What's our Exit Plan?

What goes in must come out right?! This past weekend my husband and I completed two days of birthing classes to learn all the "ins and outs" of the birthing process.  Now, I have given birth to a baby before, but this one is going to be much different.  The first time I gave birth we already knew our baby was going to be born silently.  We didn't have to think about how we were going to get her out safely and alive.  I only had to dilate to 4 cm to push out her tiny little 1 pound 4 oz body.  This time I am anticipating close a 9 pound baby with a huge head that needs to fit through a completely dilated cervix.  I needed to know how we are planning to get this baby out since it is such a drastically different situation than my previous birthing experience.

So what's our exit plan going to be?! First and foremost-our plan is to GET THE BABY OUT. SAFELY. I've learned over the years that a "plan" cannot be something that is stuck to completely. There are twists and turns throughout life that we cannot control.  We have to be flexible enough to ride the tidal waves as they come and learn to adjust our sails a bit so our boat doesn't sink.  Coming into the final weeks of this pregnancy, we have an idea of what we want to happen....but we know it may not go as smoothly as we want it to go and we may need to adjust our plans a bit to make sure this baby boy is delivered safely and alive. 

At this moment in time we are planning a vaginal birth.  The umbilical cord and placenta have moved enough away from the cervix that it is safe enough to attempt this more natural route.  One of my biggest fears is the baby's big 'ol head getting stuck in the birth canal.  If this happens we have two options-a c-section as long as his head is not crowning or a suction/vacuum if his head is already crowning.  My doctor's do not use forceps which makes me feel better since I've heard about the damage that forceps can do from my sister-in-laws first birthing experience.

I've determined that I was a spiritual, relaxing (as much as possible), emotional, and motivated birthing experience.  To help accomplish this type of experience, I've created a spotify playlist that will be playing in the background while working through the contractions and pushing part of the birth.  Here's the playlist so far:

1. Hope in Front of Me-Danny Gokey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIhYZQ_ovw&list=RD9KIhYZQ_ovw#t=0
2. You Make Me Brave-Amanda Cook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UglO7SGUWk
3. Roar-Katy Perry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2f501YWxso
4. Wagon Wheel-Darius Rucker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1L1cDUZArE
5. A Thousand years-Christina Perri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ayN39xmsI
6. Through All of It-Colton Dixon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91KliTa1ksY
7. Day One-Matthew West
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5cSja6ghL8
8. All of Me-Matt Hammitt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50ygAc2qP5A
9. Lord I'm Ready Now-Plumb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfu-26ftkno
10. My Destiny-Katherine McPhee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWdFIaLBMFc
11. Somewhere Over the Rainbow-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbP3ngTqbM4
12. Champion-Plumb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScWese1WW4A
13. God Gave Me You-Blake Shelton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6YvxF6KPdc
14. Holy Spirit-Kari Jobe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPMSfCdUng
15. Brave-Moriah Peters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xWBuWtC8MY
16. Guardian Angel-Leah West
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPMfMJ3Vvsg
17. Circle of Life-Carmen Twillie, Lebo M.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLFvthzy294
18. When you Believe-Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfpE8xYBmY
19. Best Day of My Life-American Authors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fTUj9mfnUk
20. No One-Alicia Keys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlQH7rt_-SY
21. The Climb-Miley Cyrus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpTYG_Sqqdg
22. Bless the Broken Road-Rascal Flatts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnOjbFq-TqQ
23. Miracle-Celine Dion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc0iUpumZvs
24. Small Bump-Ed Sheeran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx19Km38J1M
25. I won't Give Up-Jason Mraz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYqcpTYQ8I4
26. Your Guardian Angel-The Red JumpSuit Apparatus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRehmX3zlwE

As of today, I am 1cm dilated and 40-50% effaced.  During my NST I was having several contractions but couldn't feel them.  Based on my contractions, the doctor was thinking I was going to be 3 cm dilated when she checked me.  Baby M was moving around great and his heart rate continues to to be stable and reactive.  We are hoping our baby boy will decide to come out on his own the last week in July or early the first week in August.  But we know he could come this week or next week sometime too.  And we know that he may not come out on his own at all.  If he hasn't come by the beginning of August, we will have our scheduled induction on August 6th.  We will go into the hospital on that Thursday afternoon and have a baby either that night or the next day.  I was really hoping they would induce me a day or two before I make it to 39 weeks so my sister would definitely be able to be in the delivery (she has Tuesday's and Wednesday's off work) but the doctor said they are not allowed to induce prior to 39 weeks unless they are seeing a medical problem with me or the baby.  I really do think he's going to come out on his own in the next 3 weeks though.  We will see how the next couple of appointment go and just be flexible with whatever baby boy decides to do. 

We got to tour the maternity unit yesterday where we will be giving birth.  It really helped reality set in.  Walking through the unit I felt myself tearing up thinking about the moment I get to hold our son on the outside for the first time.  What a moment that will be.  It still amazes me that this is all happening when for so long I never thought it was possible.  I feel fully prepared, okay...almost fully prepared for Baby M to come now anytime! We have everything we need organized and all the "equipment" we will need the first couple months put together.  We just need to install the car seat and finish packing our hospital bags.  Gotta get the camera and video camera both in working order so we can capture all the special moments that will be taking place on the greatest day of our lives:)

Stay tuned for more details as my body starts preparing itself for the birth of this miracle! I will leave you with our sneak peak pictures from our maternity session last week! More pictures to come soon when we get to see them all:)