5 days after her due date, our sweet little girl decided to make her entrance into the world. All week we had been waiting and holding off making plans, and mere hours after our final date as a childless couple she (or my body) got things started. I’m not sure if any of the induction methods we were trying worked, but I’ll let you know what I did and leave it up to your own discretion!
I’ll also warn you that I will be discussing things like mucus plugs, placentas and perineal sutures during the next couple posts, so stop reading if you’re not interested in this full version of the story!
My due date was Monday, August 9th (8-9-10, that would have been neat!) and the second that day past with no signs of labour being imminent, I started to panic. Every book I’ve read says that first babies are usually late, however I was determined that this would not be the case for us! So you can understand my disappointment when there was ZERO sign of any kind on my due date and the four days following. I mean I didn’t have a single contraction before the day I actually delivered her so I was thinking that I might not naturally go into labour until the 2 week post date limit.
The midwives knew that Craig was heading back to Afghanistan on the 22nd so at my appointment on the Thursday they wrote a letter to the OB’s at the hospital requesting an induction the following Monday morning (at 41 weeks, the earliest they’ll typically induce here). They also performed a stretch and sweep and informed me I was maybe 25% effaced and there was no dilation (although my cervix was really soft and ready). It was pretty discouraging to hear, but I was hoping that the stretch and sweep would get things moving. . They performed the procedure (not as uncomfortable/painful as they had warned) and sent me home with the instructions to take a Tylenol, curl up in bed and relax as some strong cramping was headed my way. So I did almost the complete opposite and drove with Craig to Burlington (2.5 hours away) to pick up our new truck. All the while I waited for the cramps to begin. And waited. And waited. I started to worry that maybe the stretch and sweep hadn’t been effective if I wasn’t getting any cramping or bleeding from it.
Friday morning I woke up and I still hadn’t really had any cramps worth worrying about, so I began considering my ‘backup plan’ for inducing labour on my own – the ever loathed self induction method that involves swallowing a couple ounces of castor oil and suffering through the hours of diarrhea that follows. I decided that the easiest means of ingesting the oil was creating an ice cream float with root beer and at around 1:30pm I drank a concoction of around 2oz of oil in a large class of pop and ice cream. I chugged it as fast as I could, although it really wasn’t bad in taste, just in the filmy texture that is left in your mouth. I suggest drinking some hot tea afterwards to help get the oil out of your mouth.
At 3:30 when Craig and I were getting ready to go out, I went to the bathroom and lost my mucus plug (strangely enough, Craig didn’t want to have a look. :P) so I started to celebrate that labour may perhaps be on the horizon.
That evening Craig and I went to the movies, went home to let me relieve myself since the castor oil had finally kicked in, and then went up on the Mountain to have a walk and to take some photos. Turns out it’s difficult to take photos of the town lights at night without a tripod.
The camera messed up, but kind of cool…
When we got home it was pretty late but I was still feeling wide awake, so Craig stayed up and watched some TV with me on the couch.
And then my water broke.
Come back tomorrow for more of the story! It’s seriously going to take 4 or 5 posts to get this story out. At this point I’m writing it out more for myself so that I have a way to remember it down the road, so I’m trying to include as many of the unique details as I can. Great for me – most likely boring for all of you. I’m sorry!
*I’m proud to say I’ve mastered the art of writing on a laptop while having a newborn sleep on my chest. It’s been a hot day here and without A/C we are both feeling warm – she’s been wanting to nurse almost constantly this evening and mama’s not used to that demand yet so she’s pretty fussy. If I could find a way to take a photo while sitting like this I would do so!*
Want to hear what came next?
2 comments:
I'm due in 7 weeks with our first baby so I'm really enjoying reading this and can't wait for the posts to follow thanks you
Thanks for sharing your story! I love reading birth stories. If I go overdue, I'm sure I'll have some questions for you about the castor oil and all of the other methods you tried.
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