41 week update #2

Maybe I should have waited to post my earlier update today, but I'm home again after my appointment today having nice STRONG contractions (yay! and ouch! at the same time) and experiencing some back labor because baby is of course back to positioned badly, although thankfully still head down and engaged at station -2 for those of you who may know what that means (fairly low & engaged). My midwife said there was a lot of progress from last week (so glad all of these contractions over the past week are doing something for dilation and effacement) and she did a membrane sweep which she said usually results in active labor 24-48 hours after for first time moms. We'll see. I can hope!! (And so is just about everyone else I'm guessing, haha.)

I'm supposed to try castor oil (a LOT of castor oil) if there's no baby by Saturday. Eww. 

Also, I made an appointment for next Wednesday (that we are all hoping I won't need to keep :) to do a biophysical (to assess baby's health) and NST (also to assess baby's health) to determine if we continue to try to move things along naturally or transfer my care to a hospital for induction. Given my lack of space in the tummy region (I am 4'10" after all) she doesn't really want baby to continue growing much longer than that. Her best guess without a sonogram is that baby is around 7 1/2 lbs at this point. She's had a TON of practice so her guesses are usually fairly accurate. I don't want her growing much bigger than that either!! At least, not until AFTER she's born :)