Time’s up!

Well, I am now 10 days overdue and tomorrow time is up: I am going to be induced.

As I already said, I started having some contractions during the evening on Tuesday – which was 40+5, which amounted to nothing. I had the same the day afterwards, and again they died off when I went to bed.

Then on Thursday, at 7 days over, I went to see the consultant and had a sweep. (Ouch). She said I was 1cm dilated, cervix is 1cm thick but soft. When I first had it taken, my blood pressure was a little high – 140/95 compared with 110/75 at my last midwife appointment. But they took it a few times and it came down to 130something/82, so they said that was ok. They kept suggesting I was feeling “stressed” because of being in hospital – I wasn’t – in fact, I was quite enjoying it in the fancy antenatal day unit with the ultra comfy pregnant lady chairs!

Anyway, the day of the sweep both T and I really thought that would be it. I’d had two nights of contractions and hopefully the sweep would just push things a little bit over the edge. No such luck. That night I had the occasional twinge, and felt pretty uncomfortable after the rummaging around down there, but I had nothing that could be described as contractions. Soul destroying!

The next night though, the false contractions were back – and the night after that too. But everytime I went to bed, they stopped.

Yesterday (9 days over) I had a show and got my hopes up again. But despite a few pathetically mild contractions it was pretty obvious I wasn’t about to go into labour anytime soon. It felt like the Last Chance Saloon for me, and I was pretty depressed about it. When I woke up this morning with no pains, I resigned myself to the idea of being induced and have just been focusing on that all day today.

I’ve been a bit emotional, thinking about Lilly and how her life is just about to change and she can’t really comprehend how. I had a conversation with her this morning about how tomorrow mummy and daddy are going to the hospital to get the new baby sister, and she is going to stay with her Nanna. I was telling her about when she was born in the hospital, and she said “I’m your baby, aren’t I mummy?”

It still feels so strange that we are going to have two children soon – and a newborn baby to look after alongside a toddler! Are we crazy!!! How are we going to manage?!?!

And because of the induction – which is going to involve having my waters broken to start things off – I know that there is an even greater likelihood that this might end in an emergency c-section again. But hopefully if things look like they are headed that way (e.g. if heartrate is dipping and I’m not making good progress) that decision will be made earlier, meaning that at the very least, I will be able to be awake and T can be present when the procedure is done (last time was under general anaesthetic).

I really want my VBAC but my baby is the most important thing. I can’t go on being pregnant, I feel physically exhausted and uncomfortable all the time. If I get my natural birth – amazing!! I’ll be over the moon! But this time, having gained a better understanding of why what happened last time happened, I hope I’ll be much better able to understand and come to terms with the delivery, however it happens.

Wish me luck!

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Encouraging signs?

Well, here we are at 40+6 and baby has not made her appearance yet!

Yesterday, Tony, Lilly and I went to Chester Zoo for a family outing. We thought we’d try some tempting of fate, and go as far away from the hospital as we dared! (However, as we now have the hospital bag and notes etc in the back of the car permanently, it wasn’t much of a risk I suppose!)

It was a scorching hot day, and the zoo, although busy, wasn’t too hectic. We’ve taken Lilly to the zoo about 5 times in her life so far, and each time she has been more and more enthusiastic (going from “very underwhelmed” on her first visit!!). We told her on Monday we were going to the zoo, so on Tuesday morning she was playing with her Noah’s Ark animals and telling us she wanted to see the elephants!

We did indeed see the elephants, and Lilly also enjoyed the monkeys – best of all though the chimps – we happened to be in their house when they were fed – basically the keeper throws barrels full of fruit and veg through a grill at the top – and it was brilliant watching them all getting really excited about their food and then scoffing it down… Lilly was fascinated! She also liked the giraffes but wasn’t so keen on the penguins this time – there is a viewing window where you can see them swimming underwater but I think she thought they were gigantic fish and found them a bit worrying!

Anyway, it was a very hot day and we did a fair bit of walking, which I wasn’t sure if i’d be up to but managed ok in the end.

On the way home from the zoo I started to be aware of these period pain type feelings coming every so often – not particularly close together and not particularly in any order. I didn’t say anything to Tony until later on that afternoon when we were sitting at home and I realised that these pains were still coming regularly – not hugely strongly and not very close together – but still with that contraction-like style of building up and fading slowly away.

Tony’s face was classic. “Oh my god”, he said. Then: “It’s the England game tomorrow”.

We started to make a note of how often they were coming. At first it was every 25 mins, then 30 mins, then 35. Then 10. Then 10 again. Then 8! Then 10 again. Some where definite contraction type feelings, some were less pronounced, leaving me unsure as to whether they “counted” or not.

We carried on timing them until the end of Big Brother at 11pm then we went to bed. It took me a little while to get to sleep, mainly because of my mind being too awake, rather than any pain or discomfort. Before we went to sleep I said to Tony that I thought I would more likely have a good night’s sleep and wake up tomorrow with no contractions at all…

… and that is exactly what happened!!

Today so far (it is 2pm) i’ve had a few aches and the occasional pain a little bit like last night, but not as strong. But the contractions have not started up again yet.

It could have been “false labour”, or it could be my body gearing up to do something more constructive soon. I hope it’s the latter. Last time, with Lilly, I had contractions at 10 mins apart all night, then dozed off about 6am and when I woke up they had gone. I had nothing all day and then the contractions suddenly came back, much more strongly, at 5pm that night. So hopefully the same will be true here!

Lilly’s at nursery today, so Tony and I have been for a nice lunch followed by a walk around the local area to see if that might kick-start things. If all else fails, I have a consultant appointment tomorrow morning which will include a sweep so hopefully that might get things started if they haven’t already.

And, as the England game kicks off in an hour, I’d say it’s a safe bet that Tony’s not going to miss it, after all!

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