August 1-4, 1998: The last few days

Sunday, August 2nd, we picked up FIL & stepMIL and headed to BIL's house on the other side of the city. August 3rd was our younger nephew's 6th birthday (his older brother was 9 at the time), & the party was this day. As was my habit, I was taking photos, when our nephew said, "I want to take YOUR picture." I handed him the camera & dh & I posed for him. He's aiming up at us & we're looking down at him (& from this vantage point, my belly looks ENORMOUS!), but it's a great photo. It is also the only photo I have of myself visibly pregnant. Thank God I let him take it. Someday when he's older, perhaps I'll tell him that.

For some reason (perhaps a party in one of the neighbours' yards -- at least, that's what I thought at the time), I had trouble falling asleep that night. Fortunately, the next day (Monday, August 3rd) was a civic holiday & I could sleep in. I was surprised when Dr. Geneticist (back from vacation) called us at home. I detected a slight note of concern in his voice. He noted that my last ultrasound had been July 13th, more than three weeks ago, and said that we should continue to closely monitor what was going on. He said he'd be happy to arrange another ultrasound for me at his hospital, and asked me to call his office in the morning & have his secretary arrange one for Wednesday afternoon. I said I was seeing Dr. Ob-gyn that morning & could hop across the street afterward for the ultrasound, so long as Dr. Ob-gyn was in agreement. He said he'd like Dr. Ob-gyn to let him know what sort of a monitoring schedule he had in mind for me. He thanked me for the thank-you card I had sent to him. In my notes from that conversation, I have written, "Hope for the best."

I called Dr. Ob-gyn's office the next morning (Tuesday, August 4th) & related my conversation with Dr. Geneticist to his secretary. She told me to go ahead & book the ultrasound through Dr. Geneticist; "I can guarantee you there won't be anything available here tomorrow," she said.

My appointment with Dr. Ob-gyn was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. the next day; the ultrasound was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Depending on how long the wait was, I wasn't sure whether I'd return to my office or just hang out around the hospital. Dh said he didn't think he could make both appointments -- he'd been taking a lot of time off to attend all these appointments with me -- so we decided I would go for my checkup by myself & he would join me later that afternoon for the ultrasound.

I called my university roommate/lawyer friend to ask her if she could help us out with getting our wills drawn up -- something we wanted to do before the baby arrived. She said she didn't do family law, & at any rate, I wouldn't want to pay her (or anyone else in her firm's) steep prices (at the time, I think she was billing at $300 an hour!). She said she would ask around & get back to me.

The baby seemed quieter lately (although I did note some movement in the evening these days). There was a nagging feeling in the back of my head that, small or not, she really should be moving more by now. I rechecked my small library of pregnancy books, & most of them said that movement did not become very strong or consistent until after about 24 weeks, which was more or less where I was at. And of course, she was "small for dates"....