The [pre] birth story

If you're expecting your first baby, you might as well just set the date on your calendar now - your baby probably won't arrive until you're at the 41 week mark. (Not to say that some little ones don't come earlier, but you should prepare yourself for a late arrival, too.) Joe and I learned in our childbirth classes that the average first baby is delivered at 41 weeks and 1 day. For me, that would have been June 21st. Brenan was born June 22nd at 11:19am.

On June 1st, I remember saying to Joe, "Okay, we made it to June, I'm full-term, and Baby is healthy, so going into labor is fine with me any time now." Little did I know that weeks later I would still be pregnant.

We tried everything in the book to get labor to begin... so much so that I felt our efforts were worthy of a blog post on their own.

I did my best to put these in order of when we did (or started doing) them...
Walking
Sex
Relaxation
Breast pumping
Acupressure & massage
Visualization
Raspberry-leaf tea
Pineapple
Stripping the membranes
Castor oil
Jumping jacks

Not to be discouraging to any nearing-or-past-your-due-date-expecting-mothers out there, but none of these worked. I'm sure they all helped my body prepare little by little, but baby Brenan was pretty determined to stick it out until he was good n' ready to experience the world outside the womb.

Throughout my 3rd trimester I had frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions. In the last weeks before labor they were more intense, and fooled me into wishful "this is it" thoughts on more than one occasion. Contractions would be coming every 8-10 minutes for hours and then suddenly stop. Joe stayed home from work to support me though the stress of not knowing whether it was "real" or not, and the mild pain that accompanied my contractions.

After we got home from the OB on June 20 - 41 weeks

On Monday, June 20th, we had our final doctor's appointment with the OB. She did a ultrasound to check my fluid levels, which were at the lowest end of the "ok" spectrum, and to check the placenta, which was showing signs of aging and calcification. She also did a non-stress test to check how the baby was handling things. It turned out that he was doing just fine. She was surprised at how consistent his heart rate was, and was pleased to see it accelerating with movement and contractions (still just Braxton-Hicks). She stripped my membranes at that appointment, but agreed to wait for an induction until Thursday, June 23rd (a full 10 days after my due date) in respect for my wishes of avoiding a scheduled induction altogether.

My OB recommended trying castor oil mixed with orange juice when I got home to help labor begin. I was 3cm dilated and 40% effaced at my appointment, so my body was obviously close to going into labor on its own. We were hoping the castor oil would help push me over the edge. When I saw what it looked like mixed into (or rather, floating on top of) the orange juice, I wondered what the point was. Then I tried taking it by itself. Note: if you ever decide to take castor oil, mix it with orange juice. It may not help the texture, but you do NOT want to taste the castor oil by itself.

Contractions began within an hour or two, and were fairly intense. They came every 10 minutes, then every 9, then every 8... this lasted from noon to about 10pm. Then they stopped. Yet again, another exhausting and discouraging tease of labor.

Soon-to-be baby Brenan

The next morning I took another dose of castor oil in hopes that it would work even better this time... it did, but not on my uterus. This time I had no contractions, horrible gas pain, and diarrhea worse than I had when I was in India. I vowed never to take it again.

Tuesday evening (June 21st) I went to the bathroom and there was bright red blood on the paper when I wiped. I called the OB department at the hospital right away and they had me come in for observation. I was having contractions every 6-8 minutes, no more bleeding (they never really figured out what caused it, but they thought it was maybe related to having my membranes stripped the morning before), and the baby's heart rate was looking great. I was sent home 2 hours later, thankful that everything was okay.

I'll stop here, because the next part of the story is the part that many of you have been waiting for... my labor, and Brenan's arrival! (and it gets a post all to itself)