38 Week Appointment

Ashley and I went to the doctor this morning for our final ultrasound. There were no good headshots on the sonogram, so everyone will just have to wait a little longer to see John, and that is currently looking like it will be next week. Ashley is 4cm dilated and 80% effaced, still having had no noticeable contractions. The baby is weighing 8lbs today. His head is measuring in the 66th percentile of size, and his abdomen is measuring in the 96th percentile of size. This all means that his abdomen is larger around than his head, and that is causing a little concern for the doctor because there is an increased risk in a difficult delivery if the baby gets (a) to much larger or (b) delivers his head but has trouble with the shoulders and abdomen. I am told that the head should be the largest part, and if it comes out everything else will follow. But in this case just because John's head comes out, the rest of him will still be difficult(could get stuck) because it is bigger than his head, and that could lead to complications we want to avoid. 

The doctor is giving us this weekend to see if labor occurs naturally. If not, we have an appointment on Monday at 10:45am where we will re-examine Ashley and schedule a date for induction. We are currently thinking early in the week, like Tuesday, but will let you all know after Monday's appointment. The doctor's opinion is that there is no benefit at this point in keeping John inside any longer than we already have, that he is basically already big enough, strong enough, and has proper lung development to be perfectly healthy if he were to come today. The risks in keeping him inside longer are really for Ashley in the form of an increased need for c-section or extremely painful and difficult normal delivery. So it sounds like I might just get the left tackle I was hoping for after all.