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2+ cm, 80% effaced - very good considering it was barely 1 a week ago, long and firm.

One of our favorite midwives is on call 2 days this weekend, and we hear that the bets are on for this weekend. We’re hoping so too!

Autumn’s definitely in early labor now - at yesterday’s appointment, she was effacing and she’s had quite a few contractions today (not regular yet). Probably within a couple of days now. Hard to know for sure because she was induced with Ella, so we never went through the early labor stages like this.

Here are a couple of recent pictures to hold everyone over until we have some new baby shots:

Me with Autumn and the big big belly at our baby shower.

Me with Ella - not bad for taking my own picture. Ella is being her usual sweet self.

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster with the last few prenatal visits, but a good one today.

The gist of it is that there are a couple of things (blood pressure, gestational diabetes) that they’re watching, but right now, there’s no specific reason to start induction. Autumn’s healthy, the baby’s fine, etc. etc.

Plus, 1+cm dialated and 50-60% effaced. Very good progress in 3 days, and great news (especially to Autumn).

Should be just a matter of days. More long walks, spicy food, etc. etc.

well, next week we will be full term. we had our week 36 prenatal last week. the baby is healthy and doing very well. my bp was great again, which has diminished the worries i had about that, since i had high blood pressure at the end of our pregnancy with ella. so, everything looks good. we’re getting quite ready to meet this baby!

the only bad news is that i was spilling sugar, and when they did a random blood draw, there was elevated sugar in my blood too. we were surprised, since i passed my 1 hr gestational diabetes screening months ago. our midwife gave me a choice of doing a 1 hr gd screening again next week, and if it came back high, scheduling a 3 hr next week sometime OR just going in for a 3 hr this morning. i opted for the 3 hr this morning. i wanted to know if there was a problem versus waiting and stressing about it all week.

well, the test this morning came back positive. we were surprised, but at least we know now and can do actually something about it. the midwife left it up to me if i want to do daily blood sugar testing, since we’re so close to delivering anyway. i decided that i did want to do the daily testing, since keeping my glucose levels under control could help keep the baby’s size from getting too large. at the last few appointments, they have been less concerned about the baby’s size, but if we go another 3-5 weeks, it will be important to do what we can to keep the baby at a ‘normal’ size.

the funny thing is that being worried about pregnancy induced high blood pressure (something that hasn’t been an issue this time) kept my diet very much in line of what would keep gestational diabetes at bay too. since i passed my 1hr and wasn’t spilling sugar until the last weeks, i was doing something right. i spoke with a good friend, mel, who had gd throughout her last pregnancy. she’s a chef, and very healthy, and she had some wonderful advice of things i can do…and was encouraging too, telling me not to stress too much since this baby will be here very soon.

oh, and i have the best doula in the world. sarah came and kept me company during the 3 hr test this morning while bill took ella to the park. made the whole thing much more pleasant.