39, 40.... aaaand 41 weeks... Update on the progess

Baby is now officially overdue. 

I went to the doctors today to get checked again--still no dilation, effacement, etc.... NOTHING. Contractions have continued for the last 4 weeks now, they are getting worse and more painful--but STILL no dilation. 

My body doesn't know what to do with this little one inside of me. (He is PUSHING harder and harder by the day, we can tell all he wants to do is come out.... poor guy, wish mom's cervix knew what it was supposed to do).

So the doctor said they cannot induce me, even though we are now officially past 40 weeks because of the "un-ripe" (or also called "un-favorable) cervix. He basically explained that because the cervix has not progressed on its own, most likely even with drugs, it would not do so... which then would put me at risk for a medically unnecessary C-section. If I were induced this week, the chances of it becoming a C-section would be 1 in 3 or maybe even 1 in 2.... so pretty high. 

Yea--so everyone says--"keep baby in there, it's better for him to bake" or "he will come when he is ready..."  

Negative.

As you remember, Aiden has a 2 vessel cord, meaning that he is missing an umbilical artery. This puts him at a higher risk than a normal baby (he is not "high risk," but at higher risk than normal). I asked the doctor if he would let me just hold out until he comes naturally--thinking he's gotta come out by 42 weeks... right? (well he may not---especially since this cervix is not letting up--in which case I'd end up with a C-section then anyway). Well, the doctor said no. He will not allow this baby to stay in there for more than 41 weeks, because of his condition. Here's the catch... 41 weeks is the END of THIS WEEK... Most likely with the trend of this dear cervix of mine, things are not bound to change in the next couple days.  

So... I asked if he could then induce me on Friday (41 weeks according to conception) but the doctor's office has me down for SATURDAY for 41 weeks. Okay--here's where I vent...

You know how doctor's ask you about your last missed period? Then they take an AVERAGE cycle length for a female and determine your due date. Now, I have tracked my cycle for a very long time, and am very aware of my cycle length--therefore can actually calculate a more accurate due date. On top of that, they did an ultrasound where it showed that he was 2 days ahead of what the original due date was. So.. we have 3 due dates... July 25th (by the ultrasound), 26th (what I got after calculating my actual cycle length) and 27th (the last-missed-period-least-acurate one). 

Doctor said no to Friday (IHC is REALLY STRICT on inducing ppl without a favorable cervix BEFORE 41 weeks--EVEN if its ONE DAY). 

......AAAAND.... Doctor's do not do inductions on Saturday or Sunday......

Therefore, we must wait until Monday. (note: my favorite doctor is on duty Friday, so I REALLY wanted him). He said Sunday I would come in, get drugs, stay the night, Monday morning start pitocin, and then deliver... possibly into Tuesday depending on the progress. If the cervix is about the same as it is now, then the chances of a C-section are STILL the same as above... about 30-50% chance. 

They will determine what to do as so...

Sunday night, put some medication (similar to cervidil) to hopefully soften up the cervix.

Monday morning--administer pitocin

After administering pitocin on Monday :

If NO progress in 4-6 hours--straight into a C-section

If SOME progress, they will keep watching it.. on and on... probably until labor doesn't progress anymore OR I go for like 20+ hours and finally go into a C-section.

BEST CASE SCENARIO: we get the drugs Sunday night and things kick in and end up having the baby that night! =D we shall see what happens.

We will be back into the doctors on Thursday to check again... Contractions haven't let up so maybe eventually they will do something to the cervix... but our odds so far don't seem to be in our favor... and these contractions really hurt.

One thing I have learned from all this is how different every person's pregnancy is. I have never been in more constant pain in my life, I am struggling to walk around at times, and when some of these contractions hit, I seriously can't even imagine how bad they will be with the pitocin. We were talking about if I were living in the 1900s, Baby may never come out and we possibly both could die. People say that your body "knows what to do" but I realize now that for some, that really is not always the case. I am just grateful for modern medicine that even though I may be super drugged and cut open, at least my baby and myself will be able to come out of this alive. 

I really appreciate everyone's support, and I would not wish this type of a last month of pregnancy upon anybody. I hope that all my dear prego friends right now have a smooth last month! 

Here are some belly shots:

*also, at 39 weeks we got stretch marks... ALMOST made it without... a friend of mine said they are worth more than any medal you could ever get ;)

38.5 weeks

40 weeks

Have a great week. We will have Aiden here a week from today for sure! FINALLY!

Love,
The Brinleys

Maternity Shots and 38 weeks!

We are blessed to have great friends with great talents. We were lucky enough to get 2 different Maternity photo shoots with 2 very talented girls, Kara Nilsson and Gabi Da Silva. Just wanted to share some of our faves from both sessions:
The ones with Gabi were in the white dress, the ones with Kara are in the teal and black. We did the session with Gabi at 35 weeks and the one with Kara at 36 weeks. Thank you girls!!

Alright! Enjoy! I dont have a 38 week belly shot yet, but we will keep you posted!
In fact, we are thinking about inducing next week because of work scheduling issues. The doctor said that we could get induced at 39 weeks, so we will talk to the doctor on Monday!

love,
The Brinleys!

Week 35, 36, 37 -- FULL TERM! Woo!

We will be reaching "full-term" this Friday, and are stoked. That means that baby is all developed and ready to come whenever! 37 weeks is when the baby's lungs are fully developed, so anyone who goes into labor after that the doctors don't stop them, and let nature take its course.

Speaking of going into labor, I have had some consistent contractions and ended up in the Labor and Delivery this weekend. Looks like baby is starting to move down, but still we have a long way to go. Anyway the story goes like this:
Friday night I began to track my contractions, because they were fairly obnoxious and consistent. Our nurse from the Birthing Class said that if the contractions began to last longer than 60 seconds to call the hospital--better safe than sorry... Sooo we did, after 24 hours. Saturday rolls around and the contractions are getting slightly stronger, some of which were lasting a minute and a half... my back was starting to ache some, and so we thought, well, "better safe than sorry..." and called the OB office. The nurse asked a few questions, but after hearing that they were lasting over a minute asked us to come in to get checked. At this point I didn't necessarily feel I was going into an intense labor--and figured they were just going to check me real quick and send me home...

We get to the hospital and they have the delivery room all set up--we were a bit surprised. She hooked me up to the monitors (the same ones we use each week for our Non-stress Tests)--one monitors the baby's heart rate and the other my contractions. I was a bit worried that maybe they would hook me up and I would no show contractions--you know how your body does that? You go to the doctor and suddenly your symptoms are gone and you feel like a dummy? Anyway, I just hoped that what I was feeling for the last 24 hours would manifest itself so that they could really take a look at what was going on.

They kept me hooked up for about an hour and a half, and sure enough--every 1.5-3 minutes there was a contraction that lasted 50-80 seconds. The problem was they were inconsistent in intensity... some would be hardly noticed, while others were 80 seconds and HARD. The same pattern that had lasted the last 2 days. I was exhausted, the nurse checked to see if I was dilated--nothing... in fact, I was sealed shut. Great... these contractions weren't doing anything. The nurse was so nice and just said that they would probably continue and offered me some morphine. I refused the morphine--(I didn't want to be intensely drugged--it's hard when you're working full-time to just pop pills and then be able to be alert enough to work)--so instead she gave me some Percocet, which I also have yet to take, because I am working and don't want to get too groggy.

Sunday I thought I could manage a Homecoming talk in Sacrament, but I was sweating and having the worst contractions and back pains... I realized that when I am up and about trying to live life normally, the contractions get worse. Monday and today I have just been working from home, getting up only for the bathroom and meals--which gives enough contractions to deal with.

We went to the doctor's today, I was hoping that maybe I would be a little more effaced or dilated since it has been an on-going thing for a few days now... but no, we are yet to be dilated, although apparently we are a bit "softer." These contractions ARE doing something, but because he is the first child, my body just needs a lot of prep before the real thing. As I have researched online about this sort of pre-labor, some women go through it for about 2-3 weeks before it finally picks up to be the real thing. I am assuming that will be us as well. The Doctor just told us to consider this my "baseline" and once it starts getting worse than this, THEN we will know to go in. Lovely isn't it? My "normal" is consistent cramping. =) it's gotten a little better, and it's making me tougher right?

One term I learned about what this is called is "prodromal labor" if you want more info you should google it! There are some great blogs of people who went through the same thing!

Well, for those of you who have been through this, give me your feedback--how long did you go through this pre-labor before you hit the real thing?

Here are some belly photos:

35.5 weeks:

36.5 weeks

The monitor with the contractions and heart rate: 

Until next week,
The Brinley's