Friday, December 2, 2011

Progress and Patience

The Old Wives say that storms send women into labor, maybe because of the change in barometric pressure. Tuesday night, as a snow and ice storm blew over us, I went into regular contractions, but they settled down again after a few hours. At my weekly check yesterday the midwife said I'd moved from 1cm to 3cms, so at least progress is being made.

More strong contractions followed yesterday afternoon and evening. When Matt came home my mom and I went to walk at the mall to see if we could move things along. I waddled as hard and fast as I could (which really wasn't all that fast), until my fingers were swollen and my legs were numb, and I'm sure I looked really ridiculous. After half an hour I had to slow down as the contractions picked up and then stabbing pains set in. We decided to limp back to the van, and things settled down again on our way to a restaurant for a little refreshment. A few strong contractions gripped me at the restaurant, but I tried my best to smile and converse with the waitress like normal.

By the time we arrived home the contractions were mild and far apart. Only a few woke me last night. My sleep was far more interrupted by Hannah, who first lost her blanket then had a bad dream, and by Toby, who needed more water. This morning all is calm again.

The midwife said yesterday that their standard practice was not to let women pass 41 weeks of pregnancy. My next check is on my due date, next Thursday the 8th. If I haven't had a baby by then, they would schedule the "eviction" (as she called it) for the following week, sometime between the 12th and the 15th. I can't imagine living with contractions of this magnitude that long, but I guess we make it through a lot of things we can't imagine. Time will tell.

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