38 Week Update

I’m full-term now and technically Baby Roo could come any day… though I’m hoping for a minimum of at least another week while preparing myself for the statistical probability of another 3 weeks. It certainly wouldn’t be a disaster if he decided to come right now, but it would be inconvenient. After all, our kitchen still looks like this:

I’m feeling big and cumbersome these days, but overall I’m feeling well. I’m even still sleeping all the way through the night. I know, I know, pregnant women everywhere hate me for that. It’s like Jeff says: sleeping is my super power. For real.

My tiger stripes (aka stretch marks) showed up on my belly and hips a few weeks ago and continue to make strides. Good thing I love this baby already! Ah, well, they were inevitable I suppose.

We’ve made good nursery progress and the room is almost already to go. Like I said above, it wouldn’t be a disaster if he came now, but I’d really like just a little bit more time. My hospital bag is about half-packed.

We have a bazillion packages coming in the mail this week of various baby things. Okay, so more like 11. Four showed up today! UPS is going to get very familiar with our porch. Gotta get the most out of those 10% off baby registry completion discounts.

The biggest development came last week when I tested positive for Group B Strep (GBS). Basically that means I’m a carrier for this bacteria and I could pass it along to the baby during birth. He has a 1 in 200 chance (0.5%) of getting sick from the bacteria, but in this case “sick” means serious illness like pneumonia, meningitis, or sepsis. The normal course of action is to give the mother antibiotics during labor, reducing the risk of infection in the baby to 1 in 4,000 (0.025%). The issue starts to get complicated because introducing the baby’s immature immune system to antibiotics so early in life could cause other problems later on. I hate the idea of killing off all the good flora and bacteria essential to good health when I don’t know if it’s even necessary. It might be like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. It essentially becomes a numbers game. Risks vs. benefits. I see the baby’s doctor on Friday and hopefully he’ll have some good advice. If I accept the antibiotics (which seems likely at this point unless we’re prepared for a big fight against the hospital pediatricians), I’ll be prepared with strong probiotics to counteract the antibiotics. And, yes, I know I’m in the minority on this, but I really want what is best for the baby. Unfortunately, there appears to be research to back up both sides of the issue.

Since the risk to the baby is actually so low, my biggest anxiety with being GBS positive is what happens if my water breaks to kick off labor or breaks and labor is slow to start. I really want to labor at home for as long as possible, but the midwives want me to get started on antibiotics as soon as possible after my water breaks. I’ve already shared about this anxiety before, and it’s ramped up now that this new factor is in play. The numbers are in my favor for this not to happen, but it’s still hard to release my fears. The midwife I saw yesterday mentioned wanting to induce if my water breaks without spontaneous labor (so not cool!), and I have a call in to the office for clarification on that possible timeline. One of the reasons I picked this midwife practice was because they don’t pressure you to induce right away if your water breaks. I didn’t realize that being GBS+ could change all that.

Also, I’m allergic to the normally prescribed antibiotic and while there is another safe alternative for me, it comes with more possible side effects (for me and the baby). Not cool.

So… yeah. Prayers for wisdom and peace of mind are greatly appreciated.

I’ll leave you with the most recent belly picture (I swear I look bigger than this in real life):