And so it begins

1:55am-Woke up feeling “weird”. Frustrated because apparently my day of massive mucous expulsion had increased. Debated going to the bathroom and started to roll over on my back…only to feel a big gush of fluid. Nudged my husband

“I think my water just broke”

“HUH? Why do you think that”

He then proceeds to sleepily feel around the waistband of my undies where it is dry. I proceed to sit up and scoot to the edge of the bed and he can see that I am sitting in a puddle. Thank god we followed the directions of the midwife and had a vinyl sheet under our fitted sheet.

Hubs started changing the linens while I waddled to the bathroom to clean up in the shower. Midwife was called and I was instructed to get more sleep if I could. I guess I should also be thankful I bought the Depends like she said to.

Here we go 🙂

Baby Watch 2013

Still nothing. In fact, my daily contractions have disappeared. Nice, huh? Here’s whats going on!

I started evening primrose oil (EPO) daily. Its supposed to help your cervix ripen. Hubs hates the term “ripe cervix” so I make sure to use it often. RIPEN MY CERVIX.

I’ve been walking nearly a mile every night. Walking supposedly helps. I’ve been doing it my whole pregnancy, but now I’m pushing to walk even more. Being fit and all that is good no matter what and god knows I am not up for going to the gym.

My midwife has suggested doing my “homework”. My son’s kindergarten teacher simply told me (much to my shock and awe) that I should “screw”. In other words, get baby out the same way we got her in. At this stage of the game…well…I’ll just let you all wonder whether or not I have attempted that method. After all, I’m a lady 😉

Bouncing on an exercise ball. Opens up the pelvis. Lots of fun.

As for old wive’s tales…I’ve been eating spicy food and pineapple as much as I can tolerate. Apparently both of those send people into labor. So far all I’ve gotten is an acid burn in my mouth from eating a whole pineapple in one sitting. Some old native American woman told my mother during one of her pregnancies to contort herself all these different ways and do handstands or something. Not doing it, lied and told my mom I would. She’s crazy.

Anyone got any other suggestions???

“Are you in denial that you’re in labor?”

That’s the question I got yesterday. I’ve had soooo much back pain lately, it has been miserable. Yesterday I felt like absolute crap. I took a nap at one point and woke up and still felt horrible. Around dinner time, I was officially over it and needed some relief and hot water sounded amazing. I stumbled my way to the bathroom and crawled into the tub and turned on the shower.

HALLELUJAH!

The hubs came in to see me on all fours in the tub with the hot water raining down and he looked panicked.

“Are you in pain?”

“Yes”

“Are you contracting?”

“No”

He didn’t look convinced. Finally, I just sat back and let the tub fill up and grabbed a towel to use as a pillow. I probably made some unpleasant noises here and there, but the water felt amazing. Then he came back and asked if I was in denial about being in labor. Trust me, I wasn’t 🙂 There’s no baby today is there?! Either way, it was much needed but entertaining to see the look on his face. Poor guy.

Progress!

Forgot to mention, last week I caved and got a cervical exam.

1cm, 80% effaced.

Better then nothing! Cheers to 38 weeks and an uneventful weekend!

In case you were wondering

Still very pregnant. I’m going on 2 weeks of daily contractions. Yeah. About that…

Even though we’ve told no one about my pre-labor BS, my largeness has prompted comments from people. Our neighbors across the street are very sweet…hubs can’t walk out front without them poking their head out and asking if baby is here yet 🙂 They have been inquiring in a sweet way and I totally appreciate them thinking of us. Family however. Well…they are used to a world of inducing labor whenever the mom gets tired of being pregnant. I’m not due until June 2, but I’ve been getting daily text messages from my grandmother (of all people) asking if the baby is here yet and saying that she needs to be out already. I know there is just a lot of excitement there, but slow your roll! I think they’re tired of me saying she’ll come out when she’s ready.

That being said, I am pretty miserable. It feels like I’ve been in a prize fight from the waist down. Last night I could barely walk, this chickadee is just making her way downtown. Sweet mother of mercy does it hurt though. I’m pretty certain she is karate chopping my pubic bone in half.

I’m just full of pleasantries lately 🙂

So close!

Mother’s Day is this Sunday…it also marks week 37. In otherwords, I will be full term!!!

*happy dance*

I’m really thankful. Sure I had “morning” sickness for way too long and all the aches and complaints of a standard pregnancy, but after trying to get to this point after so long I’m just thankful. Soon I will have a beautiful little baby in my arms. Literally years in the making 🙂

Things are going well otherwise. Last Friday we were at Toys R Us when I started having contractions. After 3 of them, lasting 1 minute and 10 minutes apart, husband decided we needed to get home and monitor the situation. After an hour of it we called the midwife to let her know what was up. We picked up the boy from school and I’ve gotta give husband some props here…he went into full on labor coach mode and I was really impressed 🙂 I was on the floor and the ball and the couch and anywhere that was comfortable. It was a long 5 hours and I was exhausted so I napped since the contractions didn’t change much. I woke up to no contractions!

Not sure if it was because she dropped or the barometric pressure we’ve had or maybe it was pre-labor, but Friday happened. It has been a week and I’ve had bouts of contractions every day since “the incident”. The contraction blocks come and go, but all day long I am cramping like crazy. Oh, and I’m VERY well acquainted with my mucous plug. With the boy, the plug came out in chunks and regrew over and over. This time? It looks like my vagina sneezed. TMI? Maybe. I’m ok with that.

I’m convinced that I won’t make it to my due date and my midwife is skeptical as well. We’re all ready at home with our birth supplies and its not that I want her out, I just have a feeling its coming soon. Husband isn’t thinking she will show up until June 8. We’ll see!

Whiney whiney whiney

This is the third night of ridiculously uncomfortable sleeplessness.

33 weeks and….5 days pregnant. I have a whopping 4 weeks until I’m officially “full term”. Yeah about that?

I’m not sure whats going on in there, but someone might want to let this baby know that she needs to stay put. Wednesday I had contractions for a little over 2 hours. Not the dumb Braxton Hicks kind, but steady, timed contractions. They weren’t close enough together to cause concern, but it happened. I’ve had a few here and there since then, too. I’ve been nauseous and had no appetite since then. The pressure down below has gotten progressively worse. Sometimes its really intense, breathe through it kind of pressure. And naturally, with the discomfort and aches, I’m also having a hard time resting and getting sleep at night. Lets not forget the lovely appearance of the mucous plug.

Yes, I’m complaining. She’s not allowed out to play yet.

Third Trimester!

Ok, cue the final countdown music 🙂 We’re officially in the third trimester and you know what? It blows. I guess it wasn’t enough that I had “morning” sickness until 20 weeks. Nahhh. We decided that I had enough of a break and started in with the nausea at just over 28 weeks. Super cool. No puking yet, but man do I feel disgusting.

I’m also not convinced I’m going to make it to 40 weeks. This little chick has made her way lower over the past week and is slowly dropping. My next prenatal is on Tuesday, so I’m curious if we can tell if she is head down. I know I still have another month or so until it really matters, but I’m curious! My bet is on May 25th.

Why I shouldn’t watch shows about birth

You know, I typically really respect people no matter what their birth experience is. I know that my choices aren’t the right thing for everyone. That’s ok. Some people get an epiudural. Some get induced. Some get c-sections.

I was watching Baby Story on TLC this morning. You know, the show where it follows a preg through her birth and whatnot. Well this chick was all “YEAH! I learned about options, got a midwife and a doula and waterbirth!!” and I was like,”Wow, they rarely show these kind of women! I’m excited to watch!” So, she gets to the hospital. Only 2cm dilated, contractions spaced, and not all the way effaced. In other words, not very far along at all. However, she’s screaming at her care team that she needs an epidural now. The midwife is baffled…that’s quite the extreme for a woman that was planning a natural birth. The doula tried all the techniques they practiced to calm her. She wasn’t having it. The medical staff even told her she wan’t far enough along to GET an epidural. She didn’t care. She’s laying in bed screaming “HELP ME HELP ME” because they were delaying the epidural until she had progressed at least a little bit more. Now, I know everyone has their own pain tolerance, but DAMN. She prepped for this, but then acted like any bit of discomfort was a shock. What did you think? So she screamed at all the staff until they gave her what she wanted.

Then, its time to push. Mind you, epidural has definitely kicked in. She pushed twice and then lays back and goes, “Yeah, I can’t do this. Sorry.” The staff just stared at her. Uh hello, there is a baby hanging out in your vagina. You kinda need to finish pushing it out. She kept arguing with them that she wasn’t going to do it. The midwife then tells her, “Look, the baby’s heartrate is dropping. Now you need to do something for your baby, not yourself.” Good. This woman was really getting on my nerves, someone needed to snap her back into reality. She didn’t want a c-section, but didn’t want to push it out…if anything was going to put the baby in distress it was sitting there in limbo and she didn’t want to do anything? Honestly, what was she expecting? Someone to just whip out some forceps and yank it out for her?

The whole thing was just annoying. And then women wonder why doctors laugh at them and believe that epidurals and c-sections should be the norm and get offended. Its because of this.

Thankfully no one really reads this or I’m sure I’d get lots of hate mail. But you know, its true. Women have to fight to give birth the way our bodies were designed because so many just don’t want the inconvenience. Its so backwards.

Nothing special

Just because I felt like I haven’t updated. Not too much new to report, though. Baby girl has a full name 🙂 Its still a secret though…never know what prying eyes are reading! She’s a wiggly little bug though. Definitely makes her presence known.

Round ligament pain is stupid. The stretching and growing in there is not pleasant at all. Oh well, it comes with the territory.