A little newsy update this morning.
I just saw my OB.
I am now 70% effaced and the doctor said that although I am not dilated, she was able to put her finger inside my cervix (tiny bit ouchy!), so it is really soft. Baby has moved down to a -2 station (from -3), so a little further down.
I'm definitely feeling like things are happening down in my pelvic region. A bit crampy, a lot of pressure, sometimes a clicking sound and feeling when I bear down (my geriatric pelvis trying to figure out how to open a bit? - I imagine it like a creaky, unoiled gate.)
Unfortunately, I tested as Group B Strep positive despite doing the somewhat yucky garlic protocol that my doula recommended, so I will be getting antibiotics when I'm in labor.
Today the OB said the absolute latest she'll let me go before inducing is my due date (and this is of course assuming everything looks good with baby's biophysical profiles and non-stress tests). She's on call that weekend, which would be much nicer than having a different doctor I don't know as well. She'd previously been saying 39 weeks for induction, so 40 weeks now sounds like such a reprieve! Funny, it's all about perspective!
Glucose numbers look good, she said. So that's a phew.
Biophysical profile later today...hoping Magpie passes as usual with flying colors!
Mo
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Yowza! Sounds like things are maybe starting to happen! Wow! Have I mentioned recently, like in the last 2 hours, how extremely happy & excited for you I am? Words cannot properly express...
ReplyDeleteYou're almost there. So amazing!
ReplyDeleteYou are almost there! I've been reading your blog for years and it is amazing that you are in the home stretch. I hope you can avoid the induction.
ReplyDeleteWhen my first was born prematurely unexpectedly, I hadn't had my group B strep test yet so they had to give me the antibiotics (they had actually administered the test the day before and it ended up coming back negative - go figure). It wasn't the end of the world. I was going for a drug free labor and, aside from the antibiotics (which do sting a little in the arm!) I did great. I have also had a pain med-free induction with pitocin with my second child...so if that's what you want to do, it's entirely possible. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAgree, try not to worry about the strep B. Unrelated: would you consider setting up a PO Box under your pseudonym (to protect your/her privacy of course)? I'm sure many of us would love to send a card/little something when she's born! Might be fun to show her the "Internet love" she inspired one day. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteHow incredibly exciting. Just think. Just a few more weeks and you are going to be cradling your sweet Magpie. How wonderful is that going to be? I am so very happy for you and Will. You deserve your happy beginning. I look forward to hearing your storied of raising Miss Magpie. It's going to be so much fun!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYAY 38+ weeks!!! Way to go, Mo! I hope she keeps cooking, but soon, so soon she will be in your arms. What a blessing.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are on your way to a spontaneous delivery! I will just say this, though, and that is that there are plenty of reasons not to be pregnant past 39 weeks, among them, being 40, having gestational diabetes and having thrombophilia issues. I can't find the graph right now, but at 39 weeks gestation, a 40 year old woman has the same risk of stillbirth as a 25 year old woman at 42 weeks gestation. And that study controlled for diabetes and hypertension--both are higher in older women, and both increase the risk further. So, those numbers are the risk just from age alone. Now, you're being monitored very closely, and that mitigates some of the risk, but not all of it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're making great progress! (That's me trying to stay optimistic while in a similar position...) I'll be keeping an eye on your blog, who knows, we might just deliver on the same day!
ReplyDeleteWonderful news, will continue to check back obsessively :).
ReplyDeleteOK- important info about the antibiotics for the GBS.
ReplyDeleteI had it in labor with my first. It was penicillin. When the nurse started the IV that sh*t burned like a mofo! It took all my attention away from my very painful, Pitocin induced contractions.
It felt like my beans were burning inside my arm.
The nurse suggested putting ice packs on my arm to help.
Well, after a few contractions focusing more on hold an icepack on my burning arm instead of on breathing through contractions I put my foot down.
I said, "This isn't working." At which point she said, "Oh, well, we can just turn it down!"
She turned it down and the burning went away in just a few minutes.
Why she didn't do that from the start is beyond me.
Later they had to change it (because I labored 36 hours) and the new nurse did the same thing. Cranked it up until I was in a lot of pain.
I asked her to lower it and she said she couldn't. At which point I was basically like, "LADY! Lower it NOW or I'll rip it right out of my arm! I cannot be dealing with this and contractions at the same time!"
She obliged.
So, moral of my story: Be sure to be forceful and MAKE them put it on low if it burns.
I think you only need to have the antibiotics on board for the something like 4 hours prior to delivery, so there generally isn't a rush- especially for first timers.
Um, I meant veins were burning, not beans- stupid autocorrect.
ReplyDelete(And by low, I basically mean mix it with a lot of saline so it's a much lower concentration, not slow it down- although in effect it's slower because of the lower concentration.)
The day is almost here, Mo. Wow. It is real!! You ARE having a baby VERY soon! So so happy for you!! You deserve this so much!
ReplyDeleteIt is so lovely and heart warming that your journey to motherhood is about to culminate in the birth of your daughter.
ReplyDeleteHere is to things progressing as they should. I can't WAIT for news of her arrival to the world.
Go Mo!
Good news indeed!!! Hope things progress well for you....Good luck on the BPP!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, wow, WOW! She's almost here!!!
ReplyDeleteHoly Moly Mo--
ReplyDeleteI am so very happy for you - so incredibly exciting!
Every moment of this is miraculous, isn't it?
The billion things your body and her body have been doing, and now the billion things your body is doing right now, getting ready....
I hope you stay comfortable, and things progress the way you want them to before induction day. It sounds very very likely!
xoxox
hugs,
Kate
OMG!!! You are so close, I'm hoping the next update is a picture of magpie!!
ReplyDeleteAw, Magpie. I have to say I love the name. :)
ReplyDeleteYay!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLook at you....talking about delivering! Cheers!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI just gave birth last week (abroad) and was GBS positive. They gave me a dose of antibiotics right when I arrived and planned to give another dose every 4 hourly, but I delivered before that (only went to hospital when contractions were 4-5 minutes apart). The good news was that they put a line in but I didn't have to be on a drip the whole time since they just administered the dose all at once, so I could still get up and walk around fairly easily. I was bummed about it too, but it turned out to be no big deal.
ReplyDeleteGood luck -- we're all cheering for you and can't wait to hear good news about Magpie's arrival! (And I'd love to send something along if you set up a PO Box or something like the previous poster suggested.)
70% effaced! I predict you'll go into labor this weekend. But I can't believe you were right about your GBS test. Bummer, but glad to hear from the commenters who said it's very manageable.
ReplyDeleteI'M SO EXCITED! xoxo
BTW, anyone who wants to celebrate Magpie's impending arrival, please click HERE!
ReplyDeleteShe'll be here before you know it! So excited for you.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marie -- you've had such a long, hard journey to get here. Why go past 39 weeks? The likelihood of Magpie having any breathing or breastfeeing issues is remote at 39 weeks, and there is far less risk outside of the womb at that point than inside.
ReplyDeleteI was a big proponent of natural birth for both my girls (and ended up having some complications that I can now see were related to my resistance to induction). I've been reading the "Skeptical OB" blog and while I don't agree with everything she says, she has opened my eyes that a lot of what the natural birth movement says is just plain wrong.
Plus, if I could, I would choose to avoid a weekend delivery. In my experience, the weekend postpartum nurses were not anywhere near as good as the regular week nurses (the most experienced nurses tend to avoid picking weekend shifts).
If you can set up a nice induction date with your doctor around 39 weeks -- get admitted the night before for a ripening gel, start a low dose of pitocin in the morning along with the antibiotics -- you can still exercise a lot of control over the process. As long as your water isn't broken, you can let the induction take as long as you want.
If your cervix is already partly ripe and your OB is patient, your chances of a c-section are not that much higher with an induction versus spontaneous.
At any rate -- congratulations on reaching the home stretch! I'm sure you will make the decision that is best for Magpie and for you -- but in a world where there is a lot of chorus of "induction is bad, natural is better", I wanted to put in $0.02 for considering induction sooner rather than later.
Wow so close now! I can't believe your due date is only 13 days away.
ReplyDeleteSo excited for you and hope she makes her arrival very soon :-)
i have been watching the days tick off for so long now- i cannot believe you are less than two weeks away from your edd.
ReplyDeleteits going to be great! so excited for you all- for you and will, and for ms.magpie to meet her parents!
will you post a picture of her? how will we know you have gone into labor, or had the baby? i hope you have someone to update! will?!
enjoy these last few days of just the two of you- they are a special time, with so much hope, love, and expectation... you are on the cusp of something so life changing!
omgomgomg. you're so close now! :) so super duper excited. glad you're feeling good. can't wait for more updates!!
ReplyDeleteYou're almost there. So, excited for you.
ReplyDeleteWow, I am exactly 1 week behind you and completed 37 weeks today. So excited and hope everything goes well for both of us! I also want a natural, pain medication free child-birth if possible.
ReplyDelete