Decisions, decisions, decisions

For all of you who know me well, you know how decisive I am, and lately I've had to tackle some big and not so big decisions.

Last night's big decision was what face to put on my Halloween jack-o-lantern. Aaron, Naomi and I each carved out a BIG pumpkin to get in the Halloween spirit. Since the pumpkins were all the same price, no matter what the size, Naomi and I picked the biggest ones we could find. They're sitting on our front steps now, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that no youngsters will smash them. Hope they bring you some Halloween spirit too -

I also made the decision that next Tuesday, October 28 would be my last day teaching. My students take their mid-term exam that day, so that will allow me to end at a natural ending point and let the sub start a new unit. My students seemed surprised that we were already to that point, and I think they were a little disappointed that I would be leaving them, but they were excited for us nonetheless. It feels good to know what the plan is & I'm sure my sub feels the same, so she won't get a frantic call one night or morning and have to throw something together super fast.

But the big decision is with the baby. If I don't go into labor by next Wednesday, they'll be doing more measurements and assuming the baby is around 10 lbs (as the doctor is anticipating), we'll make the decision as to whether induce or do a c-section. The doctor talked to me (and my friend Naomi who went with me since Aaron couldn't) and said she would probably leave it up to me, but I got the impression that she was encouraging me to consider the c-section. She commented that she'd hate to ruin a positive pregnancy experience in the last few hours if this baby was too big for me to deliver. She's also concerned about shoulder displasia (sp?), which is when the shoulders get caught up in the pelvis; if this were to happen it could cause pelvic damage to me and potentially break the baby's shoulder or cause nerve damage in one of us. So we're weighing our options and trying to decide what to do. While earlier, I'd have probably said cut me, open me up & take the baby out, lately I've been wondering if giving birth is all part of the experience. I'm afraid I'll be missing something if I don't do it, but we'll see what we decide. Part of me wishes they didn't give us an option and just told us what we should do.

We don't know yet when it will be scheduled for. It could be as early as the next day (next Thursday) or into the next week sometime. It all depends on what the hospital's schedule looks like, and since I'm not high-risk in the hospital's mind (in the doctor's yes, because of the size of the baby but the hospital's no, because I'm not diabetic, don't have high blood pressure, etc.), I won't have first priority, but we'll see what happens.

So that's where we are with things right now, not really knowing much more but having more to think about. I'm sure this will be just the first of many decisions that we'll be making together as we start our new family, and it's so great to know that we can be open & honest with each other and have others that we can talk to as well.

If we have any more info, we'll be sure to let you know, but in the meantime we'd appreciate your prayers as we finish out the last part of this time of preparation. We leave you with Aaron's new favorite picture; he thinks it just cute how kitty and I were curled up together on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Hope you're all well & we look forward to hearing from you -