It's 4 AM - not sure if it's the good news or bad news keeping me up

What a surreal week. Monday was Opening Day, so we took Shea to see the Nats win! This spawned a joking discussion of what a great story it would make if I went into labor at the ballpark on Opening Day (in which case I'm pretty sure we'd have to stick with the names of Bryce if it's a boy, and Harper if it's a girl...) Yesterday, I was at a White House event with President Obama, who was unveiling the BRAIN map initiative. Which led my colleagues to speculate that the White House, while meeting with the President, would also be a good labor story. I pointed out that while we surrounded by prestigious physician scientists, including Francis Collins, Director of NIH, I was pretty sure none of them had delivered a baby since medical school. Fortunately, Baby W showed no signs on wanting to make headlines in the Washington Post by arriving early at the White House.

Today was our marathon day of doctors appointments. The morning began at Children's, with our last fetal echo before baby makes his/her debut. All good news. Nothing's changed, heart function looks good, valves aren't leaking, and the cardiologist thought the VSD side of the AVSD was looking smaller. I gather that's a good thing, because its the VSD half, rather than the ASD side that tends to cause the worst of the symptoms in an AV canal defect.

Then we had our tour of the CICU, etc. Which was amazing - what an incredible place Children's is! As much as I wish we didn't have to be there at all, I feel incredibly reassured that the baby will get the best care imaginable. The CICU is brand new, and looks very similar to the Hopkins pediatric setup that I toured just before it opened.

Not sure if I'd previously mentioned that one of my college marching band friends is a pediatric cardiologist at Children's. Well, today we discovered that so is our former next door neighbor! We ran into him during rounds, as we did our tour. We knew he was a pediatrician at Children's, but never thought to inquire what his subspecialty was. Small world!

(Insert quick business lunch here.)

Next, off to Georgetown, where we did our growth scan, met with the new MFM, had an OB appointment, a neonatal consult, and then a quick tour of the NICU. A day spent drowning in a sea of ultrasound jelly.

In good news, maybe this whole protein diet is paying off - the baby gained a pound and a half since our last growth scan! Allegedly up to 4 lbs 12 oz which, in my mind, is darn close to that magical number of 5 lbs. And everything else falls under the very reassuring term of "reassuring fetal status."

That being said, a consensus seems to have been reached that a controlled early delivery is better than a what the heck, let's just wait to go into labor approach.

So we're looking at an induction on the week of April 15th. Yikes. That suddenly seems very, very close. And I find myself selfishly mourning the loss of my ability to attend the TEDMED conference. Stupid, I know, in the scheme of things. But I was looking forward to it.

While the consult with the neonatologist was excellent - he took a ton of time with us outlining exactly what to expect when the baby arrives, it was also a little overwhelming to imagine a NICU stay of a week or more. Nothing we can do but cross that bridge when we come to it, but the thought of having to leave the hospital without my baby is something I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around. Especially since I'm going to try very hard for a VBAC this time, which means I'm likely to get kicked out pretty quickly.

Trying to imagine an itty bitty 5 or less lb baby and totally failing. Trying to imagine not having said baby with me at all times and also failing. Wallowing a little in my own misery because I still want all of this to be easy, and I hate knowing in advance it just won't.

Fortunately, thanks to the interwebs, I don't have to imagine a 4 lb 12 oz baby, I can just look at pictures:

I guess this little one doesn't look quite as tiny as I expected, so maybe this won't be so bad...

In normal pregnancy whining, here I am blogging because heartburn and insomnia are conspiring to keep me awake in the last couple of weeks where I have the possibility to get some sleep. Sigh.