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March 2, 2004
Early Week 42: Feeling Patient Again (For the Most Part)
In the fifty hours since I woke up on Sunday, my emotions have ranged from dejected and irritated to giddy and bouncy. I was about to say that I seem to have found some happy middle ground, but I just attempted to call my sister in England and when the call didn’t go through I sat and cried. There is no emotional balance in the world of overdue women.
I woke up on Sunday and was pissed to find myself not in labor. We had a big day at church coming, and the thought of dealing with people really didn’t appeal to me. I knew we wouldn’t be done with church until mid-afternoon and I just wanted to cocoon myself somewhere and will the baby out. The small remaining sensible part of me got dressed and went to church anyway.
After being at the Cathedral that afternoon (where my water did not break despite many people mentioning how great that would be), we spent the rest of the day at my in-laws’. They fed us well and didn’t make any jokes at my expense, so by the time we left, I was no longer Mrs. Grouchypants. I caught bits of the Oscars during commercials of the E.R. rerun I was watching and seemed to only catch Peter Jackson walking on stage. I didn’t realize until later that I wouldn’t have seen much else even if I hadn’t been flipping channels. I’m a big enough LOTR fan that I might have enjoyed watching the whole show, but I just don’t care to see all the dinky awards being handed out during the first few hours.
Monday morning, I woke up in a much better mood. My first thought wasn’t “Why, oh why am I still here?” for a change. I figured it’s a new week, I might as well accomplish something since I’m living on borrowed time at this point. I had grand plans to run a million errands, but the draw of the computer kept me from going all over town. I did hit the grocery store and Target so we have food, shelf paper, and baskets to store baby toys in.
I left early for my prenatal and stopped at the Honda dealership to get an attachment so we can use a car seat tether in our Civic. We still haven’t installed the car seats, but we’ll get there… I got to Jeanne’s early (after wisely deciding not to stop at the mall) and waited for everyone else to show up.
My prenatal started well and only got better. My pee sticks were clear, and the scale said I lost two pounds, leaving me with a 36 pound gain. Essentially, my weight has been steady since 35 weeks, despite Dairy Queen’s reopening for the season. My blood pressure was 110/68—on the higher side for me, but nothing unusual. The big excitement for the appointment came next—my fundal measurement was down to 37.5. That’s a 2.5 cm drop since last week, or 3.5 since the week before. Now, we’re getting somewhere! As Kim palpated the baby, she felt around for the head (externally) and could only feel neck and shoulders, the baby was so low. Yes!! Also, the baby had turned to ROA. Apparently, my kid wants to pick the less common side and is staying on the right. That’s fine by me, so long as he/she stays anterior. Kim drew a picture of how the baby is positioned—the head is now tucked down tight, and the arms are down by his/her belly. At earlier appointments, they’ve mentioned that the chin wasn’t tucked and/or felt the baby’s hands up by his/her face, so it was just one piece of good news after another. I had a couple BH while they were palpating, and the midwives were impressed by how strong and long-lasting the contractions were. The baby’s heart rate varied between 120 and 144 depending on whether I was having a contraction or if they were poking him/her. That variability is exactly what they want to hear. Despite the baby’s chest being on my right side (where the placenta gets in the way), Dan and I could hear the baby’s heart loud and clear through the fetoscope. It’s amazing how much stronger it has gotten over the months. I asked them if they knew about my amniotic fluid level, since I’ve heard others being concerned about that. Kim had me press down along the center of my uterus while she tapped on one side and felt changes on the other side. My SIL, the student nurse, says that test has a name, but she didn’t know what it was. Whatever it is, the baby passed with flying colors and showed to have a good amount of fluid, still.
Between the progress the baby’s made since last week and all the signs that he/she is very healthy, I’m not too concerned that I’ll hit the 42 week mark without going into labor. We did ask what the plan would be, however. The deal is, if Friday morning comes, I’ll call the midwives and the backup doctor, and see what everyone says. Chances are, I’ll go in and meet with the backup that afternoon and probably have a biophysical ultrasound at that point. So long as the baby passes that test, the doctor will likely let us wait until Monday and schedule an induction for then. I officially hit 42 weeks on Saturday, but I’ve got a little leeway.
I left the prenatal nearly hopping with excitement over the information about the baby’s progress. The midwives gave a couple natural induction options—evening primrose capsules and castor oil were mentioned. Kim said I could take the evening primrose if I wanted, orally or vaginally. With the castor oil, they were fairly ambivalent, and recommended waiting until the weekend before trying it since some people don’t respond too well to it. Mostly, they recommended the usual things—walking and sex being the big ones. No one seemed overly concerned that the baby might not come soon.
On the way home, I tied a few things together and got in both my walking and my errands. Dan met me at the mall, and we exchanged a pair of Christmas earmuffs for a baby thermometer/nail clipper/nasal aspirator set and donated our old cell phones. We spent the next 45 minutes power walking two laps around the mall (a smaller one, not the MOA). Dan admitted that even his legs were sore afterward, so this was no strolling we were doing. I may be 41 weeks pregnant, but I can still move fast when I want to! I also stopped at Toys R Us and exchanged a board book for bassinet sheets and a fun noodle—now I can really whap people with a wet noodle! Dan thought that’s why I bought it, but I informed him that we might need it for the car seat(s).
I had set out frozen bread dough to rise at lunchtime to make pizza for dinner, but since I hadn’t let it thaw first, we ended up eating dinner at 9:30. After a couple botched attempts to get the dough right in the recent past, we were very happy with how this one tasted. Not too gooey or crispy. We tried some other natural inducing, and went to bed around midnight.
It wasn’t all that great a night sleep-wise. I woke up about every 45 minutes with Braxton-Hicks. I’d get up and pee, whether I needed to or not, because my hips needed to be shaken up. I was usually sweating, despite sleeping in only a nightshirt and throwing all covers but the sheet on Dan. Finally after he got up at 7ish, I managed to sleep soundly for a few hours. I think it helped to not have his additional body heat nearby. An alarm went off at 9:30, but after turning it off, I was able to sleep until 10:15. Ahhh.
So here I am. Ten days overdue. I have every reason to think that I’ll go into labor at any time (so long as your overlook the fact that I haven’t seen my mucus plug or any other “interesting” discharge, or had a single painful contraction). I’m supposed to have my church class tonight, but I’m leaning towards skipping it to avoid both people and the need to sit still in a not-that-comfy chair for two hours. Dan forgot to bring his school books to work today—his subconscious must be pretty optimistic that things will happen soon. The SIL who will be here during labor called last night worried that we’d decided to ignore her and had the baby already. I guess we’re not the only ones with irrational fears. We assured her that at the least, we’d call to say that we’d decided to just be alone with the midwives.
Both Leap Day and my half birthday have passed, and I don’t know anyone whose birthday is in the next week. Apparently our child thought March was a better month than February.
I hope my next entry is a short one saying that I’m in labor. Feel free to come at any time, kiddo!
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