42 Weeks

42-week belly pic. I haven't gained any weight in about 3 weeks.

Ugh. Lane is so, so late. We are going to have to teach her some manners when she's old enough to understand that 2 weeks late is WAY too late. Sigh.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning. The first thing he asked me was, "So, do you want to be induced today?" Our hospital is not that big, and they only schedule (I think) 1 induction per day, so the hospital is booked up for inductions this week, except for yesterday and Friday. I didn't feel mentally prepared to leave the doctor's office for the hospital to be induced yesterday, so we scheduled an appointment for Friday morning at 6 am. After leaving the doctor's, we went to the hospital to have a non-stress test done on the baby just to make sure that she is still ok in the womb, since after today I will technically be overdue, and some babies don't thrive past 42 weeks. If the test had left any question then I would have been induced yesterday with no problem or complaint from me, but since all looks and sounds well, we're waiting until Friday for the induction and praying that I go into labor naturally before then.

Everyone keeps asking me why I don't want to be induced and advising me to just be induced and get it over with. I think that what it all really boils down to is this: I want to feel like it is my choice to get an epidural. Because I want to at least try to give birth without one, and so many people who have had natural births and induced births tell me that it is more painful when you are induced and that I will want the epidural, I feel like if I am induced that my choice to have one or not will be taken away from me. Does that make sense? If I decide that labor is too much and that I want the epidural, I want it to be because natural labor was too much, not because the induction caused it to be too much. I also really don't want to be hooked up to an IV or fetal monitor. I want to be able to move around, walk, get in the bathtub (our hospital has a GREAT labor tub), etc. I want to be able to make it through the early part of labor at home, not at the hospital strapped to all sorts of contraptions.

There are other reasons that I've been willing to wait so long before being induced. My original due date was January 12th, but they changed it at my 11-week (which turned out to be 12-week) ultrasound, saying that our baby was older than the date of the 12th (based on my last period) would indicate. We're pretty sure we know the date I got pregnant. I know that I ovulate early (not late, like many women who go past 40 weeks), and haven't had a cycle longer than 26 days in over 2 years. All of these things have led us to believe that the due date of the 5th was correct, but "full-term" is 38-42 weeks. Since there is that possibility that my due date actually was the 12th (and I ovulated late that month), and not the 5th, Lane would only be a week late as of tomorrow, and that's still only 41 weeks and not technically overdue. Every other sonogram that I've had (besides the 12-week one) has indicated that Lane was not actually due on the 5th, but on the 12th or the 14th, or even the 16th. However, because ultrasounds done in the first trimester are supposed to be the most accurate (all babies grow at the same rate the first trimester) we still thought she was due on the 5th. All that to say, while we (and our doctor) believe that the date of the 5th was/is accurate, we also don't believe that I'm way overdue. We're all hoping that she decides to come on her own between now and Friday, because let's face it: all babies would eventually make their way into the world without an induction, and most of them would do it before they were really in the womb 42 weeks (or 40 weeks if you want to get technical). Most babies are "late" because the due date was wrong and because up to 42 weeks is still normal, not because they're actually late.

My doctor stripped my membranes again yesterday. I have been having contractions, although they haven't really hurt. I'm about 3, maybe 4, centimeters dilated, and baby's head is quite low and well-engaged. I'm mentally ready to have this baby, and my doctor says that my body is indicating it's ready for labor as well. I'm getting to the "miserable" stage, but it comes and goes, with me feeling fine (just pregnant) about half the time and miserable (barely able to walk or move) the other half. Perhaps by waiting the extra couple of days I'll get my wish to at least start labor naturally and be able to make the decision to either get an epidural or use Pitocin to speed labor up when I see how things are going naturally before I circumvent the natural process. Nobody was ever pregnant forever...