Whew - Close Call

We had a bit of a scare last Friday at our checkup - things initially were looking good: baby's heartbeat going good, dilated one centimeter, looking good in general - but when we went in for the NST, they were concerned about Flipper's position. She had gotten annoyed and moved north, so they were worried that she hadn't turned. This lead to an immediate ultrasound - now pipe down; we didn't get any new pictures because she's too big to get a good shot of, but believe me, she seemed fine. Anyhoo, as they were checking (and yes, she's head down now), they noticed two things: one, that the amniotic fluid was low, and two, that the placenta was starting to age and calcify. Now with the fluids, I am known to drive my vehicle until the gas gauge is riding the "E", which makes Steven nuts; our OB does this, too, so I felt somewhat vindicated, but in this case, having low fluids is not cool, so I was ordered to drink fluids like they were going out of style AND to spend quality time lying on my left side doing nothing. I complied completely with edict one and mostly with edict two (we had some nursery work to do). Placenta aging is another issue, apparently affected by fluid levels; it gets old, just like the rest of me, and functions less and less. This happens with all placentas, but in *ahem* younger women it is seen after 40 weeks instead of earlier.
So, today's checkup was a bit of a nail-biter because if the fluids weren't up, we'd be on our way to Riverside hospital. The good news - fluids were up and that makes both Flipper and the placenta happy (yes, the placenta looked a lot happier when I saw it on the ultrasound - smilin' and everything) and we got another centimeter. Doc says we bought some time and every day Flipper spends cooking, the stronger she gets. Friday she "weighed" in at just over six pounds - they can do this with the ultrasound somehow, which is pretty cool).
On the sort-of bummed or wistful side, we were ready to go today - packed up and relatively mentally prepared for a birthday. I know when Kennedy gets home from school she will be an unhappy camper because she is really, and I mean really, excited about being an older sister. But, as the doc said, we bought some time - exactly four days; we go back in this Friday to do the NST, ultrasound, and internal check again to see what's up - Kim (OB) was not guaranteeing anything after Friday, so we may be going at the end of the week, or we may advocate to schedule for a day that we all can agree upon, at least getting us into February AND having our OB available. Of course, she had to throw in that with the snow coming, a drop in pressure could trigger the water to break - apparently they see that a lot this time of year. Now why did she have to go and harsh my mellow? I was cool with just hanging out until Friday but now I have to worry about spontaneous uncontrolled leakage? Oh, and here's the kicker: with a twinkle in her eye, Kim informed me that because of my "advanced maternal age" I was classified as "elderly". Guess I'd better start practicing chasing kids off the yard with my cane and signing up for my Golden Buckeye card - hey, where do elderly people hang out these days? Anywhere cool?