After having a very cruisy pregnancy, weeks 40 to 41 was the week from hell that nearly undid me, & ultimately did.
Me at 40 weeks
I finished up work at 38 weeks thinking surely I wouldn't have long to wait for the baby to arrive. I was scheduled in for a stretch & sweep the following Thursday at 39 weeks, and after Googling outcomes of the procedure it sounded like we could very well have a baby in the matter of days following. How very wrong I was...
The 39 week appointment came, and I was eager to see if my body was ready enough to respond to the stretch & sweep procedure. It felt very ready. Heck I felt my body had been ready since about 36 weeks! It was a midwife appointment and she advised the procedure would be quite uncomfortable, but I told her I was ready. But she ended up telling my body was not. My cervix was still high, closed and posterior and the baby was still sitting in a -3 position (just tipping into the pelvis but not engaged). Certainly no baby coming anytime soon but she told me not to be disheartened. "We'll try again at 40 weeks". A whole extra week of being enormously pregnant? Surely not! 'Next stop induction' is all I could think. I did have some spotting and cramping that night but knew not to get excited as it was just the aftermath from the scraping, poking & prodding of the stretch & sweep procedure.
Friday 3rd September, 2021. My last day at work before commencing maternity leave
The 40 week appointment came and this time it was with our obstetrician. She did an ultrasound to confirm the baby was head down, and then started the stretch & sweep. "You are 1cm dilated, the baby is still in a -3 position and your cervix is still posterior. I will try stretch you a bit more." Alex unfortunately had a front row seating to the procedure & compared the image of the obstetricians arm up into the depths of body to a farmer helping birth a calf LOL. This time with my cervix being partially open, the obstetrician could get through and stretch it open further. It was the worst sensation ever. Uncomfortable is one word. It wasn't painful, just a weird weird sensation. Like my body is that deep? Wow. "Your cervix is not very favourable." She said. Alex asked what that meant, but I already knew the answer. "Her body may struggle to go into labor on it's own. By now we would expect the head to be fully engaged in the pelvis, and the cervix to be in an anterior position." Great!
My mum has narrow hips and was unable to vaginally birth me or my brothers due to this. During Mum's labour with me, I was pushed half way down during labor before my head became stuck in Mum's pelvis which ended in an emergency C section. After hearing my baby was not engaging in my pelvis, Mum Googled and found out that narrow hips can be hereditary and said to ask my Ob about it. When my Ob said the baby was still in a -3 position at 40 weeks, I asked her if my hips were too small to birth this baby. She said it could be a possibility, but I would still need to try for a natural birth first. Her answer didn't really make sense... It wasn't until this point I knew this baby would need help coming earth side. I just knew it.
"I will schedule an induction for 10 days time if your body does not go into natural labor itself." 10 more days.. TEN! Every day feels like a year has passed once you reach your due date, so I knew 10 more days was going to be a lot to handle. 10 more sleepless nights of getting up 6+ times each night to wee. 10 more days of my extreme and constant unsatisfied thirst. 10 more days of keeping myself entertained on my own at home while Alex was at work. 10 more days of expressing colostrum. 10 more days of 'is this the start of contractions?'. 10 more days of constant Googling. 10 more days of bouncing on that damn ball. 10 more days of growing more and more tired. And 10 more days of growing! Heck by this point I was already the size of a house!
My birthday was 6 days past my due date, and it was coming around fast. My mum and I had the exact same due date, 16th Sept. She was due with me on that date and I came on the 22nd Sept. Could history repeat and I have the baby on my birthday as well? With each passing day the odds of this occurring were increasing.
Sunday night the 19th of Sept. I went to the toilet at approximately 7pm, and when I wiped I noticed I had had my bloody show! OMG. I knew this was the start of it. All of my Googling said labor could kick off within 24-72 hours. Now the waiting game had begun!
Me at nearly 41 weeks!
Monday night the 20th of Sept. I went to bed on my own as Alex was on nightshift. But I couldn't sleep. I had been getting spasmatic period cramping the past few nights on and off, but always fizzled out to nothing. I had done enough Googling to know it was my cervix thinning out and dilating. 'When does labour actually start?' I was constantly thinking. But this Monday night felt a bit different. It was more painful, more constant. 'Is this how it starts?'. I had no idea how I was supposed to know if this was it or not. It lasted 3 hours from 10pm until 1am, but then it stopped. But the baby seemed to behave differently through the waves of cramping. It felt like the baby didn't like all the cramping as it was moving extremely vigorously through it all. I had never felt the baby move so abruptly before and for so long. It kept me up for those 3 hours, and then just seemed to stop.
My birthday, Wed 22nd September and 6 days overdue. No baby! 'Will the baby give me my birthday to myself, or will we forever share the day we both arrived earth side?' The night of my birthday, the baby started to move around again in bed. Not as much as the night before, but it was still a bit more active that usual.
Me and my Dad on the night of my birthday. Lucky we took this photo as it was unknowingly my last bump photo!
Then came the Thu 23rd of September... 41 weeks and exactly 1 week overdue.
I woke up at 7am and went to the toilet. When I wiped I noticed a bright green discharge. It was a green colour that I had never seen before. A lime colour. 'What is this? Surely green isn't good' I thought. It was a fair bit of it, enough to cover the full length of the toilet paper. Sure enough I was straight on Google. What does this mean? I scrolled through pregnancy forums and every single response was saying 'meconium'. I knew that was bad and could put the baby's and my health at very high risk. I knew the baby was moving far too much on the Monday night, abnormally so, which was now making sense if it was in distress and had now pooed in utero. I went straight into the kitchen and called the emergency womens & childrens ward at our local hospital. I let them know I had a lot of bright lime green discharge, and that I thought the baby was in distress and had now pooed. They told me to urgently come in and be placed on the monitors. I woke Alex up and said 'we've got to go'. We both just threw on clothes and head out the door with our phones, a water bottle, my lip balm wallet and my maternity folder.
And that's where my birth story begins..... (see THE BIRTH OF PARKER ELLIOTT blog coming soon!)
HOB x
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