Baby Bun's Jig

So I've been anxiously awaiting the moment when I could feel Baby Bun moving around in my tummy, and that moment has finally arrived! Everyone told me it would be any day now (I'm going on 21 weeks), but I was becoming very impatient. I should have known, though, that once the thumping began, it wouldn't stop. Every afternoon around 4pm, Baby Bun does an Irish Jig that would put the Riverdance troupe to shame. It puts a smile on my face each and every time I feel a thump - I just can't help it! Of course, 4pm is smack dab in the middle of my daily nap, so I guess BB is starting early in reminding me who's really in charge here,

As far as my bi-weekly sonograms are going, I had another one last week, and BB's heart was in perfect condition. If you recall, with my Lupus SS-A Antibody, the baby is at risk for congenital heart block. The condition is ideally reversible with a course of potent steroids to the mother (me)...but ideally, we're not going to need to do that. So far, so good!

I'm feeling great and my doctor was thankfully able to clarify the plan of attack come the fall. My due date is currently October 20th, but due to my condition, the plan is to deliver at approximately 37 weeks (and a few days). That puts delivery on the weekend of October 3rd, in order to reduce any additional risk to BB. Guess they'd prefer to get BB out into this wonderful world of ours, rather than subject the baby to any more of my Lupus shenanigans.

Around September 15th, I'll stop my daily Lovenox injections (the anticoagulant), and start on Heparin (also an anticoagulant injection), but one that is administered twice a day. The reason we do this is to prevent me from going into labor while on the Lovenox, for fear of hemorrhaging, etc. Because Heparin is done twice a day, it doesn't stay in my system as long, so if I do go into labor mid-day while on the Heparin, the medicine will be that much closer to wearing off than if I were on the Lovenox, whose effects last a full 24 hours.

In addition, I learned that while on Heparin, the results of the tests used to determine my level of anti coagulation would be available relatively quickly, where as the Lovenox results could take up to a day. (Who knew, right?) So...I'll be making that switch the middle of September, and then tentatively planning on going into the hospital on say, Friday October 3rd, getting prepped overnight, and then being induced on Saturday the 4th, or so says the doc.

You know what I say to all that? AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!! It's so exciting to have things a little more spelled out, but it's crazy to think that we have less than four months of Bunless-ness. How time flies when you're gaining weight!

At present, I don't have too many worries about actual labor logistics. For every person who tells me that "being induced equals C-section", someone else assures me that they were indeed induced, but didn't have a C-section. The pregnancy debates never end, do they?