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2006-06-13 - 9.17pm��previous entry��next entry
40 weeks, 6 days - had my cervical sweep today
It's the evening AGAIN! *sigh* Thank you for all the lovely messages and for being all excited for me about when Matthew will arrive :)
I had my midwife appointment today, but later than expected, as it wasn't the midwife I had hoped it would be. They phoned to say someone would visit me with a student (not the one assigned to me, as she had to work a shift) somewhere before 3pm. All I knew was that I hadn't met them before so I was a bit bummed about that. BUT, the nicest midwife showed up with a sweet, rather shy student in her first year of study, and it went great! So that's a relief!
My appointment went well. My blood pressure was 125/80 (bit up for me but not anything worrisome), and my urine was clear and fine - no protein or even leukocytes! The midwife felt my tummy and my bump now measures 40cm! Matthew is still growing!!! Aaaargh! His heartrate was about 120 and sounded reeeally slow to my ears! But that's normal for him. It was strong and regular and the midwife was happy with it. Oh, I asked her about his vigorous movements and she said if he was also having normal quiet times then I shouldn't worry. He sounded fine to her today, and she said if I have been bothered by the heat then that might account for it - which is DEFINITELY the case! So that's probably all it is.
We have had cooler temperatures today and some lovely rain! Yay! But the humidity has been CRAZY somehow, despite the cooler temperature. Way worse than the hot days even. It has been hard to flush the heat and humidity out of our house, even with the fans and the windows open. It's so much cooler outside than in our house today! Anyway I have sweated constantly, no matter if I've had the fan on me or been sitting still the whole time, or whatever. Urgh! I have felt almost as uncomfy as when it was very hot, but oh well. Hopefully the house will cool down and the fresher weather will stay for a few days to ease things up a bit. I wish we had bigger windows, or at least ones that open wider! Except that I found the BIGGEST spider in my bedroom last night, urrrrgh! That's the downside of hot weather and open windows I suppose. *shudder*
Anyway, back to the midwife appointment! She felt my tummy and Matthew is in the same position as always. He wriggled a lot while she was feeling him, and she said it was hard to even feel his bottom properly, as it was moving about so much! She was surprised like the previous midwife when she felt for his head, and said that it was "well in there"!! His head is only 2/5 (ish) palpable, so he's nicely engaged. She sat next to me explaining the sweep and going through what I might expect (pros and cons, etc), and my bump heaved and lurched as she was talking to me :) She told Matthew, "I hope you're listening!" hehe!
So we went upstairs for the sweep. Arthur didn't seem sure of the midwives for some reason, and he was happy to cuddle with Nana while they chatted to me. When it came time for my sweep, my mum took Arthur out for a little walk, as the weather has finally been cool enough. He was perfectly happy to go, which reeally encouraged me (re. labour and stuff) because he was already feeling unsure about the midwives, so to just go calmly away from me with Nana was very good going.
The midwife explained that she would first check my cervix to see how it was doing, and then ask my permission again to do the sweep, so I'd know when it was coming. She was really great. I was a bit nervous because I figured it was going to hurt a lot. Anyway she checked my cervix (I had checked in the shower again this morning and could barely reach the edge, which felt softish to me) and I am 2cm dilated. She said my cervix easily admitted two fingers so she would class that as 2cm dilated :) But I've probably been that for a while, so maybe it's nothing that exciting. She said as far as effacement and consistency go, she would put both as "medium" or "moderately soft and effaced". Hmmm. So it doesn't look to me like I was about to go into labour any time soon on my own! I don't understand it really. I am sure of my dates - in fact I'm SO glad they were willing to go with MY dates and not the scan dates, as those put me down as due on June 3rd instead of the 7th!
Anyway. So she asked if I was okay for having the sweep now, and I said yes. It did hurt but it was waaaaaaaaay more bearable than I had expected! In fact the whole thing was much less painful than normal internals that I have had before, so that was a relief. The actual sweep took a matter of seconds. I just felt her pushing about a bit, which did hurt some, and then that was it. She said I might notice some spotting, or maybe lose some of my mucus plug, and that it would be very normal to be crampy (even very crampy) for up to 48 hours after the sweep. So I shouldn't get too excited about crampiness in that time. She said if it was going to send me into labour, it would probably happen between a few hours after the sweep and 48 hours after. Beyond that, it probably wouldn't be the sweep that did it.
So now I wait (again!). I didn't feel too crampy immediately afterwards, but once the midwife had gone I did feel sort of heavy and uncomfortable very low down, like mild crampy discomfort. It has persisted on and off since then, but nothing much else has happened so far. I just get this FEELING that nothing is going to happen from this sweep. I don't know, maybe that's just me feeling like I am NEVER going to go into labour? Every morning I wake up and feel exactly the same, even though the first thing I'm wondering and hoping for is the slightest sign that there have been changes during my sleep and that I might go into labour soon. But every morning there is nothing happening, absolutely NOTHING! I just feel like that's how tomorrow morning will be too, and the next morning. Only this time I'll be sort of even MORE eager for signs, since I will have had the sweep to raise my hopes a bit.
I asked what happens next. The midwife said I need to book for my induction at the hospital TODAY, urrrgh. She said obviously she knows I would want it to be as late as possible, and so she said she'd ring me later today (she didn't, so probably tomorrow morning now) after she'd chatted to the other midwives about timing. *sigh* I asked what the policy was here, and she said they like to induce by 40 weeks and 12 days at the latest. She said my induction date would probably be set for Sunday, or Monday at the latest. I DON'T plan on getting to next weekend still pregnant! But I'm starting to think, well that's only like 5 days away and that suddenly seems rather soon, considering the absolute nothingness that is happening with my body! I am starting to get that sinking feeling that I really COULD go five more days and still have no news. If I do, then I'll reach the date they want me to be induced. I soooo do not want to be induced, and so far I definitely do not plan to be. I know I am within my rights to say no to induction before 42 weeks (or beyond, actually), and if it comes to it, I do plan to battle it out and refuse. But the very thought is so stressy and urrrgh that I just feel all of a flap in my head when I try to think of my "battle plan" (!!) and what to say, and to whom. I really desperately want to go into labour naturally before then (WELL before would be better, as less stress approaching the dreaded battle date!) so that I don't have to deal with that kind of mental plan and stress.
Anyway. I didn't say anything today because I just felt like I had no idea what to say. I feel so vague and tired out in my brain these days, and thus completely ill-equipped for standing my ground against something like this. Urgh. I just figured, let them book it. I'll cancel or something when I have figured out what to say! So anyway, no doubt she'll call tomorrow with my induction date booking :( I did ask if there is time left for another sweep BEFORE induction, as I would prefer to try that again if this one doesn't work. She said the earliest anyone would do it would be Saturday, so she is also looking to book me another home visit from a midwife on Saturday, for another sweep. And then an induction date on Monday, if she can manage it that way.
So that's what's up next if nothing happens. Please pray that I'll go into labour sooooooooooon! I am starting to find the whole thing stressy now, not just annoyingly drawn-out from the point of view of comfort and convenience!
I have felt pretty uncomfortable all evening so far. When Matthew squirms about, my cervix feels sore, but then that's not surprising really! I feel generally crampy in my back and front, and very low down, so that must be due to the sweep as well. I did have my first painful contraction at exactly 7pm though! I know not to get excited about that kind of thing after a sweep, but it was actually a weird relief to finally feel a contraction that hurt, as opposed to the fifty million painless-but-strong Braxton Hicks I have been getting for about eleventy months! It was not a strong contraction, and lasted hardly any time, like 20 seconds or something, but it was there :) I had another at 7.04, another at 7.07, another at 7.11, and then again at 7.16. That was so nice! :) I was reclining on the sofa during that time, and I just knew that if I got up it would stop, so I did, and haven't had any more. I ate a good dinner and have had to go for a #2 twice. But nothing else is happening. So there we have it for today. I am hoping to notice some exciting changes overnight or by the time I wake tomorrow morning, but I dread feeling all disappointed and somehow I doubt anything will change anyway, so I'm trying not to dwell on it too much. I will be 41 weeks pregnant in the morning, urgh! Of course if I'm still pregnant I will get Neil to take another belly pic for the gallery. I can't believe I might have a 41 week belly pic in one of my belly galleries!! Yeurgh.
Well I am sweating more than it is probably healthy to sweat (!) so I think I will post this entry now and go somewhere less humid (downstairs, about 3 inches from the fan should do it!) and cool down. I don't anticipate easy sleeping tonight, it's so incredibly hot and humid in the house, but oh well. I somehow managed last night, but then I did have the fan on such a high setting and so close to me that my skin was practically rippling, haha! It distracted me from sleep for a while, but ultimately I was so tired and it was so much better to feel a little cooler that I slept anyway.
I did not manage the morning without Neil or my mum well at ALL today. Now that my mum is back at my grandparents', she can't get here before 10am (today it was 10.30) and Neil goes to work a couple of hours before that, so I have a window where I'm on my own with Arthur. It sounds like a pathetic thing to say, but I totally can not manage that 2 hour window at the moment. Last time I had to was probably before my due date, and I managed then, but I felt SO different to that today. I did as little as I could get away with, and sat down on the sofa a lot, but Arthur is such an active toddler and whizzes through activities at a fast pace, wanting lots of interaction and stuff. By 9.30am I was feeling faint and breaking out in a weird sweat. I just did not feel good at all, and everything in me was yelling at me to lie down and rest, but I couldn't without anyone to watch Arthur. I am dreading the same scenario tomorrow. I am just too pregnant and tired out to be on my own at the moment, I know it's pathetic to say, and bazillions of other mothers manage (and with more children too!), but I just can't seem to. It seems beyond my body's ability at the moment. I wish Neil could stay till Mummy gets here, or that Mummy could get here earlier, but I can't really be nagging them for those things so I have to just get on with it. At least it's only a couple of hours, but yeah, still a couple of hours more than I feel able to manage. I hope I am in labour by tomorrow morning and then Neil won't be going to work in any case!
Okay, Matthew is turning his head this way and that, and it hurts like knives and needles in my cervix, so I think I'll stop for now! The midwife did say his head was very low when she did my sweep. She said it was pressed right up against the cervix and there were no waters bulging. She could feel the membranes over his head, but it was pressed so tightly against my cervix that there was no room for bulging waters above it! This is good though, because it will help my cervix continue to soften and dilate. I am going to bounce on the birth ball to add to that effect, if it isn't too sore to do so! I will update again if there's any news (at whatever time that might be), but otherwise I'll update AGAIN tomorrow evening. I guess I might update earlier in the day if I need to vent about induction stuff after the midwife phones, but we'll see! Hope not to keep doing this too much longer!
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