today's biophysical profile

today was the dreaded appointment, but i'm happy to report that things went very well.

we started with an ultrasound. the tech checked many things...one of the "bonus" checks she did was to see how big carter was. according to her calculations, he's about 9lbs 2ozs. thankfully, these are merely (slightly-educated) guesses and his actual size can vary up to a pound or more on either side of the guess--er calculation.

i'm thinking carter will be just at 8lbs at the largest. :) he'll be a good-size baby and should fill out his newborn-size coming home outfit beautifully (that is, if i can get it on him, as my mom has so kindly pointed out numerous times [and why he now has three possible coming home outfits that are of varying degrees of ease to put on a fussy newborn.]) :) we also got a couple of shots of carter during the ultrasound. here's my favorite.

{{his nose looks HUGE and his lips are SO pouty, but i'm not gonna lie, i secretly hope that the ultrasound is over-exaggerating the size of his nose or that he at least grows into it in the next few days because it is NOT proportional compared to the rest of his face. ;) }}

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after the ultrasound, i had my non-stress test done. i was monitored for maybe 20-30ish minutes and they let me drink apple juice during the test. i guzzled two containers of ice cold apple juice to help him move around so the test would finish as quickly as possible; i'd been warned in the beginning that the test could take as long as 2 hours and i was getting hungry for some mexican food! here i am before it got started, courtesy of kz's iphone.


after the monitoring, the midwife came in to discuss the results of the BPP, discuss our options, and perform an internal exam. the midwife on-call was the chick who told me to lay off the carbs after i'd gained 14 lbs in 6 wks around the holidays, but it was cool--she was super awesome! she told us that carter scored an 8 out of 10 and that they only thing that he didn't do was imitate breathing, which apparently is common and no reason for concern.

the midwife then did the internal exam and i *think* she stripped my membranes. she said she was going to give me a "cervical massage" and shortly thereafter the discomfort ensued. the midwife said that i was still about the same--a "good one" cm dilated and 70-75% effaced. she said that there was a good chance that i had progressed from last week because she knows from past experience that the midwife who did my internal exam last week is very generous when giving out the numbers (i.e. the midwife last week would say 5cm but the midwife i saw today would say 2cm). whatever. it is what it is. i'm not worried about it at this point.

all in all, the tests done today bought us time--carter has less than 48 hours to make his appearance on his own so he better get a move on! the midwife today said that i should do whatever i can do to help him on his way--that there's a good chance that they will not let me leave on thursday. she suggested that i take some time and meditate and talk to carter and let him know that we are ready for him. i know it sounds a little bit out there, but i think she's right. now, if only i could say that and mean it...