Week 39, Day 1 (Oh my aching midwife)

You'd have to be a resourceful, tactful, clever and patient multi-tasker to be a midwife, I reckon.

Then a medical whiz and very very fond of babies, to boot.

Our poor Robyn looked utterly shattered yesterday afternoon when we finally got to see her. She'd had back to back emergency deliveries, plus her usual clinic to run, and this meant ringing her ladies throughout the day rescheduling, and re-rescheduling.

So you can imagine she was greatly relieved to inform me that baby is NOT arriving any second. Any day, yes, that's quite possible. But not any second. "Around Monday, or Monday onwards" is her guesstimate.

Here's the stats for this week:
BP 130/80 (high for me, but probably due to being late in the afternoon as opposed to morning)
Weight: down 100 grams
Peestick: perfect
Baby: bigger than ever, deeply locked into position, strong heartbeat & cranky about being woken up.

I'm looking exceedingly well, she remarked, and then she enquired about my sleep patterns. I admitted that once I get off to sleep, pretty much nothing wakes me these nights. And the pattern of the last two nights with the dummy runs means that sleep comes seconds after lying down!

I pulled out my notebook and quickly ran through the patterns of the previous two nights, with Robyn making comments and explanations as we went. She feels we could very well be on the cusp of delivery, but doesn't want to check the dilation yet because that's quite often enough to activate the prostiglantin, ie bring it (labour) on!

We talked about "clinic" again, and this time I had the brains to ask "what the hell is Clinic?"

Apparently it's the term for a collective of Chch Womens' obstetricians, who divvy up the patients according to their speciality, ie twins, older mums, diabetic mums, etc. I immediately had this mental picture of a group of white coats sitting around a card table, with banker's visors on, shuffling patient cards and dealing them out accordingly. In this mental cartoon, I wondered if a full house would for once beat a straight flush!

Anyhoo.. apparently it takes about two weeks to get in to 'clinic'.

K: Okayyyyy.. that's a week past my due date, hmm..
R: Yes, if you are overdue, they can then talk about inducing you, but I warn you, they won't induce you or even consider it until you're at least 12-16 days over.
K: Bugger that. If I get to a WEEK over, I'm taking matters into my own hands.
R: (eyes wide & horrified) What do you mean???
K: Oh, the usual. Comb trick, sex, breast pump, get lunged like a horse..
R: Oh. (grins) Well you can start that behaviour from Monday if you want. Get her up on the tractor, Wayne.
W: Lunged like a horse.. (snickers) I can't even get her NEAR the tractor.
K: Shut up honey. (glares meaningfully)
W: ( )

I had a chat to Mum when we got back, and Mum reckons if I follow her lead, I could go anytime. Then again, Mum made it so cosy for us we all had to be pried out with crowbars (ie induced), so I don't know if I want to follow her example too closely ;-)

So here we are, into week 39, and less than a week from our due date (6th Oct). Amazing that I've come this far, and here I am, busting a gut to get it over with. Typical. I think part of it is trying to bring on the "dentist's appointment" as quickly as possible to get the pain and scary bits out of the way, and the other is my usual impatience coming to the fore.

Btw, a few tips I've discovered along the way that other Mums with bumps might find useful, particularly when dealing with that nasty reflux.

If you must have a cup of tea or coffee later in the evening, have a gingernut biscuit or two with it. Something in the ginger keeps the reflux under control.

Have silver beet (chard) with as many of your nightly meals as you possibly can. Not only is it wonderful pregnancy food (iron, zinc, vitamins), but on the nights we've had silverbeet in our dinner, I have had NO reflux at all! None, zip, nada.

And if the nausea comes back, remember the jelly (jello for our American friends). Plain jelly with perhaps a bit of fruit if you wish. Very easy to swallow, very easy to keep down, mostly water so helps you not to dehydrate.

Also if you're planning on using a TENS machine in labour, rather than hire (and risk only having it for a few hours before passing it on to the next person), why not go to Trade Me and buy a brand new one of your own, for probably less than it would cost to hire one from the hospital! We were quoted $50 plus replacement pads (new pads for each hirer), but bought a very nice 4-pad model on TM for $35. We liked it so much, we bought two. (The other one will become our Thank You present to our midwife).

Btw, #1 Grandma has very kindly offered to pop a post up on the blog when I go into labour, thanks Mum!

As for me, welllll.... I can think of a dozen things I *should* be doing, but I don't bloody want to, so I'm taking the day to fart around doing fun last minute things, like maybe making another nappy stacker, re-assemble the breast pump (now that it's sterilised) and work out how to use it, go stroke the baby clothes, maybe even sew buttons on the four otherwise completed baby woollens sitting in the knitting bag, and generally be a slack tart.

Better go pay some bills online first ;-) Toodles!