since last week. Tuesday is my next doctor's appointment if I don't go into labor by then. We are just hoping right now that I don't go into labor when David is at work. He is about two hours away but he can't leave work until someone comes to relieve him so that puts him at least three hours away!
1 comment:
Can't wait to meet him! Hope he comes today or tomorrow and I can come up on Tuesday!!!!
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