Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

“That’s great! Actual physical contact.” -Doctor Raymond Stantz, Ghostbusters

Last night I expelled my mucuos plug. As the name suggests, it’s not something you’d want to discuss at the dinner table. So I won’t go into further details about that, but I can say that the name can be a little deceiving. If you happen to be a pregnant or are considering getting pregnant and want more details in an e-mail, I will happily share what I know.

I believe the average woman goes into labor within 24 hours of losing her plug. I’m still crossing my fingers that my completely “average” pregnancy will stay the course and that will be the case. At the doctor’s office this morning she told me I’m still between 1-2 cm dilated. Basically it sounds like I haven’t budged much since last week. My doctor would of course prefer to see me go into labor on my own, especially if the baby shows no signs of distress. However; after hearing of impending family visitors, she asked if I wanted to have an induction on Thursday. We figured that sounded like a good option. That gives us 3 more days to kick-start this naturally. It’s back to the doctor’s tomorrow afternoon for more non-stress tests.

Today is my first official day of maternity leave. Through my work, I get 12 weeks of semi-paid (~50%) leave. The first 6 weeks are covered by SDI (standard disability), with the first week using up accrued vacation/sick leave. The subsequent 6 weeks are covered by PFL (paid family leave), again with the first week using accrued vacation time. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself these next few days. I was hoping I’d have a baby to keep me occupied…

The due date has come and gone. However the non-stress testing on Friday revealed that I am having contractions. These contractions I barely feel at all and don’t last that long(they’re much more comfortable than the Braxton-Hicks ones I’ve been having the past few months). But sure enough while I was hooked up to the monitors (for about 30 minutes), the machine recorded that I had 7 contractions. The other monitor looked at the baby heart rate, which looked good. They also did another ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid level. The fluid level should be between 8 - 24 cm. I was sitting around 18 cm, so there’s still plenty of happy fluid for baby to float in. Thus, Tim and I spent the day sitting around playing video games. I’ve only got a few positions that aren’t uncomfortable, thankfully one of them let’s me sit on the couch. If things don’t progress tonight/tomorrow, it’s back to the doctor’s office Monday morning. The good news is there are still two Tums in the bottle.

Monday’s doctor appointment was supposed to help me figure out if I was going to be working this week. I was going to receive my first cervix check. Some of my female co-workers had been giving me a hard time wondering why I hadn’t had my cervix checked in prior weeks. All I can say to that is “thank goodness!” she did not do it sooner. I’ve got two words to describe the process: OW and OW! She reported that I’m approximately 1 cm dilated with 50% effacement. 39.5714 weeks pregnant. I’ve read in numerous locations that only 5% of women actually give birth on their “due dates”. One of the books we received in a baby prep class had this lovely analogy in regards to dilation. It’s like moving from a average bottle to an average jar. Note the helpful illustrations to the right.

Thus I’m still at work this week and think I will work through Friday. I could still go into labor at any time. However I’m hoping for more dilation and a greater % of effacement. I’ve convinced myself labor will not be “as bad” if that were the case. Tim and I are still prepared. We washed all of our 0-3 month baby clothes and have packed our bags for the hospital. Let’s just hope that they don’t start collecting dust in Tim’s trunk.

On Friday afternoon, I will be going for my first Non-Stress Test (NST). This is basically where they strap you up to a bunch of monitors and make sure that the baby is doing ok. If the baby is late, I will continue to go for NSTs twice weekly as well as head to the doctor for my weekly check-up (and more fun cervix checks!) As long as the baby is healthy, they’ll let me go up to 12 days past my due date before inducing. Goodness! I’m going to continue to try to motivate Marshall into action by playing Queen’s “I want to break free”, to see if he’ll get the hint.



“I’ve got to break free

I want to break free yeah

I want I want I want I want to break free….”

Race against Time? No, you read that right -a race against Tums. You might think that racing against inanimate objects trapped in a bottle is unfair, but you’d be wrong! I too have a handicap -swollen feet! So don’t be pitying the poor non-appendaged minty acid relief. Let me explain. As with most average (see post below) pregnancies I have heartburn. There are days I take a couple antacids and there are days that I don’t take any at all. When I reached for the Tums yesterday, I realized that there are 9 tablets left in the bottle. I have 10 days until my due date. My new goal is to have the baby before I use all the Tums up. Tums you’re going down! You hear me!?

“White-trash” Shawna at 37 weeks!

Tim and I had sworn we wouldn’t get caught up in the percentiles that parents are oft to share with one another. You might hear the typical braggy mom exuberantly claim, “My daughter is in the 99% in her verbal ability!” However, yesterday was a different story. We had to wait a week and a half to get an ultrasound, because the doctor had thought Marshall was measuring small. So when the ultrasound technician said “You’re baby is weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz, or at the 59%,” I have to say I was quite relieved. Here I was thinking I was forcing my inadequate placenta on our poor baby. “He’s average! He’s average!”, I felt like singing. No premature baby was headed our way. Maybe more importantly, the “big-headed baby” Tim had promised won’t be an added burden to my labor neither.

With 3 weeks left, I think Tim and I are as ready as we’ll ever be to become parents. We’ve taken all the classes that we’re going to take (Infant CPR, Childbirth basics, breastfeeding). We’ve read all the literature that we’re going to read (What to Expect, the American Pediatrician’s guide, Baby Whisperer, On Becoming Babywise). Now we are just waiting for Marshall to appear. I’m not even anxious about childbirth. I know 5 women who have been through labor this year (4 for their first babies), and they all came out OK. I can’t imagine my “average” baby will be any different.

I did finally get around to uploading more baby-related pictures from August in the meantime. My mom took a lot of great shots at the baby shower. Tim took this picture of me (above) last Thursday and says that “I look rather content with the size of my belly”. I also have a picture of the awesome baby blanket Jeannine knit for Marshall made out of Bamboo yarn! I have a feeling Marshall isn’t going to show up early. This means no “Labor Day” or “birthday” jokes. Although the ultrasound technician said he is positioned head-down and probably won’t be changing positions (yay!). I’m off to see my doctor again on Thursday. I’m certain the visit will be just as expected.