Final countdown: 0 weeks to Baby

It's finally here: Baby's "due" date.

I have to clarify a little though... we've been publicly stating that the due date is June 16, which is the date we were given early on in pregnancy based of an ultrasound we had done while in Bulgaria. When we returned to the States the doctors agreed that June 13 was a more appropriate date, but we didn't want to add to this past weekend's wedding stresses by mentioning that the baby was not only due the same week as the wedding but almost the same day.

SO, surprise! the due date is actually TODAY, folks!

Due dates, however, don't really mean to much. They just help to give you a ballpark idea of when to expect your baby. They are sometimes, unfortunately, taken a little too seriously in the medical world and used as a reason to medically induce labor or even surgically remove baby from mom. Our sincere hope is that we don't have to deal with this issue, but if Baby doesn't come in the next week we likely will.

Joe and I had a discouraging visit to the doctors this morning. My OB said that my body really isn't showing signs of being ready for labor, and she started talking about induction. It hadn't occurred to me yet that after today my baby is "overdue." I guess I think of overdue as being after 41 weeks... not immediately after the due date. Anyway, I was devastated. I have learned so much in preparing for labor and delivery about the risks of induction that now I fear having to experience it.

Using the artificial hormone, Pitocin, to start, lengthen, speed up, and strengthen contractions can take your body past its natural limits. Labor goes beyond the natural levels of pain and the strength of the contractions can stress baby beyond what he/she is designed for. Mom often ends up with pain medications even when she hadn't originally planned on them and baby sometimes ends up being born by Cesarean due to fetal distress. In short... it's better to let your body do what its designed to do on its own and not interfere. Even if that means waiting a little longer for baby than your "due date" would suggest.

I'm trying to trust and surrender this worry. In some ways it still seems so unreal that this is all happening to me. I don't have a way to explain away the belly, but everything else seems like it's all a dream... maybe I'll just wake up and find out that I'm actually not having a baby. Joe and I were saying the other day it feels like we're waiting to win the lottery or something... like there's only a small chance that I'm actually ever going to go into labor and deliver this baby. Thank goodness that's not true!

So... we wait. Sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently... but always hoping that today will be the day.