Back from the birth center... so here are the intimate details about my wife's cervix: she is 3 centimeters dialated, 100% effaced ("ripe"), and the baby is at a +1 station, meaning she's moving into the birth canal. She had a non-stress test, and the midwife said the results were a textbook example of how they should look. A non stress test measures the heart rate over thirty minutes with the intention of comparing it to the baby's movements. If the heart rate goes up after a movement, everything is great; if it goes down, something may be wrong because the baby has to use so much energy to move that its heart rate suffers afterward. She will have another NST on Monday if the baby isn't born.

With any luck, she'll be born this weekend. We are kind of hoping for Sunday now because the midwife Beth really likes is on call. She really likes all of them, but this one she really, really likes. So I am going back to work today. If the baby isn't born by Monday, she will have another NST, but she will also have an ultrasound to measure the amount of amniotic fluid. If she doesn't go into labor by Wednesday, she will go to the hospital and start pitocin on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Beth is still having contractions, but less frequently.