Still pregnant...

[rivka]

...and so tired of it.

I have reconsidered my plan to work right up until my water breaks. Instead, tomorrow will be my last day in the office. I'll take some things home with me and work on them next week if I'm, you know, still pregnant, but it's just gotten too hard to drag myself into the office and sit at my desk all day. (If I'm lucky. Today I've walked sixteen blocks in the course of the workday.)

How it feels to be me these days:
- The baby is very, very low in my pelvis, leading to uncomfortable grinding feelings as her bony little head juts up against my cervix and my pelvic bone and so forth.

- I'm having intermittent menstrual-cramp feelings, which are probably prelabor. Sometimes they are very clearly associated with contractions; other times it's hard to be sure. I get excited about it when they are, but I am mostly deluding myself - prelabor can go on for weeks.

- My back hurts, pretty much most of the time. I'm also having some pain in my hip. I think the hip pain is because I lean forward in my chair to take some of the strain off my back, and that just transfers the strain to my hip.

- I am feeling antisocial. I seem to want to spend much more of my time being quiet. This is particularly true when I'm at work, probably because I'm in more pain there - but it's awkward, because I have to force myself not to snap at my research assistants or avoid them. They have a right to talk to me during the workday.

- I have to pee every ten minutes. If I don't drink gallons and gallons of water, I still have to pee every ten minutes, plus I get painful spasms in my bladder. I begin to suspect that this enormous swollen belly of mine is not so much a baby as it is a vast and inexhaustible reservoir of pee.

- I am so unbelievably tired by the end of the day.

- I am relatively over my panic about having a baby to take home, and am mostly looking forward to holding the Li'l Critter in my arms at last.

The latest midwife news:
We went in on Tuesday. Everything looked good for me - blood pressure, swelling, urine, weight - and for the baby - size, heartbeat, response to activity. The baby has moved way down into the pelvis since last week. My cervix is soft and 1.5cm dilated, but still less than 50% effaced. She offered to strip my membranes, but Michael and I hadn't had a chance to talk it over beforehand and wound up putting it off. (He was afraid that it would be very painful for me. Opinions?) We might do it at our next visit on Wednesday, if I'm, you know, still pregnant.

Comments

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

May you cease to be pregnant soon and in the way you most desire!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Late pregnancy bites granite pebbles. I wish you a prompt and quick and easy labor.

I don't remember stripping membranes being at all painful. (In my case, it also didn't help.)

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Ditto for (and from) me. ISTR it was a little uncomfortable, but that was it.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i hope you will have an external baby soon. baby baby baby.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what "stripping membranes" means, unless it involves the Critter appearing in a sequined G-string.

Anyway, I hope she gets here soon!

[zencuppa.livejournal.com]

The pre-menstral cramps sound pretty hopeful to me!!

I had cramps pretty badly the 12 hours before Matt appeared, and the delivery went really, really quick.

Sending you and your family support :-)

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I looked this up because I was curious as to what it meant as well.

"Stripping the membranes is when the doctor inserts their fingers between the amniotic sac and your uterine wall and breaks the adhesion between them."

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Every time you go more than a few hours without posting, I hold my breath and expect baby pics with the next one. :)

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

Every time you go more than a few hours without posting, I hold my breath and expect baby pics with the next one. :)

Good to know I'm not the only one :-)

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Please do not worry about snapping at your assistants. Everybody cuts a ton of slack for the hugely pregnant. In fact, this is probably your chance to be as rude as you wish.

It definitely sounds like you are gearing up to go soon!

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

Good move on the decision to give up on work. Since, you know, I did the same thing. And I'm sooo glad I had that week off before she came.... it was good for me.

Based on my limited experience, it definitely sounds like you're getting close - I can relate to all of the above. Just wait till afterwards when... you have menstrual-like cramps from your uterus shrinking, you pee all the time to get rid of excess fluids, and your back hurts from toting around a 7-pound baby all the time.... *grin*

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

I begin to suspect that this enormous swollen belly of mine is not so much a baby as it is a vast and inexhaustible reservoir of pee.

I know I'm supposed to be the sympathetic partner right now, but oh my god, did this ever crack me up. I DO so adore you.

May your little critter swiftly become your little Alexandra.

-J

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I know I'm supposed to be the sympathetic partner right now, but oh my god, did this ever crack me up.

It's okay, that line kept making me giggle as I was posting. If I'm going to be whiny, I figure that the least I can do is try to make it cute.

And I adore you too, you know.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

- I am so unbelievably tired by the end of the day.

Warning: when you get that rush of energy and a driving need to Do Something Now, whether it's paint the baby's room or create the perfect album mix or whatever, it'll feel like the most natural thing in the world to go with it, but save some energy, cos you'll probably need it in 24 hours or so. (And if it gets unbearable, I hear that performing oral sex on the male of your choice can really help speed things along.)

[redbird]

Does it only work with males?

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

So far as I know, it's some hormone in semen that is supposed to help things along. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it helps.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Here I was figuring you'd get halfway through, and he'd be begging you to finish, and suddenly "Oh, my, the baby is coming *now!" and the guy is, really, honestly, truly, overjoyed, but also deep down knows that this might have been the last sex he'll get for (however long), and maybe the baby can wait just a bit more and... but... and...

Kind of an applied Murphy's law.

Interesting that there might be some reality to it.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Prostaglandins in semen, so, yeah. Some studies suggest it's best taken orally, others suggest that it should be applied directly to the cervix.

I must say, though, that rarely have I ever been this uninterested in sex. It doesn't seem likely that I'll be trying this one out.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

This is way TMI, but I tried both of the ways and it did actually work, labour started the next day.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Article here about the need to take things easy after the birth and not immediately leaping up to Do It All, cautioning against

bouncing out of hospital the day after birth and rushing home to receive a parade of visitors, while acting as though you've done nothing more strenuous than a session of Bikram yoga.

And it quotes a historian of medicine friend of mine!

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Membrane stripping - was just reading about this t'other day. Some found it very painful, others not at all. Some went into labor shortly after, others found it had no effect. Some people who did go into labor thought the contractions were unusually fast and strong and thus more difficult. It is an intervention, which tend to lead to other interventions. Do you have the book Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth? I wonder if she covers it in there?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

You're still pregnant? I mean, really.

B

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Man, are you lucky that you're too far away for me to track you down.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

And I suppose you're not coming to Minicon.

B

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Which is tragic, because I adored the only Minicon I've ever been to. But I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't let me on a plane right now.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Think it's the pregnant thing?

K and I will be in DC early next month, but you probably won't be up for travelling even that far.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Of course she won't. New baby and all.

K. [or overdue and wanting to be left alone]

Membrane stripping

[ailbhe]

Was decidedly uncomfortable, definitely made my contractions more, you know, contracty, but didn't do much else for me. However, the effect it had on me isn't relevant, though the fact that it was decidedly uncomfortable rather than, say, horribly painful might be.

Actually, excreting a lot is a good sign, according to old wives' tale #24523b. Especially dire rear.

Hurrah for soft cervix! Mine never got soft, hence the problems. Yay!

[metacara.livejournal.com]

My OB stripped my membranes three times before I delivered and it wasn't a big deal: Not painful, but somewhat uncomfortable (although at that point everything was uncomfortable) and obviously not that effective, since we did it three times before I delivered (a day before my due date). I thought it was great, though, and will probably do it again with this pregnancy, because that last month was SO GOD-AWFUL and it just felt marvelous to feel like I was doing something to BRING ON LABOR, please lord. I would recommend membrane stripping before the prostaglandin-semen thing because any kind of sex in that last month is a dreadful duty because you feel like utter hell and that's just not sexy.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

This should be a Polaroid moment. You know, the one in which 60 seconds later the baby is delivered?

While you are (sensibly) not going to work, here's a web site that I and many of my friends found fascinating.

A computer geek in Austin, TX, has a webcam in a screech owl nestbox. The recent photos update frequently and he does a summary with pictures of the previous day's events. Right now, Mme. Owl has four eggs she's brooding. Once the chicks hatch, the action starts!

People! Rev your browsers!

http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/views/recent/.

(OK, fair disclosure. The person hosting this site is a friend of my former housemate. But I have no financial interest in the operation.)

[windsea.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn, Rivka, and here I was rooting back through LJ thinking I'd find the birth announcement, as I've not been here for a few weeks :-}

Be as bitchy as you like.

I understand what you mean about not wanting sex, but sometimes nipple stimulation and/or orgasm can help things along, if you can bear the thought.

I'm thinking Alexandra Out Now vibes. Good luck, cherie.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I had the membranes stripped to bring on labor with my first one, and it worked. I went into labor that night. It was definitely uncomfortable, but not painful. (It felt, I imagine, like a Pap smear done by a med student who's never done this sort of thing before.)

Belly laughs are better than sex for hastening labor. Rent the funniest movies you can find.

Re: "working 'til the water breaks"

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

My sister-in-law (the classic North Dakotan dairy farmer -it runs in the family, you should have heard her father's comment after falling off the roof, while helping my brother shoot the ice cap off the chimney a couple of Christmas Eves ago...) was pregnant with my youngest nephew. One day she decided that she wasn't feeling up to going out an wrestling with cows. At lunch her water broke, and the new nephew showed up a few hours later.

Maybe milking cows induces labour?

Best wishes.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Re. working right up until the last...

I've heard that stopping work can often help to get labor moving. Something like as long as you're still at work you're not letting go of everything enough for your body to relax and move itself along. Or something like that. So hopefully this will work for you!

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

I never had my membranes stripped. The usual verb here is swept, though, which sounds so much less violent :-)