Delicious Ambiguity

There have been lots and lots and lots of questions sent to me lately, so I'm going to try to answer some questions...

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to have a C-section. We leave for the hospital at noon, start prepping for surgery at 1:00 and will be in surgery by 3:00 (unless we get bumped by an emergency C-section). My mom is here to watch the kids and my mother-in-law is here to help at the hospital, and at home, and everywhere in between! :)

Tomorrow is also my due date. I am so thankful to have a doctor who let me go all the way up to my due date before scheduling the surgery (usually with VBACs they want you to schedule it sooner so that there is no chance of you going into labor). In fact, our doctor is willing to give me another week, if I feel that I want to wait longer, but with the help of our doctor and a lot of prayer, we have decided that a C-section is probably the best and safest decision at this point.

There were several factors that went into making this decision. The biggest one being that I'm not progressing (I'm not dilating or effacing). With a normal delivery, a doctor can give a mommy something to help soften her cervix and help her body progress toward delivery. With a VBAC, it's my understanding that it's just too risky to use anything like that for fear of greater chance of uterine rupture. I considered waiting another week and scheduling the C-section later on, but I don't know that my chances of progressing will go up in doing that. Going by the first day of my last menstrual cycle, my due date should have been on July 23rd, so I feel that I have allowed myself some extra time, anyway.

I have been praying a lot about this. I truly believe that we did everything we could to have a VBAC, and the rest was totally out of our control and up to God. He could have put my body into labor at any point! However, for some reason, it never happened, so therefore I'm trusting that God knows more than I do and this is the safest thing for me at this point.

Thank you for all of the prayers and support. This has been such a long journey for me (especially the last few weeks) and in some ways I'm glad it's almost over, but in other ways I really wish it were different. Surgery is definitely not my favorite thing, especially since I hate hate hate hate needles and couldn't sleep last night just because I was so worked up about a simple blood draw that I had today! However, I made it through the blood draw without passing out and I'm confident that I'll make it through the surgery, too. Besides, the prize at the end is pretty great, don't you think?!!

I'll try to keep everyone updated as we go tomorrow, depending on internet at the hospital and circumstances surrounding the day. Please keep the questions coming. I hope to document our C-section experience here because I've had a lot of questions specifically about the C-section and exactly what happens and how it happens. I'd like to include you in on our birth story while educating on C-sections at the same time, too! It's quite possible that I may just post updates on Facebook and then transfer my thoughts, feelings, and experience onto the blog at a later time, but regardless, I will share soon! And any guesses on baby's weight in the meantime?!! Looks like most of the blog readers think baby #3 is a GIRL!!!! :) We'll all find out very soon...