It's starting!

We had an appointment for this morning just to check up on the baby, since Mandy is now 1 week overdue. We were hoping she would go into labor today or tomorrow since tomorrow night (Friday) she was scheduled for an induction if no baby had come so far.

Anyway, at our appointment this morning, they first do a non-stress test, and it was iffy. So they did a more thorough test called a biophysical profile, where they look at the baby with an ultrasound, watching for him to breathe, move, and to make sure there is enough amniotic fluid. Well, our dear baby was soundly sleeping, and not moving, as he does in the morning most days. And Mandy hadn't eaten breakfast, which would usually make him move more. Whatever the cause, he didn't move at all during the test, so he failed the test...which means, they want to get him out rather than wait around for labor to start.

(By the way, labor, at least as far as they define it in medicine, means you are having regular contractions, and the size of the cervix is changing. Mandy has been having contractions, but no change in her cervical size, so she has not been in labor at all--even though she has been having contractions for weeks or even months.)

Getting him out right away means either inducing labor with drugs (if his heart rate looks good) or doing a c-section (if his heart rate looks bad). Right away, somebody came with a wheelchair for Mandy and we went across the street to the hospital where they put us right in a room. They hooked her up to monitors to watch his heartbeat and to measure contractions.

And everything looked good. So the doctor says, well, lets induce--we were going to induce anyway tomorrow, so this is just moving it up a day.

I don't love inducing--it has some risks involved, but as far as what we've seen today, it's probably the best option for now, just because failing the biophysical profile means it's probably safer for him to be out than in at this point.

Mandy's parents are here in town with us, and Mandy's mom is here in the hospital with us right now. Our doctor here today is Dr. Pugmire, who is a really nice lady that I've worked with on my rotations before. And we have a really nice nurse, CJ, who has been working here since before Mandy was born. Mandy's comfortable, watching a movie right now, and I'm off of school right now because I worked a lot of long hours the last few weeks so I would be off for this excitement.

And even if this isn't quite how we envisioned it happening, we sure are excited! We're praying that everything goes really well and that this baby comes soon (although inductions I've seen can take more than 24 hours a lot of times). Please pray with us, k? Thanks a million! We love you guys :-)