Holy Dilation Batman!!

So I had my appointment this afternoon. It was at 3:50 and my name didn't get called until almost 5:30... this made it interesting to try and keep my blood pressure under control! I also managed to make three trips to the restroom in that time, wow. Anyway, my blood pressure wasn't quite as high, but borderline. I had a lot of anxiety going into the appointment, so I was glad that it wasn't too bad. So then the doctor checked me. He asked what I was at my last appointment (exactly one week ago) and I said a 1. I thought he was going to say I was maybe at a 2, but no, he said I'm at a 4!! I think my response was 'holy cow!' I wasn't prepared for that at all, I was so focused on the blood pressure issue. Heck, I was begging for the epidural at a 4 last time, this is a breeze so far!! I'm 90% effaced and the baby is at 0 station... i.e. ready to rock and roll!! With the baby being so low, that explains the frequent trips to the restroom lately... I went another three times before we got home!

He said I could go into hard labor as early as tonight (obviously not so far since I'm typing this), but to come back on Thursday (if I make it that long) to see if I've progressed any further and to check my blood pressure again. If I'm doing okay at that point, then he'll induce me on Friday. So no matter what, this baby will be here in a matter of days! I keep having contractions sporadically (which I did before), but now I'm paranoid that it's actual labor and don't know it. I just don't want to get to the hospital late and miss my window of opportunity for an epidural... drugs are the critical part of my birth plan... in fact, it's the only part!! He still wants me to stay home from work, so looks like I'm officially done with that for awhile. Shanon is worried about my water breaking all over the place... we just had our carpets cleaned. He really wants me to wear Depends. I'm not kidding. Is that normal?

I had Shanon take my picture in the nursery today:


Here are some pics of the nursery:





You can kinda see the outfits we have picked to bring the baby home in in this one:


So.... stay tuned!!