Induction, Part 2 (or not).

Once again, as captured at the time.

7:59pm: We arrive back at the hospital, which is much less crowded than earlier.  The receptionist working the evening shift directs all of her questions towards Sea.  When she asks for insurance information and I hand her mine, she says “Oh, it’s you?”

8:57pm: I’m hooked up to the monitor again. I’m still cramping, muscles gripping in a way that reads (slightly) on the printed traces. The nurses are talking about food poisoning and heart attacks.

9:13pm: The nurse comes and reads the monitor’s printouts.  She tells us that the regular cramps are, in fact, contractions.  She’s pleased with this, but less pleased with the fact that Bingo seems to be sleeping.  She leaves and comes back with a styrofoam cup of too-sweet orange juice, which I drink/spill inelegantly down my front.

9:38pm: The doctor, the same doctor as before, comes to check my progress.  He looks at the recorded contractions, before doing a very uncomfortable, thorough internal exam.  I’m now apparently a fingertip dialated.  Contractions + dialation = enough progress to result in the cancellation of gel, round 2.  He summarizes: “Things are progressing… slowly.”  Sea and I are told to go home and come back either when labor picks up or at 10:30am, whichever comes first.

9:45pm: Sea and I are worried about the cancelling of gel, round 2.  On our way out we ask the doctor if he thinks labor will stop or progress overnight.  He tells us that he’s “impressed” with my progress, that earlier he had been sure more than one round of gel would be necessary, that labor could stop but that it’s more likely that it won’t.  Way to impress the doctor, Bingo!

So now we hurry up and wait, once again.  Our support people are on standby, and we’re home to try to sleep.  Contractions are coming frequently but not intensely.  We’ll see how much of the next 24 hours I can blog, but I expect they’re going to be big ones!

Eviction notice.

While we were eating breakfast this morning, I turned to Sea and said: “I think Bingo has inherited my time management skills”.  You see, I’m perpetually late.  Ten minutes before I need to be somewhere twenty minutes away, I’ll be running around trying to find my keys and my right shoe.  I imagine that’s what Bingo is doing now: turning circles in my uterus, looking anxiously at a small watch, saying “I just need to…”

You see, Bingo is now eight days past due.  In addition to this, Bingo hasn’t yet dropped fully into my pelvis.  In addition to this, a biophysical profile done on Monday shows an… *ahem* hefty fetus, at an estimated 9 pounds.  Based on these facts, induction has been scheduled to begin tomorrow.  Sea updated her personal blog with the details of today’s midwife appointment, which I’m copying and pasting here in lieu of my own play by play.

Bingo’s horoscope.

No, no Bingo yet.  No sign of Bingo yet, either.

After work, Sea came home with a copy of the free local paper.  “Read Bingo’s horoscope!”, she told me.  Today’s Scorpio horoscope:

“An issue you have been avoiding has now to be faced.  You have just four days to get your act together and resolve the situation- after that the matter will be taken out of your hands.” 

Ha!

Full moon.

There’s a full moon tonight.  When we spoke by phone, my father reminded me of this fact and told me that old wives’ tales said that more babies were born at a full moon than other times of the month– a result of gravitational pull.  He told me that Bingo should be born tonight or tomorrow to support the empirical evidence*.

For a short while, I had hope.  Whether it was the moon, the Red Devil cheese, or the stretch and sweep, I felt intermitently crampy and just slightly… different.  But now I’m back to feeling pretty much the same as usual, convinced that Bingo plans to celebrate his/her 18th birthday still firmly located in my uterus.

Despite my pessimism, Sea convinced me to go for a walk.  Though we couldn’t see the moon, there was a slight glow from behind the clouds.  As we walked down the street, Sea insisted that I walk with my knees lifted high (a labor induction strategy learned in our still unblogged about prenatal course)– my body’s gravity working with the moon.  We continued this slow, strange march as we walked down the main street, past the much brighter light of car dealerships and half-filled bars, all the way home.

Ridiculous?  Absolutely.  But still, it’s early in the night, the moon is still out, maybe there’s still time for Bingo to feel its pull.

*Sadly empirical evidence doesn’t actually support increased labor rates at the full moon.  Boo!

Red Devil.

Today’s adventures in natural induction were two-fold.

1) The second stretch and sweep.  Performed in the darkened midwives’ clinic, which is apparently not open on weekends.  It would appear that Herbal Tea was so enthusiastic about either getting the show on the road or doing another stretch and sweep, that she brought me and the student midwife into the closed clinic soley for this purpose.  “Oh, you’re here alone!”, she greeted me as I walked into the unlocked building.  The actual stretch and sweep wasn’t as bad as the first one, so maybe that’s a good sign?

2) I came home to find Sea serving large bowls of curry and cutting up a type of cheese called Red Devil.  Wrapped in red wax, the cheese itself was an alarming bright orange and filled with onions and peppers.  Always a fan of spicy food, Sea’s favorite method of encouraging Bingo to arrive seems to be to make my insides uncomfortably warm.  We ate half of the round of cheese between us– Sea looking thorougly pleased with her lunch, me gulping water between bites.  The other half of the cheese is sitting in the fridge for a second try tomorrow.  Let’s hope that we don’t need it.

(If Bingo does arrive, I’m crediting the cheese.  If Bingo doesn’t arrive, induction is scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday, depending on which process they decide to go with.  Come on, cheese!)

 

 

 

Stretch and sweep, detailed.

(TMI alert: this post contains much mention of vaginas, cervixes, blood, mucus and other such things.  It contains a probably unnecessary level of gory detail.  And I say this after over a year of blogging TTC/pregnancy.)

The student midwife called this evening to schedule another stretch and sweep for tomorrow.  Though I can think of about thirty-six things that I would rather do with a Saturday afternoon, the fact that Bingo is still located firmly in-utero has prompted me to agree.

So that I remember, and for anybody interested in knowing more about what this Medieval sounding  procedure actually involves, I’ll take this moment between “ow” and “ow” to recap.

Stretch and sweep.

In case you’re wondering, a “stretch and sweep” is exactly as pleasant as it sounds. 

Ow.

 

Bingo watch.

No, still no baby or imminent signs of baby.  We’ve definitely reached the stage, however, where everybody feels like 30+ minutes of non-communication means that Bingo must have been born.  Which means that I feel obligated to update everybody at regular intervals just to say “Nope, not yet!”

While we haven’t reached the point of desperation yet, we are trying to gently hand Bingo an eviction notice.  Strategies for natural induction that I’ve tried include:

-Eating half a pineapple.  Did nothing except make my mouth hurt due to a mild pineapple allergy.

-Eating a great deal of spicy food (thank you, Indian buffet).  Delicious but ineffective. 

-Walking, so much walking.  And biking, too!  Resulted in a sore ankle.

-The initial probe/exam by Herbal Tea.  This was not a full stretch and sweep due to Bingo’s mystery position, but Herbal Tea has suggested one for Thursday/Friday.

Anything that you/your friend/your friend’s neighbor has tried that they claim has worked?  I ask more out of interest than anything else, and can’t promise to take all suggestions.  While I’m willing to eat pineapple or go for a walk, I also assume that Bingo will show up someday and I’m only up for interventions that require minimal effort/ingestion of unpleasant things. 

 

Due.

Today is Bingo’s due date.  As you might have gathered based on the fact that I’m posting, Bingo was not born today and I am not in labor.  That’s okay: based on the fact that only 5% or so of babies are born on their due dates, and a very small percentage of first babies are born before their due dates, we weren’t really expecting Bingo to be born today. 

The rest of the world, however, seems to think that Bingo is now running late for an appointment.  Sea’s mother called her (at work!) this morning, her coworkers have been jumping every time she receives a text, and more than one person has texted me asking how today is going.  An old friend even texted with the message, “_____ tells me that today is your due date!  OMG I hope everything goes well!”

Sorry, everybody, that’s not how it works.  Like us, you’ll just have to wait.  Hopefully Bingo will be worth it?

(Also, let’s see if I can maintain this relaxed attitude if I’m still pregnant in a week!)

Borrowed time.

NaBloPoMo, Day 2

Today was a perfectly ordinary, if busy, Saturday in almost every way.

Sea and I slept in until the luxurious hour of 9am. We went to the mall in search of a Christmas outfit for Bingo, our first dedicated shopping trip for new baby clothes. (Between hand-me-downs and the secondhand store around the corner, we haven’t needed much.). We helped a friend move into a new apartment, though I was banned from heavy lifting. I made four dozen cupcakes for an event. I put on a bow tie. I’m currently writing this post on my phone as I travel across the city to another friend’s birthday party.

A perfectly ordinary Saturday that, in many ways, feels anything but. Having believed until less than two weeks ago that Bingo would be making a forced early entrance into the world, and having been told a week and a half ago by Dr. Selleck that an ECV with an accompanying induction or c-section was in the cards for this past week, today feels unexpected. This ordinary Saturday feels like borrowed time: appreciated moments as an individual and as a family of two before ordinary permanently shifts.

(Disclaimer: I know how lucky we are to be having Bingo. Though I appreciate today, I’m obviously also excited and grateful for this upcoming shift in ordinary!)