43 1/2 weeks

My mom has never been shy about letting me know that I was born nearly a month late. She has also never failed to inform me of the 10 lbs and 12 ounces that I weighed at said late delivery. I used to laugh about it, but then one day I heard that daughters usually follow their mother's pregnancy/labor/delivery patterns. Uh oh...

Well, those were the days when OB's would let women go excruciatingly long over due with children. Apparently they weren't big (pardon the pun) on monitoring weight gain, either. My mother had horrible acquaintances that, in her words, came over just to see if she could really still fit through the door. She was 120 lbs pre-pregnancy, and gained 95 pounds with me, nearly doubling her weight. She must have been so miserable!

I saw my doctor today. I will be 38 weeks on Thursday, and he had said if "conditions were favorable" he would induce me at that time. No such luck! I am not dilated and the baby is content to stay on my bladder for another however long. I did get Dr. Rushing to promise not to let me go 43 1/2 weeks. I tried to get him to swear I wouldn't tear, either, but he was not willing to give his word on that one. My blood pressure was its usual self at 138/88 and I gained a pound.

We had to wait a little longer than usual, but Jimi was SO well behaved, I was SO proud of him. I did enlist the help of the nurse to get Dr. R to give me an ultrasound to either confirm or dispel my suspicions that the baby is gargantuan. I mentioned to Jennifer that some of my friends who had gestational diabetes had ultrasounds to make sure the baby was not too big, and that was why I wanted it. Once I mentioned that, it seemed she was willing to try to help my cause (I may or may not have said it, but I have been asking for an ultrasound for about 2 months now).

When a room was available, the nurse came and got me and took me to...ultrasound! Yea! Too bad Dapo had a work meeting today and couldn't join me. Dr. Rushing measured the baby's head, found some kind of limb to measure, and did some general picture taking. I didn't recognize too much, but at some point thought I could make out her hand over eyes. Her head is 8 point something cm diameter, and all of the various things which were measured showed her right around 37/38 weeks. Best of all, the estimated fetal weight was 7 pounds, 3 ounces. My doctor likes to make sure you don't get your hopes fixated on anything, so he added, within +/- 15%, so she could weigh up to 8 lbs.

I have come to terms with the fact she is probably a little like her mother, and just doesn't want to see this big, bright world yet. I suspect she is just waiting to be born under President Obama's administration. 8 pounds? I'll take it, even if I can't take it now.