Happy Birthday, Rhett!!!

If all goes according to plan, we should meet Rhett in about 3.5 hours!!! I can't believe it! Of course, I'm not counting on everything going as scheduled - that would be setting myself up for disappointment! ha!

So here's what happened to lead up to this point. First off let me say that we are both healthy and doing great, so no need for any worry. We have a c section scheduled for 8:30 this morning at Northside Hospital (Atlanta/Dunwoody/Perimeter location). FJ will have my phone as well as his and will call folks if we need anything at all. We appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers being sent our way this morning. The support we've received from our friends and family over the past 9 months has been unreal. Rhett is a very lucky little boy!

Yesterday morning at 9:10 I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment. The roads iced over Wednesday night in Atlanta. Folks who live in ATL know that this means the entire city shut down and the roads were taken over by absolute idiots. FJ and I showed up for my appointment (FJ wanted to go to this one for whatever reason) and the Kaiser office was closed. Someone told us they were on a 2 hour delay. On our way back home, I called the Kaiser office to see if I was supposed to just come on in at 11:10 or what.

This is why they should give pregnant women their own phone number. When I called, they offered to reschedule my 39 week check up for next week. I calmly, or not so calmly pointed out that I already had an appointment for next week...a 40 week check up. So a 39 week check up at 40 weeks was hardly helpful. The woman on the phone tried to calm me down by explaining that they were simply looking out for the safety of their patients and staff by delaying the opening of the offices until 10 and canceling all appointments before 10. I, in turn, explained to her that my safety was hardly considered when I wasn't alerted of this and drove to the office and back home anyway. I settled for a 3:50pm appointment with the Physician's Assistant that we had seen for most of our appointments before 36 weeks.

We went for our appointment and at the beginning, Susan (our PA) mentioned that she could get us into the ultra sound room to take a look at Rhett. She did the usual exam and I'll spare the details but she did some other 39 week tricks to see if they could tip the scales and get him moving. Let's just say it was not comfortable. Or fun. We almost left without the ultra sound, but FJ asked and she got us in there. Immediately she noticed that his head was where his butt should be. This is bad. They had thought for the past several weeks that his head was down. Again, I'll spare the details, but for 3 weeks in a row, they had been able to "confirm" that he was head down. Apparently there is a part of the butt/spine that feels like the head... ewww. So many jokes coming to mind -this kid's rehearsal dinner for his wedding is already loaded with stories and jokes. Poor thing.

She went over some options as she was taking some measurements, including bringing me back Monday to see if he had turned on his own and making that appointment at the hospital so that they could try to turn him if he hadn't. Apparently this often stresses the baby and will cause the hospital to induce labor and results in an emergency c section. That sounded like no fun. After getting some calculations (of course he was not cooperating, why would he?), she determined that Rhett was around 8.5 pounds...which is huge. There is no turning this huge baby!!!

Susan went to find out doctor, Dr. Smith to find out who was on call for Friday and if they could get us in to get him out. Dr. Smith was the doc on call for Friday (today) and called Northside to schedule our c section. She came in and talked through our options with us. We obviously did NOT need to be sold on skipping out on the scary, procedures with the risks of harm to the baby. Sign us up for the express route!

So, here we are. I'm so excited and absolutely terrified. I don't know too many folks who love to have blood work done, have IVs and are overly fond of needles, but I do have a bit of a physical reaction to these things which includes tears, light headedness and the occasional passing out. So this should be an adventure.

Today is major surgery, but we are fully prepared. So much so that I haven't had anything to eat or drink since midnight and about to die of thirst - mostly because I can't have anything! Our bags are packed, we are walking out the door to go meet our little guy. We have a few hours of paperwork, blood work and prep. Assuming nobody in "real" labor or with an emergency comes in, we'll go in for surgery at 8:30 and Rhett will join us around 8:45 or so! It's pretty quick and easy, the recovery is the hard part!!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!! We'll be at the hospital all weekend. We'll probably be a bit preoccupied so don't get offended if we aren't answering our phones or returning emails or texts. :)

We'll follow up soon!!!