Update

I had a marathon doctor's appointment this morning - things go longer after the due date passes. Here's the update, in brief...

• I'm not really any further progressed than I was last week. I don't know the specifics, but the computer says that I still have a 26% chance of going into labor this week. That sounded a *little* more promising last week. :)
• We discussed the pros and cons of how long to wait, basically between weeks 41 (this coming Monday, February 5th) and 42 (next Monday, February 12th). As time passes, the placenta, which provides oxygen and nutrition to the baby, tends to degrade. Eventually, this can make the baby weaker and less able to withstand labor, which can lead to more last-minute c-sections and other health problems. We decided that if Gussie doesn't make her appearance this weekend, we'll begin inducing at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 5. They do things a little more slowly here, so I may not actually have the baby for a couple days after that - it just depends on how my body responds. I will be in the clinic beginning on Monday, though.
• We also had a non-stress test after the consultation. That basically has me lay on a bed in the clinic with a couple electrodes strapped to my belly which measure the fetal heart rate. The idea is that there is supposed to be a fluctuation as the baby moves, say from around 140 bpm to 160 bpm and back. At the beginning of the test, the doctor wasn't getting that variation, which is called a "non-reactive" test and is a little worrying; that variation did begin to occur, however, toward the end of the test period. He thinks that the baby was just asleep then - that's not unusual - but my impression was that he'd hoped for a little more reactivity. I'm not excited about the idea of an induction at all, but this made me feel better about deciding on the 5th - let's just get this over with!

So that was my adventure for the day! We would greatly appreciate your fervent prayers for the baby to be born this weekend so that we can skip the whole induction thing altogether - I'm shooting for Saturday. :)