36 Weeks

36 weeks and 4 days to be exact :)

This week has been filled with emotions... My last OB appointment with Dr. Barnhart was on Monday. We had our last anatomy scan today, but we started our weekly "high risk" clinic visits at Riverside. The place was pretty creepy to be honest. I even asked if we were in the right place, the idea of a "community clinic" was not very inviting. Not predjudice by any means, but out of 10 other mothers we were the only ones who did not have an interpreter. I had to remind myself we were in the big city, an hour from home. Then our name was called to go back. Even the nurse checking us in didn't speak very good english. I had our records in hand, which she did even bother to look at. She kept asking us why we were there. She was not very personable. I could feel myself losing control of my emotions. When she left to see if there was room clean. Matt said, alright this place is a joke...... That was it, enough said and I completely lost it. Tears were like a waterfall streaming down my face. The nurse took us to a room, she didn't make eye contact which was the best thing at that moment I suppose, told me to undress and shut the door. I could not get a hold of myself. Here we were in a completely different place, I was way out of my comfort zone, I had not idea what to expect, or who was going to see me. So after sitting there for quite some time, a nurse came in and introduced herself- she was over the high risk pregnancy department. She was reassuring and explained the process to us. I was more upset of not knowing what to expect ahead of time. Then a 4th year resident came in. I cannot remember her name for the life of me, but thankfully she will be there the next 2 weeks and I will continue to see her. She was so nice and made me feel 100% at ease. She knew about Ethan prior to coming in to see us, so there was no need to re-explain anything. So things are still the same I'm 2cm and 75%. I will continue weekly appts and plan for an induction the week of August 20th.

Next we went on to meet Dawn to have our last anatomy scan done. She is always so happy and such a wonderful person to talk with. He was being a little stubborn, but then again if I couldn't spread out I would be also lol! Thankfully everything has checked out normal besides the things we already know (complete AVSD and Trisomy 21). He weighs 7 lbs!!!!! He is in the 98th percentile. Crazy I could potentially be pregnant for another 3 weeks!?!?!?  He has gained 2.5 lbs in the last 4 weeks. Dr. Matt said these u/s are within 10% of actual weight, so pretty anxious to see how much longer he wants to cook in there!

When we were all finished Dr. Matt asked if we had taken a tour of L&D or the NICU. We had not and the high risk clinic attempted to get this set up for us, but they were full. He said then he would give us a personal tour. It was extremely thoughtful of him. It gave us a chance to ask more questions. L&D was just like most other units. Once we got to the NICU, I was a little caught off guard because we were not anticipating him to have to stay there. Dr. Matt said he could not tell us how long he would have to stay, but due to his heart defect he would go there for some extra monitoring shortly after delivery. I was relieved to see the unit was completely staffed by the Nationwide Children's Hospital nurses. They basically rent out that department within Riverside. I had no idea what to expect, but the unit was actually inviting with tons of pictures.