the saga continues

I know I kind of left you hanging- when we did the lung maturity amnio at 35 wks- his level was 16 (45 is considered mature) so of course no one wanted to induce. we scheduled another amnio for the following week- this time the result was 22 (again no where close to maturity) at this point though I was ready to jump off a cliff- we were in a hard spot trying to balance the risks of the umbilical vein varix (and it's risk of thrombosis or intrauterine death) and the risk of respiratory distress (which for as late in the game as i was) was far preferable. SO the day before thanksgiving i went to meet with Dr. Weisberger one of the neonatalogists (basically to inform me of the risks if we chose to pursue induction w/out lung maturity). We ended up having a really good discussion about my history, this unusual cord anomaly, and the risks for the baby. At the end of our discussion he suggested we do an xray and abdominal ultrasound after birth to ensure everything was okay. I decided 37 weeks was my limit and although statistically his risks for RDS was still just over 10%- that is generally treatable and the risk on the other side was unacceptable in my book. So I went in and told my perinatalogist I was done- I felt we had pushed things far enough and I would accept responsibility for the outcome- She was in agreement and so was the neonatalogist. I just wanted to have him because I knew i couldn't handle another loss. So we scheduled induction for Tuesday the 27th--the day I turned 37 weeks- unfortunately I was the least dilated and effaced of any of my pregnancies- so my induction would require a little more assistance this time so after 4 rounds of cytotek, numerous rounds of doctors, and residents and 21 hours my little boy was finally born! I was so happy to finally have him here safely-- after so many weeks of such incredible stress I was glad to be done.