The last month of pregnancy literally flew by.
My last post it was Christmas Day and exactly one month away from little one's due date.
I continued to stay busy with work while John did the same.
His new schedule with the K9 kennels has come to be quite an adjustment.
I spent a lot of the last month pregnant alone for the most part, but in all honesty it was probably best! I think I would have driven him nuts with all the nesting projects I felt I "had to do."
Thanks to the discovery of pinterest.com I continuously found projects I, again, "had to do" for the baby's room and I needed to do them NOW.
As soon as January 1st hit, I felt like she could come any minute and I wasn't ready.
The phrase "full term" scared the poo out of me and I felt like I had so much to do before she could come. Like I was in control of it or something.....
For Christmas my mother in law bought me some cookbooks I had been asking for. One is called Fix It and Forget It: Five Ingredient Favorites and the other two were part of the series Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer. These books replaced all my maternity reading books--along with some major couponing--I managed to prep several meals in advance to freeze before baby/family came.
As far as work was concerned, I was honestly having a really hard time. I was so uncomfortable sitting all day and my belly kept me at such a distance from my computer that it was so hard on my back and hips. I would get up and walk around occasionally as my work usually does, but it just wasn't enough sometimes.
Sometimes I had to just get up and stand for while, causing some concerning looks from my poor coworkers that had to put up with me this entire ordeal.
The lightening feelings are pretty consistent and so uncomfortable. Sometimes just have to zen out at my computer screen at work to get through them. Little gal is such a squirmer. I constantly have feet up in my ribs and we are constantly battling it out too.
I'll get a foot jab which I'll push back down, which pushes back even harder...sigh....this is seriously karma in the making.
January 3rd was our last group Centering meeting.
So crazy that things have come around full circle. There we all are sitting there in all our pregnant glory, just waiting for the first one to pop so the rest of us can. Just waiting for the domino effect!
On January 11th I had my first weekly appointment in OB/Midwifery at Womack.
I kept in touch with our doula, Doris Ann, during all this process getting cues from her about what to talk to the docs/midwives about, etc. She suggested getting checked for dilation just to see where we are at and what we'd need to do from there.
At the appointment I was 2 cm dilated, 50% effaced, but little bug was still hanging out up high at a -3. Little did I know, once I was in labor, what a horrible issue this -3 was going to be, sigh....
I was a little disappointed with the numbers.
I called the doula back with the "stats" and she gave me a game plan to try to naturally induce labor. From the beginning I have been very anti-medical inducement, so anything I could naturally do to induce any sort of labor, I was game for!
However, I promised my mom and mother in law that I wouldn't actively try anything until they got here that weekend.
They arrived on the 21st and the wait was on (shout out to my coworker Kat Briles who drove to Raleigh with me "just in case" to pick up the moms!).
I started feeling, what I now know, contracts starting Monday. They would always come in the morning, very early, around 4 am or so. I would wake up in the night with horrible pains and nothing I could do would make them go away or ease up. John was still working at this point so after he left for work I'd sit in our room on the exercise ball just trying to time things on my own hoping that "this was it."
This happened for DAYS.
The contractions would come on in the morning and usually taper off by noon-ish everyday.
I was getting so frustrated.
I know these things are totally out of my control, but good grief! The anticipation was absolutely killing me (and the future grandmas!) and I was so ready to just get the ball rolling already.
On Wednesday, January 25th, I had my weekly doctor's appointment. I, again, checked in with Doris Ann prior to the appointment and she said to get checked again, and if there's been progress, depending on what it is, she'd suggest getting my membranes stripped so that medical induction doesn't enter the picture. I was 40 weeks to the day at this appointment, and unfortunately, they scheduled me NST's and induction dates anyways...Luckily this appointment was with my Centering midwife, Major White, and so she knew me and knew my mindset when it came to the medical intervention side of things. I struggled with the thought of getting the membranes stripped.
Isn't that a medical induction in a way??
In all honesty, now that I'm on the other side of the fence, I think it depends on what you personally think. I am counting it as a "no," but I know some consider it a medical intervention.
But hey, if it meant not having to be "literally" medically induced, then it served it's purpose.
Before the stripping I got checked again and was now at 3 cm dilated, 80% effaced, but bug was still at a -3. I was so bummed.
I had been doing EVERYTHING the doula suggested to get this game going and even though it probably worked some, I was very disheartened to know that she hadn't dropped more. Because of that I went ahead and conceded in getting the membranes stripped.
My mother had to get it done with both my brother and I, and we both were born within 24 hours of her getting it done, so hoping genetics might work in my favor, I got it done........And the labor story begins............
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| The final pictures! 36-39 weeks.... |
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