Wednesday, June 17, 2009

An induction

Since I'm still pregnant and Z shows no signs of making an appearance, we have decided to schedule an induction. My midwife, who is not at all concerned about the baby or me, will not even consider an induction until I'm 41 weeks and 3 days, which is about 10 days from now. Her reasoning for this is that with any intervention I'm more likely to have more interventions, and I totally agree. I am somewhat frustrated though. I fully realize these are circumstances that are beyond my control, and I'm mostly ok with that. I want the baby to come in her own time as that means she's ready. That said, our good friends, who had driven to CU Land from New York, had to leave today, and their primary purpose in coming was so that my friend could be my doula, something she did for me when Wild Man was born. My mom also got here on Saturday, and she's very nervous that she won't be able to be here much after the baby is born if Z doesn't show up until the induction date. Granted, Mom will be here for about 11 more days (and for the record, the "together" Mom showed up!), but if I have to be induced, Mom will have to take more time off of work and extend her ticket. Her visit will also overlap with C's mom's, which isn't ideal for any of us.

Needless to say, both C and I are a bit stressed out. Neither one of us wants to have an induction, but I don't know that I'm mentally prepared to be pregnant for another 2 or 3 weeks. Right now the plan is to schedule an induction for June 27; in the meantime, we'll hope Z decides to come on her own. If she hasn't come by next Tuesday, my midwife will send me to have a stress test, and a few days after that she'll send me for another stress test and an ultrasound. Oddly enough, everyone is more worried than C, my mom (who went to today's appointment with us), and me. As I said to C a little while ago, I know what it is like to have a doctor look at me and be worried. After the scare we had with Wild Man's delivery, I know the look that medical personnel get when they think something is going wrong with my pregnancy. My midwife, whom I like a lot and really trust, does not seem at all concerned, so I'm not concerned--at least not about my health or the baby's. I'm just a little sad that our friends had to leave before the baby arrived and that my mom might not get to spend a lot of time with us after the baby does arrive.

*Edited to add: Yetta and Pita, both of whom are prone to assume the absolute worst, are freaked out. They are sure something will go wrong and were very upset when C told them that he isn't really worried and that he'd prefer not to have me induced.

1 comment:

Lilian said...

Oh my dear, I feel for you... and I went through something similar although I didn't go over my due date with Linton. The thing is, I had a short window of time in which all 4 grandparents would be there for the birth. OH, and Kelvin was 17 days early, so we were thinking that maybe Linton would be early too -- no such luck!

My parents were with us for 6 months that year (they helped us move from MA to PA after baby was born), but my in-laws were visiting only for a short time and hoping that Linton would be born before they had to leave for TX for my brother-in-law's wedding.

My MIL stayed with us for two weeks and my FIL one week, all this right before my due date (June 1). FIL's b-day (May 23)and K's b-day (May 26) went by, but Linton didn't want to share his own birthday with them. Two days before the due date, as my in-laws were driving to the airport to fly to TX, I went into labor and drove to the hospital. Their flight was delayed, so when Linton was born, they were 30 miles away sitting on the tarmac in the airplane. Isn't that frustrating?

Well... I ended up flying to TX with a 6 day-old baby to attend the wedding, which was awesome b/c it was a surprise for everyone, but it was quite the experience... to have everyone waiting and nothing happen.

So... hang in there, my friend, even if it disrupts your, your friends', your mom's plans.

Oh, one more thing -- a similar thing happened to my SIL -- our MIL went to her house during the last two weeks before the due date, postponed her ticket for one more week and in the end, my nephew was born only HOURS before she had to take her flight back to MA. We drove down to MD for the birth, but MIL and I didn't get to the hospital in time to see the birth, we heard the nephew crying over the phone on the drive there. We did get to meet him only a few minutes old, though, and then, MIL had to be driven to the airport (and missed her flight).

So... yeah... we know about this that you're going through. I hope you have all the patience you'll need right now. I'll be thinking of you.