Great appointment!!

This morning I had my weekly midwife appt and it went really well!!!  I actually progressed since last week, thank goodness!  I was really pessimistic that I hadn't progressed at all, so I was so happily surprised to hear that I have.  I am now 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced and she said my cervix is really soft and ready to go :)  She also said it's anterior, which means it's moved from the back to the front in preparation for delivery.  And Brooke is still at -1 station, so she is engaged and ready to go too.

At first she thought Brooke was looking to the side, which is typical at this point, but then she felt her head a little more and thinks she might be turned a little facing up, which is not a good position because that would mean the back of her skull, which is the bigger and harder part of her head of course, is faced to the back.  When that happens, it's harder for them to get out because their skull is pushing against the spine, and that would also cause me a lot of back pain, which I heard is horrible.  So she told me to crawl around on the floor today to help force Brooke's head to start facing down instead of up, so that the back of her skull is up. She said that crawling around will help the back of her head, which is the heavier part, to want to fall down towards the ground because of gravity.  Very interesting, so I need to crawl around some more :)

Because of my progress, I don't have to go into the hospital on Wednesday night to get my cervix ripened!  YAY!!  She was also able to sweep my membranes to see if that will help me go into labor on my own, so say a little prayer for us that she decides to come out on her own before Thursday.  My blood pressure was a little high today at my appointment, but I think that was mainly because I was a little anxious about it.  So far, my bp has been pretty stable when I take it at home, so that's good.  Since my bp has remained stable, I wonder if I really need to be induced early, but my bp could spike quickly at any time, so I'd rather be safe and get induced than go further and risk having it spike.  Plus, I'm so ready for her to be out, so I'm fine with having her come a little early :)

I'm really hoping that if she doesn't decide to come on her own before Thursday, my body will respond really quickly to a low dose of pitocin so that I don't have to get a whole bunch of it.  I'm hoping that since I've experienced so many episodes of "false labor" contractions, my body will understand what to do very quickly after getting the initial dose of pitocin.  But we'll see!

I had my last non-stress test after my appt, and that went well too.  Brooke was very active, so they were able to track her heart rate fluctuations very easily and she did very well.  They also measured my amniotic fluid with an ultrasound machine.  It was lower than last week, so I might be leaking fluid some, but it wasn't so low that it was at the point of concern, so that's good.  Since I'm being induced in 2 days, there shouldn't be a problem if I lose a little more.  I haven't noticed any fluid, so it must be a really slow leak.

I'm in much better spirits today after getting a good night sleep (well, as good as I can get right now :)) and having such a great appointment.  I'm feeling much less anxious about everything today, which is really nice.  I'm much more positive and confident today than I was yesterday.  I have a feeling yesterday's emotions were a result of physical exhaustion.  I'm going to try to crawl and walk around a good amount today to try to get labor going, but otherwise I'll take it easy.  And tomorrow I'll do the same.

2 more days to go!!!  I can't wait!