Almost 6 days post-term

Well it is 9:24pm and still no sign of baby.  I will be six days overdue tomorrow....sounds so short when you compare it with the 18 days post-term I was with our first!  Yet, discussions with doctors around this topic are uncomfortable.  I went in for my weekly check up yesterday and the doctor advised he would like to book me in for a labour induction on Monday (which would put me at their magical 10 days overdue point). I refused. We discussed from there....we discussed my first sons birth....and he was really flabbergasted that I went so long overdue....I advised it was my choice.  He was pleasant enough....told me all the worst case scenario shit that they have to....which sucks, because even though I know in my heart we are doing the right thing, its still very uncomfortable to hear all of the things that "could" happen.

But I have never lived my life by what "could" happen....I do my best not to worry about things, until there is something to worry about and if I lived my life by what "could" happen, I would be agoraphobic.  Anyway, I know they are just doing their job...but again it just seems crazy to me that they pick this 10 day date and say that all women/babies must be induced by that date OR ELSE.....du..du...duuuuuunnnnn.  I just can't imagine walking into the hospital with no signs of labour, getting hooked up to a bag of drugs so my body can be forced into labour....it just seems totally fucked up to me.

They also don't tell you the slippery slope that many inductions lead to.  As I have heard from so many women, it is a very unpleasant experience.  Many times the pain comes on so forced and so fast women end up having to have an epidural, other interventions and many times emergency C-section (no thanks).  My yoga instructor told me today that she was induced at day 7 as that was her doctors "induction party date" and she basically had one extremely painful 12 hour contraction and the most awful birth....she wished she would have said no and waited a while longer.  And my cleaning lady told me one of her three kids was induced and it was the worst experience ever..she basically had three contractions and then it was like the child "ripped the life out of me" as she put it.  And I have spoken to a variety of other women and read so much about induction, that none of it seems pleasant....forcing nature usually isn't.   All that said, we will be starting monitoring every few days, beginning with an ultrasound this Friday.  And if there are truly any signs that babe is not comfortable, placenta is not functioning or anything negative at all, of course I will do what is best.

I am hopefully going to try some acupuncture tomorrow or this weekend to get things moving along.  I did that with Dutch, and went into labour two days later....not sure if it was the acupuncture or babe was just ready....but its worth a try.  Until then, we all just sit here in anticipation...excited to meet this little wonder of the world.  I really think the only thing keeping my body feeling great is my three yoga classes per week.....I highly recommend it for any pregnant gal out there...its a beautiful thing, so enjoy!

Three Days Overdue with Number 2

Well...I am now three days overdue, and something is feeling strangely familiar about this....and not in a good way.  Being 18 days overdue with Dutch was one of the most mentally and physically challenging things I have had to face in my life.  Not just because of the anticipation and carrying such a heavy load around, but having everyone around you give their opinions on your choice to not be chemically induced.  I have shared my philosophy before on this topic in other blogs so I wont go on about it here.

Our Doula who helped with the birth of Dutch advised me to just assume this baby will come at the same time as Dutch and anything earlier would be a pleasant surprise....a much smarter approach than the one I took...by actually writing "baby" on the Aug 2nd block on my kitchen calendar...HA!  What was I thinking.  I feel a little more concerned this time, simply because we do not have a caring and understanding Doctor this time around.  Our Doc in Vancouver, although wanted to induce, did respect our decision and only asked we get regular monitoring to ensure everything was okay with baby...which of course we were more than happy to do.  This time we are in a new City at a clinic that has 10 different Doctors and I am just a number....my life is on a flash drive.  Whenever I get a different doctor at the clinic, they have to wait to plug in the flash drive to say hello...uh........Heather.  Oh well...at least its my second baby and we sort of know what we are getting ourselves into....oh yes, and my hubby is my birth coach this time too!  But I know we will be a great team...I just don't want things to go so late again that we have to go through all of the emotional, controversial upheaval. 

I am considering getting the membrane scrape this week...I was thinking I would have it done tomorrow at my next appointment...but after reading quite a bit of information about it, I have changed my mind.  I will wait until I am closer to the 42 week period.  Especially knowing my track record of growing babies for an extra long time!  And this time I know if we go over the 42 week period, that the best thing for us to do is to turn off all communication from the outside world, listen to our instincts and my body, trust in the beautiful process of birth and enjoy.