Where Is the Baby?

Nope, me neither!!!

I figured I'd take a few minutes this evening to update everyone on my progress as far as baby birthing goes. Tomorrow is officially my due date, unless you go by the IUI, then it would have been yesterday.  Either way,  still no baby as of yet.  That's not to say I haven't been giving it my best effort.  As a matter of fact, I've been giving it too much effort....let me explain.  I'll begin with my prenatal visit this past Friday...

As per usual these last few prenatal visits, my doc checked my innards to see if my hoo-hoo was showing any signs of releasing it's captive miniature prisoner.  Unfortunately, my hoo-hoo seems to have a vice grip on itself and just won't seem to loosen up...maybe I should buy it a couple of drinks?  Anyway, as per the doc, as of Friday I was still not effacing or dilating whatsoever.  My cervix had softened a bit, but that was it.  So, not any great news on that front.

Since my va-jay-jay is acting more like a steel bear trap than a baby producer, my doc went over some things for me to think about should things not progress as needed.  First off, she wants to see me tomorrow on my official due date to take a look to see if anything has changed.  If nothing has at that point, I have a few options.  My doc doesn't like to allow any of her patients to go a week past their due dates.  If at that time I have yet to labor on my own, I could opt for induction.  However, if I am still showing no signs of effacement, this isn't so simple as injecting me with Pitocin.  First off, they would have to give me Cytotek to help me efface.  This drug has a high rate of leading to a C-section, so that isn't good.  If it works well, then I could efface, be given the Pitocin if no dilation occurs, then go to the birthing phase.  If it doesn't work as planned, then it's C-section time, which is something I definitely do not want.  I should interject here that Piper is guesstimated to be between 8.5-9lbs already.  So even if I do get to the pushing stage, there is a slight possibility that she may not fit through my birth canal and a C-section may be necessary anyway.  However, I want to get to the at least trying to push her out phase, as I want the whole birthing experience.  In the end, whatever is best for her is the direction I will take when it comes down to it.

I was a little shocked hearing that my body has yet to kick into birthing gear.  I never expected after 9 perfect pregnancy months that things would get complicated right at the the end, but oh well.  After my appointment I was a little discouraged, but things seemed to get better over the weekend.  Sunday morning I woke up and lost what I thought was all of my mucus plug, woohoo!  Losing the plug is a damn good sign that labor is imminent.  I also figured it was a sign that something was starting to happen down in my nether regions.  All day I was feeling giddy with anticipation.  Early Monday morning, around 2am, I began having some mild contractions.  They started off about 10-12 minutes apart and were around 45 seconds long.  By 4am they had progressed to around 7 minutes apart, had become quite a bit stronger, and were lasting up to a minute.  After hours of this pattern, I became very hopeful that Piper was finally on her way.  I called my doctor's office a little after 8am and they told me that since it was my first baby, they wanted me to head to labor and delivery to be on the safe side.  I was so excited!  I knew it was a bit early, as I have read that normally one would wait until having contractions happening 4-5 minutes apart, but I followed the doc's orders and headed that way.

Before getting into the car, I wanted to take a quick walk up the street as this is supposed to help move labor along.  As my mom and I strolled along, this increased my contractions to 3-4 minutes apart.  I took this as a good sign and went back and got in the car.  Of course, wouldn't you know, as we got closer to the hospital (which is about a 30 minute drive) my contractions started occurring less and less.  By the time we got there, I was barely feeling anything.  Regardless, we got checked in and they put me in a small room to monitor me before officially admitting me to a birthing suite.  Needless to say, it took me awhile to start contracting again, they were a lot further apart, and quite a bit weaker.  After 30 minutes to an hour the nurse checked my cervix.  Guess what?  Not a damn change since my Friday appointment!!!  No effacement, no dilation.  GRRRRR!!!  They were about to send me home but called my doc and she wanted me to walk around for an hour and get re-examined.  And so my mom and I began our walking tour of the labor and delivery floor.

As we walked, my contractions began to strengthen again.  At first they were mild, but were coming more regularly.  Soon they were coming quite often and were practically bringing me to my knees.  I was in pain, but I was happy that something was happening again.  After our walk was over I went back for my inspection.  They hooked me back up to the equipment and waited for my contractions.  Although I was having excruciatingly painful ones, they began to grow further apart again.  The nurse said they were at 8 minutes, but I swear they were closer together than that.  Regardless, after checking my cervix again and discovering absolutely no changes, it was decided I was in early labor, but no where near the point of needing to be admitted.  Basically I was in a lot of unproductive pain and was probably going to be one of those women who have painful early labor for days on end.  So they gave me a Percocet and sent me home.

After the drugs kicked in, my contractions just seemed to dissipate.  By the time the early evening rolled around, I wasn't feeling anything, not even my usual pelvic pressure that had been going on for a few weeks. The Percocet worked almost too well!

Last night I finally fell asleep around midnight, and was relieved as I had not slept a wink the night before.  During the night I was awoken several times by very strong contractions.  I'd get up to pee, time a couple of them, and they were always about 15 minutes apart.  When I got up this morning, I was still having them. I also lost another chunk of very bloody mucus plug, which I'm hoping is a good sign. Throughout the day my contractions have continued off an on, from very mild to breath taking.  Tonight, as I write this (well I see it is now tomorrow morning), they are still coming along.  They are a bit irregular both in strength and length, but they are a constant that has not let up all day.  Although the past few have been once again 7 minutes apart, about a minute in length, and what I would consider to be about a 4 or 5 on a scale of 10 for pain level.  I tend to have more contractions at night, so I'm probably up for another sleepless one around here.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment at 1pm.  I am hoping some changes have occurred after all I have been through the past couple of days.  If not, I guess it is back to the waiting game.  Hopefully I will go into honest to goodness labor very soon, at least within the week, as I do not want to have to induce or anything of that nature.  I want my body to do everything naturally.  I will have to wait and see how things progress and what the doc has to say, but I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow is all good news.

Well, all of that should have caught everyone up to this very second.  I am sorry for the lack of pictures in this post, but I'm not really feeling up to putting in the extra effort right now.  Don't worry, there will be plenty to come in the hopefully near future, you'll just have to forgive me on this one entry.

UPDATE:  It's now almost 3am and I'm having very strong contractions still 7-8 minutes apart.  It's like Monday all over again!!!

And here comes the broken record once again...

Would love to have your vote and support over on Top Baby Blogs!  Was up to #55 as of this post and still trying to break into that top 50 blogs territory.  Click the button below to vote!





Also, feel free to join Piper and I on Facebook and Twitter.