The Art of Persuasion

Since Bunny persists in enjoying the comfort of her in utero home, we began to "persuade" her to join us in the outside world today. We're at due date + 10 days and enough is beginning to be enough! :-)

So we walked over to the hospital this afternoon and got hooked up to the continuous monitoring device that charts the baby's heartbeat for 30 minutes to see what she's up to. It's fascinating -- with each kick her heartbeat jumps up from the rest rate of 130 bpm to about 160. Then it settles back down over 15 seconds or so. (We actually had this test earlier in the week to make sure that everything was continuing to be ok and she apparently grabbed her umbilical cord for a few minutes and brought her pulse down to around 90 bpm...and nearly gaver her father a heart attack! She's obviously inherited her sense of fun [from mother or father we'll leave you to decide] with her how-will-they-react-if-I-make-myself-pass-out antics.)

But before the monitoring the midwife did a little exam on Crystal. (Can you believe she's been pregnant for 9 ½ months and no one has taken the first peep you-know-where? This is a very modest people.) This included "stripping the membranes" (which isn't as scary as it sounds -- speaking as the comfortable man standing there with all of his clothes on....). It's supposed to encourage labor, but its efficacy is dubious.

But sure enough, a few hours later "something" is happening, Crystal reports. We're not sure what so don't get too excited. But she's doing quite a bit of grimacing and ohhing and so on. We've had false alarms before, so we're not quite sure what to think. But Bunny, hear this: we have an appointment to admit Crystal to the hospital for induction on Monday at 10pm. This is the big guns, y'hear? As the police say, you may as well come quietly....

On another front, we're really happy to have Crystal's mom with us now. She flew into Manchester on Wednesday and came into the Durham train station a few hours later (I'll let others share the train mis-hap story). It's great to have her here with us.

This reminds me of a story my thesis supervisor, Walter Moberly tells of his daughter's birth. A couple of days after they brought her home they were at their wits end trying to console her. They had tried everything to no avail. Just when they were about to give up hope of calming her down, his American wife Jenny's mother appeared at the door. "Just like the United States Cavalry coming to save the day!" She whisked little Rachel out of their arms and skillfully put her to sleep.

So Bunny, I'll have you know that we didn't just call the U.S. Calvary but the legendary Texas Rangers!