Another pregnancy update

Are you guys getting tired of these updates yet? If so, I understand! I’m getting tired of them too!

Okay, so here’s the latest…

My acupuncture today went much better. I felt Verity (posterior again) getting really active when the needles were in. There was one needle in particular, on my foot that she said was related to my liver, that would throb whenever she moved. That’s the last thing I remember before I passed out. When I woke up an hour later, Verity was anterior and her hiccups were up against my belly button. My back felt so much better – woot!

After that I went to the midwife. She talked with me about a few things, like whether or not I CAN homebirth with her passed 42 weeks, what her role would be in a hospital birth, and what her game plan would be to get me to labor before Sunday. I CAN go beyond 42 weeks, if all is well with me and baby, but she recommends against it because she said that a natural hospital birth will be very difficult because I will be treated very differently at a hospital if I am beyond 42 weeks (like, a skipped heartbeat means a cesarean, that kind of OB freak out stuff). I felt a lot better after talking to her, knowing she will play a large role in helping me go into labor before a hospital induction becomes necessary. But I’ll get to that here in a bit…

We decided to do an exam and go from there. During the exam, (the first she’s checked me since 34 weeks,) she reported that I was a solid 3cm dilated, almost 4, and 80% effaced. She recommended sweeping the cervix a bit, while also bring it forward (my babies both have done this- the head is so low, so early, that the cervix itself is way back behind the head. Thus, there is not a lot of pressure on the cervix because the head is dropped low in front of it, rather than on it. So she tried to coax the opening down around the bottom of Verity’s head.) She also got a bulge to form for the bag of waters, another thing that helps a cervical sweep be more effective. For the last few hours I have had some cramping, blood clots, etc – the usual membrane sweep MO.

I have another acupuncture session tomorrow evening, and then a sonogram and 2nd “membrane sweep” on Thursday with the midwife. If still not in labor, she plans to come to my house Friday morning for a 3rd sweep AND likely administer a prostroglandin (sp? too lazy) gel. If still not in labor, I can have her over with her “team” on Saturday, when we CAN opt to break the waters, breast pump, etc while she and her team stop by frequently with antibiotics and so on over the weekend. She said that in cases like mine, breaking the waters is almost exactly what the uterus needs to start the labor that is stalled for weeks at 3-4 cm dilated. (For the record – with Ethan, I was 8 days late when I had a membrane sweep- the same day late I am today. Nearly 3 days later, my water broke on it’s own in the hospital – BEFORE I was induced. I do believe the waters breaking initiated my labor, which began before the Pit drip.) I am glad I’ve got a few days to think on this. I might not want to break waters until I have passed the 42 week mark, because then I have 48 hours to go to the hospital anyway, so I don’t have anything to lose.

Okayyyyy… so, that’s the tentative “plan” for the 41st week. Sounds like SO much fun, doesn’t it?!

I will add that Ethan woke up really sick today. He is running a fever and Chris had to stay home with him so I could make it to all my appointments. He took a hot shower tonight, ate a bit of pureed veggie/lentil soup, and is off to bed right now with the humidifier on filling his room with tea tree and eucalyptus oil. If we can all get some sleep, I’ll be very grateful.

My midwife thinks my body won’t let me go into labor until he is feeling better! One more thing to wait on… lol

Okay, I’m going to go fill myself with food and watch some tv. Good prescription, heh?