No Baby Yet
I'm dying here. Seriously. OK, not really. I'm not in any pain or anything. I'm just SO TIRED of being pregnant. I've been pregnant since DECEMBER! I've honestly forgotten what it's like to not be pregnant. I'm even pregnant in all my dreams now. I so don't want to get on the scale tomorrow at the doctor's office. Last appointment I was right at 29 pounds (30 is the ideal weight gain) but all I've done is eat in the last week and a half. So yeah, I'm kinda afraid to see the number.
Saturday - baby's estimated due date - came and went. I got up, cleaned house, went to the Auburn game, visited with a few friends (and missed a few more), and NOTHING. Not a twinge. I just knew it was going to happen last night. I started contracting just before two yesterday afternoon, and it lasted until 4:30. Then it started again around 9:00 and lasted till 10:30. I like to died when it quit at 10:30. I want this baby to come so much!
I sent my mother and my MIL messages last night about the contractions, and they've both called and checked on me today, as well as my sister-in-law and a couple of friends. I know they're doing it because they're concerned and excited. But in my "down times" I feel like I'm a failure because I haven't had this baby yet. It alternates between, "What's wrong with my baby in that he won't come down?" and "What's wrong with my body in that it's not doing its job to MAKE him come down?"
OK, so I go to the doctor tomorrow morning for an ultrasound, non-stress test, and then a meeting with the doctor to discuss my options. There are several options - only one of which is acceptable to me. I may be able to post more about this tomorrow after meeting with him, but from my research here's what I know. Stripping the membranes is really the only acceptable option for me. It's where the doctor, while checking for dilation, takes his finger and sweeps around to pull the sac of waters off of the wall of the cervix. It can sometimes put women into labor immediately, sometimes hours later, sometimes not at all.
All of the other options involve drugs. There's a pill you can take and/ or deposit directly into your cervix. It can start labor, but it can also rupture your uterus. Um. Not okay with that. There's Pitocin, which is the most common intervention. It's a synthetic version of oxytocin, which your body produces naturally. Oxytocin makes the contractions happen. Pitocin, or the Pit drip, makes it happen immediately. Immediately two minutes apart, with no break in between. It causes distress on both the baby and the mother.
The biggest problem with starting one medical intervention is that it almost always leads to another intervention. You get the Pitocin, deal with the stress your body is not supposed to handle for hours, then beg for the epidural. The epidural takes away the pain, sure, but it also slows the contractions, so the Pitocin has to be upped. Do we see the cycle here? Eventually the baby becomes "in distress" and there's an "emergency" C-section to save the baby. Not okay with that either.
So yeah, here I sit, with nothing happening - again. I've read books, rented movies, swam in the pool, walked, washed clothes, cleaned the nursery, baked a cake, and tried a few other natural induction methods that are a little more fun :-) What else can I do? Aside from drinking castor oil, which I refuse to do, nothing. So I'm washing yet another load of clothes and waiting. Sigh...
Saturday - baby's estimated due date - came and went. I got up, cleaned house, went to the Auburn game, visited with a few friends (and missed a few more), and NOTHING. Not a twinge. I just knew it was going to happen last night. I started contracting just before two yesterday afternoon, and it lasted until 4:30. Then it started again around 9:00 and lasted till 10:30. I like to died when it quit at 10:30. I want this baby to come so much!
I sent my mother and my MIL messages last night about the contractions, and they've both called and checked on me today, as well as my sister-in-law and a couple of friends. I know they're doing it because they're concerned and excited. But in my "down times" I feel like I'm a failure because I haven't had this baby yet. It alternates between, "What's wrong with my baby in that he won't come down?" and "What's wrong with my body in that it's not doing its job to MAKE him come down?"
OK, so I go to the doctor tomorrow morning for an ultrasound, non-stress test, and then a meeting with the doctor to discuss my options. There are several options - only one of which is acceptable to me. I may be able to post more about this tomorrow after meeting with him, but from my research here's what I know. Stripping the membranes is really the only acceptable option for me. It's where the doctor, while checking for dilation, takes his finger and sweeps around to pull the sac of waters off of the wall of the cervix. It can sometimes put women into labor immediately, sometimes hours later, sometimes not at all.
All of the other options involve drugs. There's a pill you can take and/ or deposit directly into your cervix. It can start labor, but it can also rupture your uterus. Um. Not okay with that. There's Pitocin, which is the most common intervention. It's a synthetic version of oxytocin, which your body produces naturally. Oxytocin makes the contractions happen. Pitocin, or the Pit drip, makes it happen immediately. Immediately two minutes apart, with no break in between. It causes distress on both the baby and the mother.
The biggest problem with starting one medical intervention is that it almost always leads to another intervention. You get the Pitocin, deal with the stress your body is not supposed to handle for hours, then beg for the epidural. The epidural takes away the pain, sure, but it also slows the contractions, so the Pitocin has to be upped. Do we see the cycle here? Eventually the baby becomes "in distress" and there's an "emergency" C-section to save the baby. Not okay with that either.
So yeah, here I sit, with nothing happening - again. I've read books, rented movies, swam in the pool, walked, washed clothes, cleaned the nursery, baked a cake, and tried a few other natural induction methods that are a little more fun :-) What else can I do? Aside from drinking castor oil, which I refuse to do, nothing. So I'm washing yet another load of clothes and waiting. Sigh...