Leo
Born August 22, 2010
11:01 p.m.
On Monday, August 16, we had our 39-week appointment with the midwives (Mary and her student, Monika). Cara, Rob, and Rafa had moved in with us the Friday before to wait for the baby's arrival and we were all hoping to hear an "any day now" prediction. We didn't get that, exactly, but everything looked great. My blood pressure looked good, the baby was vertex (head down) and sounded healthy. I asked for a cervical check and was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced, which was progress from my last check at 36 weeks and more dilated than I'd ever been without being in labor.
Rick had unexpectedly been called to San Antonio for 5 weeks of training beginning that day, but he was on-call and ready to come home whenever we needed him. I kept up the regime of everything I'd been doing to encourage this kid to come out-- red raspberry leaf tea, evening primrose oil, visualizing, walking, pumping, spicy food, greasy food, more water, less water, acupressure, massage, squatting, stairs. On Tuesday, I had acupuncture done, with an assurance that it usually worked within 4-6 hours. On Wednesday, he said the longest it had ever taken was 36 hours. I took that day off from work in case the baby was just to shy to make an appearance there-- no such luck. On Thursday, I went for a second acupuncture session. Still no baby. I had contractions constantly, but none of them hurt and, as far as I could tell, none of them were doing anything.
Friday evening, Rick came home and he, Andie and I had tickets to go see "Jersey Boys." Tickets I was sure we would have to reschedule... nope! We walked to campus, watched the show, and walked home. Normally, the baby had absolutely loved the musicals we'd gone to see and would kick up a storm (Rick had predicted that would be enough to set off labor this time)-- this one, not so much. I can't say I blame him. I didn't like it much either.
Saturday, more of the same. Lots of walking (and man, was it hot!). Swinging and climbing the playscape at the park with the girls. Cara, Rob, and Rafa spent the day with a friend to try to give us some space as a family, but apparently that wasn't what the baby needed either. The possibility of going past my due date weighed heavily on my mind. I knew everyone was eager to get back home. And I really wanted to have this baby while Rick was home for the weekend! Saturday night, I started taking black cohosh tincture. Still nothing to show for it.
I had decided that if nothing progressed by Sunday, I would try a conservative dose of castor oil. Scary, yucky castor oil. I had a teeny, tiny bit of spotting Sunday morning-- just enough to convince me that the castor oil should do the trick. I sent Rick out to find it and psyched myself up for a day spent on the toilet. Yippee! At about 9 a.m., I had 1 T of castor oil mixed with two scoops of chocolate ice cream and a little milk to make a shake. It didn't taste bad at all. And nothing happened. I second-guessed my dosing and decided to add a little more at 11 a.m. Rick made me another shake, this time with 3 T, which made for a total dose of 2 ounces. Still nothing.
We'd sent all of the kids to my mom's house for the morning (in hopes that something would be happening) and Rick and I basically sat around watching bad TV. The kids came home around 1:00 and Cara and Rob took them to an indoor bouncey place. And still no effects of the castor oil. I had the same omnipresent contractions as always, but none of them hurt and there was no pattern to them that I could decipher.
Around 3:30, I thought the contractions might possibly be getting more regular. But they were still completely painless, so I couldn't tell if I was being overly optimistic. At 4:30, the castor oil finally kicked in and I made a quick trip to the bathroom (not the hellish experience I'd read about online). I did think the contractions seemed to have some rhythm at this point, so I called Mary just to let her know labor might be imminent-- I wasn't there yet, but I felt like it was coming.
Mary called back at 6:00, at which point I'd already had my second bathroom trip but the contractions were definitely not any more intense. If anything, they seemed to be dropping off and it was hard to tell for sure if they were anything other than mild intestinal cramping. Mary explained that it very well might be false labor, which is more common in subsequent pregnancies. She said to call her at 10, before I went to bed, just to update her. I updated Cara and Rob and said that if nothing got more serious than it was, I would just be heading to bed that night and hopefully things would pick up the next day.
Rick and I continued our bad TV marathon. Finally, around 8:30, I began to have contractions that I could actually feel. Not painful, exactly, but timeable at least. Progress? I tried using the Contraction Master app on my iPod touch and thought it was annoying, so I had Rick write down contraction times, starting a little before 9:00. From then until I had to make a bathroom run again (the final one-- #4) at 9:20, they were pretty consistently 3 minutes apart, lasting about a minute each.
I had been convinced I would hold off until 10:00 to call Mary, but I suddenly felt like things were not just "going," they were going fast! After telling Rick I really needed him to fill the birth pool, I got on the phone with Mary and paced the backyard while bringing her up to speed. She said she'd head over. I also called my mom and told her to come on over-- that the baby would be coming tonight and she could just sleep here until we were closer. Then I called our photographer, Julia, and let her know that we were starting to get closer and that someone would call her after the midwives arrived and checked my progress, so she would know when to come.
By this time, I had started speed-walking everywhere. Just like with my labor with Mariela, the easiest way to deal with contractions (that were definitely getting stronger) was to be walking when they hit, so I stayed on the move. I craved being outside and spent time walking up and down the front steps during the contractions as they got stronger. The guys were working on filling the pool and I was getting slightly nervous about it taking too long and added a few big potfuls of water myself (and then handed that job off to my mom when she arrived).
I told Cara to go ahead and call Julia back, even though the midwives still hadn't arrived. By now, I knew we were speeding towards the finish line and I had a mental deadline of midnight for the baby's arrival. I grabbed my bathing suit and tried to find enough space between contractions to change into it-- that was tough, but I'm definitely not a naked birther, so it needed to be done!
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