Saturday, August 30, 2008

37 weeks pregnant = Full Term by some standards...


pregnancy 3
august 30 2008
37 weeks

well, i really do want some opinions on something:

situation: next dr.'s appointment (friday sep 5) i will be one day short of 38 weeks. he has offered to see if i'm dilated. if i am, he has offered to "stir the pot" which would be to strip the membranes to try to get me into labour next week. my dr. who i REALLY want to deliver with is going away September 13 to 19th. My due date is September 20th. sooo, basically he would be trying to help me deliver before September 12th.

the decision: so i figure i have 2 choices:
1. say yes to him checking me and to stripping the membranes and see what happens.

2. say yes to him checking me, but no thanks to anything beyond that and just wait and see how long it takes for me to naturally go into labour.
bearing in mind, that i was 10days late with my last, 2 days late with my first.

at 10 days late last time, both baby and i were perfectly healthy and could have gone longer. i did not intend on having a chemical induction last time. my dr. offered to break my waters (i'm strep b pos again this time, i have been for each pregnancy which means when my waters break, i have to be at the hospital until the baby's born for the antibiotics).
however, the day i was admitted, my dr. was not available and the other dr. said he couldnt break my waters and had to do the chemical induction instead. having been through that now, i do not plan on agreeing to that again as it was crazy-painful.

i am very fearful of not having my dr. there b/c last time it was a bit of disaster with the nurses except for the one who was previously trained as a midwife, who totally helped me manage my pain through movements, and then delivered ezekiel b/c he came FAST and the dr. was not there in time.

originally, i wanted to let this pregnancy go late. even if its over 10 days late. i want to have a natural labouring experience, drug-free. i've done it once and it was a great experience (other than the chemical induction part). the reason i started to think "lets get this baby out soon" is because i had a very busy week and my body hurt like crazy! and i thought i could not handle any more time like this. after having a more mellow week, i am leaning towards this 2nd decision because my body does not hurt as much, although it is still very uncomfortable.

also, ezekiel is 21 months. he does not listen well to "no, dont throw food...hard toys...shoes...anything but balls." "no, dont hit...mommy...daddy...diedre...kitties." "please be gentle with the...kitty...your sister...mommy....daddy..." once in awhile he surprises us with listening to a reprimand, but mostly we know he understands so many things, but for some reason we cant say these things in a way that he will obey. its very frustrating (as it should be...he's almost 2!).

another thing about him is he is constantly telling us he has peed or pooed in his diaper and asks to go on the potty but he has never done anything on there. he even refuses diapers somedays which thankfully hasnt turned into a big mess, but it definitely has the potential. the more tired i am, the less uncontained messes i want to deal with. so giving him another full month to grow, learn, try potty learning a little, talk more, and just to spend time with.

so what do you think? decision 1 or 2?

update: i also wanted to mention derek's opinion on the situation: his noted that i went into full labour with diedre because a nurse broke my waters (without my or my dr.'s permission) and committed me to labouring in the hospital. when diedre was born the next morning, she was covered in vernix and the dr. said "oh, she couldve cooked a little longer!"

in her ultrasounds and afterwards, diedre had some issues with kidneys being slightly large, she also had something else swollen that she had to get multiple xrays for (i cant remember what right now...but the belly button dr. at Children's discovered it when he was checking to see if she had a herniated belly button (which she did not)). and then she also had very bad ear infections for several months and ended up getting ear tubes around 18 months i think and hasnt had one since. so that being written, derek wonders if she did not gestate long enough, thanks to the nurse, and therefore had those various issues.

3 comments:

kelly ens said...

Hey Amanda - just thought I'd put my 2 cents in. I vote for neither...you could be slightly dilated already - it really means nothing. So my suggestion would be just to let your body do what it needs to do, WHEN it needs to do it. If the first two were late, chances are this one won't be early, so your doctor will be back by then anyway.
anyway, hope you are able to make a decision that YOU feel good about.
almost there! :)

Michelle said...

well, you know i have an opinion when it comes to anything birthy, LOL.

i'd wait.. if you really want your doc to be there, and you tend to go late anyways, he will prob. be there after the 19th. but if you try to strip membranes and it doesn't work immediately, but gets things going while he's gone, then you're out of luck.

i had my membranes stripped with... ellia i think. even though i wasn't very dialated at the time, i went into labour and she was born about 24 hours later. but apparently it only works well if your body is gearing up anyways.

chemical induction.. pictocin, sucks... much harder, much more painful. natural labour is much easier, and drug free is a wonderful experience.

Anonymous said...

both my labours/births were drug free and no induction....well, both were at 37weeks.....
i don't really want to vote, because it's your decision....but i can really understand your need to spend some more quality-time with ezekiel and maybe it helps your decision to look at the outcome...
good luch with the decison, whatever it may be!