A little overdue on this, but better late than never!
Quick flash back to my June appointment that my mom went to with me. She had asked the doctor how far he would let me go, and he said that he would probably induce me by 39 weeks. He never said why, and I guess we never really question the reason.
That was what led to my parents coming sooner than expected… because he said I could ask to be checked at 38 weeks and 38 weeks would put it at August 19th. I may either then be checked on August 15th or on August 22nd. They wanted to make sure they would be here for the birth, so they planned to leave on August 16th and get here on the 17th, expecting possible induction the following week.
At my 34 week appointment, the doctor took a few minutes to advise me that it is possible, since I am so short, that my pelvis may not be large enough to delivery vaginally, which would result in a cesarean delivery. He said the odds were in my favor, but he wanted to let me know. For some reason, I thought that meant that was the reason he would induce me at 39 weeks… to keep the baby from getting too big, thereby increasing the changes of successful vaginal delivery.
At my 36 week appointment last Monday, I was seen at the doctor’s new location by his new midwife. She is very nice. The office in its newness was still quite in disarray, but I guess that’s to be expected since he was still working at the old office until the week before they opened the new one, and the new staff was doing their training during those last couple weeks before opening. They didn’t have their doppler system yet for checking the baby’s heart rate, so they had to do it via ultrasound. Unfortunately, the ultrasound tech was not there, and the nurse and midwife were not heavily trained on how to read the ultrasound, but I was not going to complain because at least I got to see my baby again! I had to have the Group B Strep test, which would take a week to come back. Other than that, everything went pretty normal.
Today I had my 37 week appointment! And they checked me! I am 60% effaced, and in first time mothers effacement does typically happen before dilation. Effacement usually takes a few weeks, so I’ve probably got about a week left before it gets to 100% unless Casey decides to speed things up. I am not dilated at all yet. This cannot bother me, though, because I may not begin dilating until mere hours before I give birth, for all I know. Everything is so different with each pregnancy, there’s no telling how fast or slow anything’s going to happen. I just know that it can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks to dilate from 0 to 3 cm.
The doctor also spoke with me more about induction. He was given the impression I was asking to be induced, but really I just had questions and was thankful to be able to speak with him to get the answers. I told him where my logic took me in piecing things together, and it turns out I was wrong. If I wait until Casey induces my labor himself, my chances of cesarean delivery are about 20%, so not too bad. If I have the doctor induce the labor, though, the chance of needing cesarean delivery go UP to 66%! I guess he had wanted to induce because he didn’t think I was going to make it mentally and emotionally all the way to 40 weeks. But, despite my extreme pains in so many places, despite being unable to work because of the pain, I am still trucking along with the end in sight!
Talked it over with Dave, and if Casey doesn’t come on his own by the time I’m 40 weeks, which is September 2nd, then we will have the doctor induce that week. I’ll have to remember to tell the doctor that next Wednesday when I see him. Now, I still have a gut feeling I will not need to be induced… but, best to be prepared.
Baby is doing great, nice strong heart and head lodged firmly REALLY REALLY LOW. Oh yeah, he’s on his way out, it’s just the “when” part that we haven’t figured out yet.
My parents considered, after the recent news, not leaving tomorrow to come here. But, they are still coming. Even if they’d have waited, they’d still have to go back September 22nd, so why not just come then? They are wanting to go up to Wisconsin to visit my grandma sometime during their trip, and just trying to figure out when they’ll do that. I think they should relax this weekend with us, then head up Monday morning, and stay however many days then come back down. It’s about a 12 hour drive from Georgia up here, that they’re spreading across 2 days, then it’s a 6 hour drive farther up to Wisconsin. Best to get a couple days rest at least before making another trek farther north, eh? And, although some women go through labor in 6 hours or less, it’s more likely that it will take longer since this is my first. So, even if I were to go into labor while they were in Wisconsin, chances are in their favor they’d make it back in time.
Just gotta try and be realistic about it all, ya know? At this point there’s NO telling what Casey will do, NO telling when I will be giving birth or even the method. He could come tonight still, or he could wait until the day before I would get induced. It’s pretty much up to him, except for a few activities I can partake in that are known to sometimes make things progress. Be sure to walk around enough. It’s hard to do because of my pain, but it’s also more painful not to get any exercise. Spicy things are known to make things move forward. Had some General Tso’s Chicken tonight. 🙂 And I’m intending to drag the ‘rents to La Rancherita on Friday for dinner. And, from what I hear, the same method that created the baby is known to get the baby out. Yeah, let’s see if we can talk hubby into THAT one!
On that note, I am going to post this entry. 🙂
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