Another midwife visit.

[rivka]

I can't believe that I'm still pregnant after 10 days of prelabor.

Yesterday the cramping and the sharp pains around my cervix were so uncomfortable that they almost had me crying. Today I'm feeling a bit better, physically - well enough that I took a walk around the block - but I'm very discouraged.

At today's visit I was 3.5cm dilated and 60% effaced - barely changed from a week ago. She stripped the membranes, with my permission. It really didn't hurt any more than a regular pelvic exam. Hopefully that will do something, but I'm not feeling especially optimistic right now.

We talked about things I could do to speed labor along. My midwives really don't recommend castor oil, but she did suggest that I start black & blue cohosh - 10-15 drops each in a little water, every 30 minutes until contractions are regular (or for four hours, if contractions don't start). I'll try that in the morning. I'm also going to continue with the evening primrose oil. She recommended sex, spicy food, nipple stimulation, crying, and yelling at curiousangel. (I'm pretty sure the last two were jokes.)

At 41 weeks - so, this weekend - they want me to go in for a nonstress test. She told me to bring my suitcase, because if the baby's in distress I won't be going home again, but also said that there's no reason to believe that the baby will be in trouble. Because of the situation with my hip, after 41 weeks they're willing to go any direction I want to go - waiting, or induction, or scheduling a C-section. If I wait, they'll do a biophysical profile between 41 and 42 weeks, and then after 42 weeks they would want to see me three times a week to monitor the baby's condition.

We talked the most about a Cervidil induction. She said that even though it's primarily a cervical ripening agent, when the cervix is already ripe it usually brings on contractions. (She said it works that way for about 75% of the women in their practice.) The big advantage of Cervidil would be that it could be removed if the contractions got strong, and that it wouldn't necessarily lead to the cascade of interventions you can get with a Pitocin induction. I would have to stay in bed and not eat anything for the first two hours, but after that I could move around, get in the tub, go home if it doesn't work, etc. I wouldn't need an IV or continuous fetal monitoring.

I don't think we're willing to try a Pitocin induction unless the baby is in distress. It just seems like there are too many downsides.

A friend recommended that, if I turn out to need a Pitocin induction, I consider just scheduling a C-section instead. She pointed out that the only thing worse than a C-section is a long hard labor ending with a C-section, and that I've already been told I have a greater than 50% risk of section anyway. I am not convinced, but I'm sitting with the idea to kind of get used to it.

I'm having some cramping now from the internal exam. I wish that at this point I believed that cramping *meant* anything.

Comments

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

For some reason I woke up in the middle of the night and am checking LJ for the first time in a little while. (Louise reads religiously and keeps me up on anything newsworthy.)

If you're up in the middle of the night, I hope it's for good reason and that you're too busy to be reading LJ. You are doing a fantastic job of tracking your options and being informed. Whatever decisions you make along the way, they will be good ones.

I wonder if it might be time to stop saying "critter" as a way of encouraging the baby to join the world? Good Luck!

[xopher-vh.livejournal.com]

Om the plus side

I'm Pagan enough to think this might actually help.

[xopher-vh.livejournal.com]

Moved this comment from previous entry.

You will have the baby. Here's a spell to recite if you wanna:

Come forth, o Child Within! Your mother would hold you in her arms and not her belly!

Come forth, o Child Within! Your father would touch you, and grows impatient!

Come forth, o Child Within! All things begin in darkness, but must come into the light for a time, and yours approaches.

Come forth, o Child Within! As Spring comes forth from Winter's dark womb, to warm air and bright day, come!

Come forth, o Child Within! And greet your adoring public with a cry of grief for the quiet darkness of the womb -- yet a cry which brings joy to all who hear it!

Come forth, come forth, come forth, o Child Within! In the name of $DIETY, I call you forth!

OK, maybe not the greatest thing in the world, but I wrote it just for you. Insert diety of your choice.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Just for balance, I thought I'd mention that I had syntocin in my first labour and had no problems with it. It made the contractions more effective, but not more painful. I needed forceps at the end, but I think that was down to a combination of bad advice about how to push (I recommend trying not to make any noise while pushing - I was belatedly given this advice halfway through second stage in my second labour, and it made a huge difference to the efficiency of my pushing) and the size of the baby (all of mine were over 9 lbs, the first and second by quite a way.) If it had not been for the syntocin, I would probably not have been advanced enough for forceps when my son became distressed, and would have needed a C-section.

I do respect the more negative experiences of others with syntocin/pitocin, though. This is just an extra datapoint for you :-)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I don't know what to say that would be terribly helpful...

Have you tried watching a really funny movie? Maybe a couple of hours of riotous laughter could start labour going? You never know!

[eleri.livejournal.com]

*hands you some Emergen-C* great health-food-store gatorade type stuff, will help you keep your strength up. Nipple stimulation can be as simple as a warm washcloth rub, if anything stronger is uncomfortable, and you can start out with some snuggly making out, if the idea of sex sounds like a bit much.

In the words of one of my nifty teacher midwives "babies come out." One way or t'other, they do.

Candles lit and good baby jujus on their way.