University of MI Appointment #3

Mom and Evan are in the home stretch now, we’ve got just over a week to go! We have worked out most of the logistics for the birth, at least the ones that we can control, the rest is up to Evan and when he decides that he wants to make his debut.

The appointment today was very routine and barely worth the drive to Ann Arbor, but that’s ok. They asked how Sarah was feeling, asked if she was experiencing any signs of labor such as contractions, fluids, etc. Nothing to report there. Then the doctor says, “ok, we will scheduled your induction for July 18th.” Huh? This is the first we have heard about being induced. We put the brakes on that… We want to let it be as natural as possible, the longer he stays in there the bigger and stronger he’ll be for the surgery. We informed her that we will be moving to Ann Arbor next week to wait it out and don’t want to induce until the following week if nothing has happened. We’ve talked about this with them before but I guess when you talk to a different OB every time the wires can get crossed. She had no issues with our plan.

We talked about what to do if she does start having contractions before we get ‘moved’ to Ann Arbor and ran through a few scenarios…

• Call the U of M Birth Center Triage if we have any questions 24/7  (speed dial added).
• If her water breaks or she starts to have any bleeding then we go directly to the nearest hospital.
• If she starts having contractions and they’re regular and strong we can go to the nearest hospital, if when we get there and they check her out, she’s not dilated very much then the best bet is to get back in the car and head to Ann Arbor.
• If contractions get to be about 8 minutes apart, strong, 1 minute in length, and consistent for an hour then we would head to Ann Arbor.

I don’t suspect that we’ll need to do any of these, but we’ve got to be thinking about them just in case.

One concern to us is the possibility of Sarah needing a c-section so we talked about that also. In the event of a c-section Evan would need to be moved to Ann Arbor and mom would be stuck in Kalamazoo until she’s been released from ‘major surgery.’ What scenarios would necessitate a c-section?  We talked about a few of them and the doctor did not express any concern that a c-section would be needed. <fingers crossed>

They listened to Evan’s heartbeat and sent us on our way. Drive time 3.5 hours, time in waiting room/exam room waiting to be seen 1.0 hours, actual appointment 20 minutes. 🙂 <shrug> oh well, lol.

We will move to Ann Arbor next week, have 2 appointments in Ann Arbor starting the following week and if Evan has not come by July 25th then they will begin the induction process. They prefer to start the induction early in the week with heart patients so that it’s not happening over the weekend when the hospital and especially the pediatric unit is not at full staff. Good call!