Labor

At home today with a sick John and no, I'm not in labor. Just thinking about it. And thinking about it, I decided I would post here some specific prayers I'm praying, hoping my blogger friends will join me.

1 -- First and foremost, my concern is for Lydia. Specifically, my prayers are that she comes as healthy as possible. It would be wonderful if we could avoid the NICU! [For perspective, John was born at 32 weeks (I'll be 32 weeks on Tuesday), weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and spent 2 weeks in the NICU. Really not bad at all -- quite good, in fact, considering the rule of thumb with premature babies is that they typically go home during the 2 weeks or so prior to what was their due date. I recognize fully our blessings with John's birth! Still, that was a very difficult 2 weeks and I only had 3 children living at home at that time. Timothy, born at 35 weeks, weighing 7 pounds, 5 ounces, went home with me, needing no NICU intervention.] The second part of Lydia's health that I'm concerned about is this -- clearly she is suffering the effects of a diabetic pregnancy, that's what's causing her to measure big. My fear is that in the next few days or weeks, my overly stretched, overly tired uterus will think we have a full-term baby already and labor will begin. If that doesn't happen -- and we don't want it to -- then my fear becomes that she'll get too big and 1 of 2 things will happen. Either I'll go into labor and she'll get stuck in the birth canal, prompting an emergency c-section, and/or she'll reach so large on the ultrasound that the doctor will go striaght to a c-section and not allow me the chance to deliver. A vaginal delivery is my pick, hands down. I've never had a c/s and I don't want one now! My kids need me and having to recover from major surgery not only means more time in the hospital but more down time once I'm home. My mom plans on being here for the 1st week after Lydia's born but that won't amount to much if I end up with a c/s. Okay, enough about that.

2 -- It's winter and apparently, a bad one for Central Ohio. May sound silly but I really am praying that the weather clears up soon. Regarldess, I'm praying bad weather won't keep me from getting to the hospital in time. A roadside delivery does NOT sound like fun to me.

3 -- And I've already blogged on this before. With all the contractions/pain in general I've been experiencing, I am praying for the wisdom to know when to head to the hospital and when to not. (An induction date and/or going into labor while at the drs office would be wonderful, in my opinion!)

4 -- Planning on having my tubes tied after Lydia is born. I was told at the beginning that I would sign the consent form around 28 weeks. Well, that hasn't happened yet and I was informed this past week that the consent form must be on file for 30 days. It would really be better if they could do the surgery while I was in the hospital delivering so now I'm praying that Lydia waits until March 3rd to arrive as I am planning on signing on Tuesday. That accomplishes 2 tings -- 1, I'll only need 1 hospitilization and 2, I'll be 36 weeks on March 3rd and that's a great time to have a baby! (I can still have the surgery done afterwards -- it would just mean an outpatient procedure after my 6-week recovery period is up but that would mean 2 visits to the hospital.)

That's basically it -- sure, I could mention other "little" things like I'm praying I make it in time for an epidural or that I might get a redhead this time but clearly those are not one of my priorities. And an FYI, Tuesday I begin bi-weekly appointments, every Tuesday and every Friday.