Not much progress since last week – not quite another cm of dilation despite all of the false labor. The CNM could also ‘bounce’ the baby’s head up and down (ow), but she’s durn sure that’s a head there, not a butt, so that’s cool. Just means … no ultrasound. Heh. She was encouraging though, reminding me that second labors are a very different animal from first ones. In a first delivery, being able to bounce the head means the baby isn’t fully engaged and hence labor isn’t imminent. In a second, it doesn’t mean much of anything because babies can float around more the second time around.
This pretty much jives with what I’ve been observing – Pip will engage and drop way down low, ride my spine/bottom/cervix for a while, then bounce up a little. The baby’s feet will pummel me at my mid-section while he/she is engaged, then later on I’ll feel butt and feet under my ribs again.
Anyway, she still thinks that when I do go, I’ll go fast, based on the effacement and prior history. I just sincerely hope that Pip arrives slightly before or by due date, because if I go over, my parents will be leaving on the 13th and we won’t have any extra help. It was hard to schedule their trip because Mom really wanted to be here for the birth and I went a little early last time so I had to make a best guess about the window of opportunity. We’ll see how it plays out. Right now I’ve got my fingers crossed for Sunday. Lughnasadh. Wouldn’t that be a fun birthday? 🙂
This week’s stats:
BP: Forgot to ask the nurse for the numbers but it was good.
Fundal Height: Forgot about the numbers again, but normal/on track.
Urine: Good.
Weight: 257 (down 3lbs from last week, this is often a sign of labor around the corner though it could also reflect fluid loss and the different office scales since our appt. was in Orinda this week, not Berkeley.)
Baby’s Heartbeat: 120s until the CNM poked Pip awake and it bounced up into the 130s. That was kind of funny to hear. Ba-dum, ba-dum, real relaxed and then she goes poke, poke in my side and there was a slight skip and then a pickup before slacking off again. This reminds me of when we had the ultrasound at 20 weeks and Pip didn’t want to be bothered to roll over for the tech. The whole ‘whatever, I’m sleeping, attitude.’
Next two appts scheduled for 39 and 40 weeks – the 5th and 12th of August. If I am still babyless on the 12th I will NOT be a happy camper.
I’m walking around with yet more low-level contractions and nagging back pain. It will be very, very good to be at home from here on out so I can rest. All this false labor is just taking too much out of me and I have a lot to do to get our house ship-shape for the little one.