41 weeks and no end in sight

today we hit 41 weeks. we also got to have another bio-physical ultrasound and a slightly unproductive appointment with the midwife. we have been praying and trying to decide if we want to have my water broken because of the high blood pressure. adam and my dad also gave me a blessing. so far i have not come to a decision either way. both of our options, waiting for a spontaneous labor and inducing, have risks. it's trying to decide which is less risky that is the hard part. most of me says that waiting will be ok and things will go well. but then there is this really pesky tiny part of me that is panicking and even though it is a small part it has a very loud voice and trying to weigh my options without that panic taking over is really killing me. the other hard thing is that i was pretty sure that desiree wouldn't let me go this week without scheduling to induce. at the last appointment she was sure about it, but now she isn't. i am grateful for her listening to me and trying to help me have the birth that i want but i also feel that at this point i need someone to tell me what to do. i almost don't feel capable of making this decision.

on a lighter note, during the ultrasound today we got to see our beautiful baby girl. she was busy sticking her tongue out and licking her fingers and doing all these adorable things. the pictures weren't as good as last week's so we wont mess with putting them up.

quick update

yesterday we went for a bio-medical-i-don't-really-know-the-name ultrasound. the whole purpose of the ultrasound is to look at everything that is going on with the baby, the placenta, how much water is in there with her, her growth—everything. the reason why the midwives wanted this is to be able to see if there was something going on with the placenta in particular because most often when a mom's blood pressure spikes it's because there is something going on with the placenta and it's a way of telling you the baby needs to be born or something needs to be done as soon as possible. i dont understand why they waited a week to have us do that but whatever. we got the results back and we scored 8 out of 8, meaning i have made everything in there super nice and cozy and maizie will never ever want to be born! it's a relief to know that things are looking good though.

Ultrasound Video!

Today Emily picked up a DVD of the ultrasound! It has video footage and a slide show. Here's the video:

it's aaaaa....

today we found out the gender of our baby, and i am guessing that since you are reading this that you really want to know what it is, right? well i will tell you how it all went down. we had our appointment at 4:30 and i had to drink 32 oz of water before the appointment and then not pee, really?! i have to hold it for that long? it was hard to do, let me tell you, especially when they started pressing in the general area of my bladder, but all was well and about 10 minutes into the ultrasound she let me go to the bathroom. after the ultrasound tech did all of the pictures of things that they are looking for like the placement and stuff, she kept showing us the profile of the baby and the fact that the baby was testing out how limber they are by putting their toes to their nose. yes i did say that right, toes and nose, they are very bendy at the moment. when she first tried to tell us the gender, the baby had their legs crossed so we waited and we got to see them move a little and put their hand in their mouth, and stretch. it was amazing! i wish that it was safe to do an ultrasound every day, i would watch the baby for hours.

after a little while the tech tried to get a good shot of the goods but the baby needed a little coaxing so she (the tech) would shake my belly a little...it made me feel fat because i could feel my whole stomach moving, but it worked and it turns out that i was wrong and the baby is NOT a boy but is a GIRL!!! she will be known as maizie jane :) here are some of her first pictures:

this is a view of her profile




in this one you can sort of see the foot on its way to the nose


definite picture of the foot making its way closer, and you can see that she is concentrating on the placement and feeling the stretch


and there it is -- toes on the nose, with a little smile on her face :)



we also recorded when we told our parents:

adam's parents:



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my parents:



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