39 weeks

It has been another eventful week. I think I'm up to three trips in to the hospital now- I'm getting to know the midwives in there quite well! So overall, I'm feeling a bit impatient now, huge but not too bad on the whole. I seem to have either lots of energy, or want to sleep all day, nothing in between. I made Tim take me with him to measure up a fence and to the farmers markets over the weekend because I was feeling so restless. I haven't really been anywhere apart from the hospital for weeks! My hands haven't been swelling so much lately, but nor have my ankles or knees been deflating properly overnight.

One of the things I had been concerned about earlier on in my pregnancy was how I would go with my catheters. They have actually turned out to be fine, albeit a bit awkward some days trying to get around this belly. My bowels have been more of a challenge, since it's very difficult to do my stomach massage with a baby in the way. Things are a lot slower, so I just try to do the best I can. I'm also cautious of taking too many senna tablets, since the senna can go through to the baby and we don't want that. If baby passes poo before the birth, it contaminates the amniotic fluid and can cause a nasty infection, sending baby into distress. And if baby is sick, there will be no question, they will be going for a quick exit, so a cesarean. The baby's head has dropped into position, so right down into my pelvis, over the last week. This is great for the birth bit, but has meant that emptying my bowels has been even more tricky still.

So last week, we met up with Dr D again. She did an internal examination, so see how my cervix was looking and we had a talk about my options. She said I've got a very nice pelvis, which helped me feel a little bit better about getting this baby's monsterous head out! We decided to come back the next day and try some prosoglandin to see if that would help soften my cervix, as it was a long way off being ready to let a baby out. To do this, I was given cervidil, which is a prostoglandin tablet, within a little fabric tab on a string, not unlike a tampon. This allows the dose to be given slowly over 12 hours. Dr D did this, then I was left for about 40 minutes hooked up to the monitor to make sure my uterus wasn't overstimulated, since that can place a lot of pressure on me and babies don't tend to like it either. The machine they use to do this is a cardiotocograph, or a CTG. Because of my limited sensation, they used this to monitor my contractions several times overnight. They also had to wake me up about 2am to remove the cervidil, so I didn't get too much. By the time they finished with me for the night, it was about 10.30. Tim had come back in to bring me pasta for tea (carb loading), but I sent him home again. I was having contractions, but not enough for me to need him there, so I figured at least one of us should get a decent nights sleep! The hospital has been very good accommodation wise. They had me in a double room, but I had the whole room to myself, so I had lots of room and they will try to put me in this room again next time. The midwives are also very good. I have been feeling a bit... pressured, I suppose is the word, about having an early epidural. One of the midwives came in and sat with me and just talked to me about the pros and cons and what other options I might have. It's all stuff I've talked about with various people before, but it was nice to feel like she had my back and for her to just take the time to sit with me and let me talk it out. 
Normally when they induce a pregnant woman, they will take her round to the labour ward about 7 to get started. Because we weren't 100% sure we were going ahead, Dr D wanted to do an exam herself before we started, so I got an extra couple of hours to sleep, which was really appreciated. I'd had people in and out of my room all night checking I hadn't gone into labour. During one of those checks I'd drifted off, only to wake up with someone sitting on my bed, in the dark, touching my belly- twice! So Tim was back in about 8 and I had some breakfast ready for, well, whatever happened!
When Dr D checked me, she found that the cervidil had helped, but I wasn't really where I needed to be for them to break my waters. There were other things that we could have tried, but it would have likely dragged out for days, not to mention that the more intervention, the more likely we would end up needing a cesarean anyway! So after all that, we packed up and came home! It was all a bit anti climatic really. A few of the midwives made comments as we left about it all being a bit of a nonevent, but I hadn't really let myself get too excited about it. I didn't want to go through with it unless everything was ready to go, so I was happy enough to go home. We are booked in to try again this week, if baby hasn't decided to come of it's own accord before then.

The day after we went home, I lost my mucous plug (do not google image this!!) which is a further sign that my body is getting ready for labour. I did call the hospital, since they'd said to let them know if I had any vaginal loss or bleeding (this was what Dr D was referring too a few weeks ago when I made my smart arse quip), but since we are all comfortable I can feel my contractions, they aren't so worried about me going into labour and not realising. I did have a couple of restless hours one night over the weekend with some contractions, but since they weren't regular and didn't get any stronger, it's safe to say they were only Braxton Hicks (practise contractions).

Guess what!!! The other good thing about not going through with the induction last week- I finally finished that damn quilt!! Not only that, but I've since whipped up a new pair of pj's for me too. If I had more fabric I would have run up a pair for Tim as well, but spotlight isn't much of a priority for either of us at the moment. So I'm feeling pretty ready for this baby to get here. I don't even really have anymore 'jobs' to do before it arrives. The bassinet needs to swap rooms, but I'm not doing that until I need too.

Finally! I have finished the quilt!

I think that about covers this last week. Apart from my visit to the hospital, I haven't been up to much really. By my next post, there will almost certainly be a baby here. My plan is to keep writing every week or two, but I'm just going to take it as it comes! I have deliberately not written to much about equipment since I haven't had a chance to use a lot of it, but once I've had a chance to try things and get moving a bit, I plan on writing about those things, as well as sharing pictures of what we have found has (or really hasn't) worked. So, until next time!