Induction Day 1

Well, it appears that the assessment of where I was from weeks ago may have been overly optimistic.  I am somewhat effaced (most everyone else has said 50%) but that’s it.  Basically my body is not at all ready for labor.  So we’re going with a very slow induction — this should take several days.  So no baby immediately, but we are working on it: more news as I have it and can access the Internet.

Wednesday Maybe Baby?

If baby doesn’t arrive before then on her own, we’re going to try inducing Wednesday.

I have some mixed feelings, but I do think it’s a good idea.

Sciatic nerve pain has started being a problem over the last week.  If you’ve never experienced it, it’s hard to explain: a pain that shoots from your lower back down the butt (for me on the right side) and down into the leg.  I haven’t had this problem since law school, when I woke up one day (after admittedly trying to ignore my back pain for a week) and couldn’t walk at all: my entire lower back had locked up.  It was terrifying, and while I understand it now, the thought of being pregnant and in that state is also, well, terrifying.  (Calling your ex-boyfriend — even if now a friend –  to help transport/carry you to the doctor because you can barely move on your own?  Yeah, not one of my most glamorous moments.)  As the doctor at the time explained it, since I wouldn’t take the timeout to rest on my own, my body took it for me.

It probably won’t get that bad again, I had other small bouts in law school where I was careful to rest and it would go away without becoming so dire.  Right now I just limp, which goes well with my waddle; and the pain comes and goes instead of being an all the time constant, which is heartening (today, for example, barely any twinge — but yesterday at the grocery store was so bad I just sat in the car and let Sean do the majority of the shopping alone).  And if I move slow enough, I can even avoid limping with the pain when I have it (though it’s hard to move that slowly anywhere but at home).  But it still worries me a bit, since I am constantly carrying extra weight.  And I can’t take the anti-inflammatories I would take otherwise, though it’s not that bad yet.  On the plus side I am already spending a lot of time in bed (the best cure) though I can’t be flat on my back for long, and have to get up a lot.  I think that’s part of why it comes and goes: I rest up a good bit, but pregnancy is putting extra pressure on my back which then re-aggravates it.

Between that, my up and down blood pressure, and my general discomforts, I’d like to be done.

However I know that each intervention I have (like say inducing) raises the chances of having another intervention.  Pitocin induced contractions, from what I’ve read, are more painful and harsh than the contractions that would occur naturally.  (I wonder why that is?)  So you are more likely to want pain killers.  Also, your body isn’t as ready to start labor (duh, maybe that’s why pitocin contractions are worse) so there is more pain, and more chance of tearing or complications that will lead to an episiotomy, or even a c-section.

Of course, at a week late my body should be pretty ready to go (I’m not inducing at an early point) so hopefully this will just be a jump-start to what my body is ready to do anyway.  And since for the last month I have been measuring large (fundal height-wise — my weight is fine at 25-27 lbs gained), there is the possibility that baby is big (no guarantee, just a possibility) and an episiotomy or c-section may be on the horizon already, especially the longer she stays where she is.

So I’m still hopeful that baby will choose to make an appearance on her own.  Otherwise however, you probably won’t be hearing from me on Wednesday.

Now we’ll just have to see if that means baby Wednesday, or baby Thursday or Friday.  Wish me luck.

40 Weeks 4 Days: A Conversation

E: I should probably send out a “no baby” text message tonight, let people know what’s up.

S: Yeah.

E: It’s hard to believe she doesn’t want to come out.

S: [soothing] It’s only been a couple of days; it’s not been a week yet.

E: A couple of days! It’s more than a couple of days!  [pause, then, plaintive and quiet] It’s double a couple…

*

So, er, yeah, still waiting. [grin] She’ll come when she’s ready, I’ll keep everyone updated.

Really Nine Months

I was trying to figure out when the actual nine month mark would be: by which I mean 3/4 of a year, not the four-week lunar month.  (Our calendar months are actually like 4.3 weeks or so, since there are 52 weeks in 12 months.)

If I go from conception [guesstimated], I think I get to actually have been pregnant for nine whole months when I hit 41 weeks.  If I go from my lmp, that would have been at 39 weeks–that may be the more accurate way to think of it, I’m not sure: It makes pregnancy 9 months + 1 week long .  Human gestation is about 280 days…that’s a little over 3/4 of a year…hmm…

Regardless, it’s crazy to think it’s really been 3/4 of a year I’ve been pregnant.  Almost there, heh.