38 Weeks, 5 Days

Not surprisingly, tomorrow's induction has been cancelled. The still-unnamed baby was breech today, and not showing any signs of being in a hurry to escape the womb. My doctor says I'm a puzzlement, because given my age and the fact that this is my sixth baby, my placenta should be showing signs of aging by now and I should be 2-3 centimeters dilated. Instead, my body is acting like it's pregnant for the first time, with no placental aging or cervical dilation. The baby looks healthy and happy, I'm healthy and ... eager, and no one is in any hurry to speed things along.

The plan at the moment is more of a holding pattern than a plan. The doctor is willing to wait up to 2 more weeks before doing a C-section, but doesn't really want to wait longer than that because of the increased risk of having to do an emergency C-section in the event of spontaneous labor with the baby in a bad position. K is going to check baby's position every morning before work at this point. If baby is obviously transverse (sideways,) I can go back to sleep. If baby is not obviously transverse, we'll go down the road to K's office for a sonogram to determine with certainty which end is down. If baby is breech, the day will proceed normally. If baby is head down, K will call Dr. Powers, who will call the hospital and see if they have room for an induction. If not, the day will proceed normally. If they have a spot for me, we load up the car and head for the hospital. The doctor will determine whether baby is still head down, then attempt to rupture the membranes (break the bag of water surrounding the baby,) though this promises to be difficult and painful considering the fact that the baby is still high and my cervix has not even begun to dilate. Why not wait for it to change, then? Because if baby changes position again, which is likely, I may end up with a C-section. The doctor says that since my crystal ball works just as well as his, I can make the call whether to come in or wait. He doesn't mind the C-section nearly as much as I do, but I've had to recover from an abdominal incision before, albeit not a C-section, and I don't relish the idea of doing that again, especially with 3 small children at home who love being picked up.

Assuming the successful rupture of membranes, I'll be left alone for a while (I'm hoping this means no permanent attachment to restricting monitors, but that will depend on whether they've already inserted the epidural) in the hopes that labor will start on its own by morning, at which time the pitocin would likely be started to speed things along.