Upside Inside Out
After my last exciting doctor's appointment, you can imagine the ball of excitement I was to find out where the baby would be a week later. I mean, what comes between "RIGHT THERE" and "RIGHT HERE"? I still don't know, but I would very much like to find out.
Unfortunately, that hope as well as several others were dashed last Wednesday, when I went to my appointment and saw not the doctor but the nurse practicioner they're fond of foisting me onto when the doctor is busy with other, more needy patients. (I don't know what was going on in Exam Room 1, but there was groaning.) After doing all the usual routine stuff (I only gained a half a pound that week!) the NP came in and said hello and asked how I was feeling, pleasantries, pleasantries, etc., and then SMASHED all hopes of December Baby being a November Baby by saying, "Oh, the doctor always tells women they're going to deliver early and that the baby has dropped when it actually hasn't. I don't know why she does that. Honestly."
Had I been there for a tonsil check, she would have had no problem seeing all the way to my uvula, so wide was my mouth agape. Did she just say the doctor LIED to me?! And did she follow that by saying there was no reason to believe that I wouldn't go to my due date, if not past it? WTF, lady?
After she examined me,* she confirmed that the baby wasn't engaged in the pelvis and that I wasn't even a millimeter dialated. "I don't even know why we're checking you this early, anyway," she said. "You're only at thirty-five weeks." (I really do like this woman in general, but oooooh, did I want to strangle her that day!)
So I left the appointment feeling disappointed and a little pissed off, but luckily I've been able to Google myself back into some semblance of hopefulness that (a) the baby will still come early and (b) my doctor isn't a total Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire, MD. She wrote on my chart last week that I was at -2 station, which, while it doesn't mean the baby is technically "engaged" in the pelvis (that happens at 0 station), he is indeed moving toward the exit, as a "floating" baby would be all the way at -5 station. So, the baby's not so much "RIGHT THERE" as "getting there," and considering that first-time moms are often known to go into labor as early as -1 station, I've not given into the despair of a whole four more weeks of pregnancy no matter what the nurse practicioner says. (Even easy and delightful pregnancies get old toward the end, okay?) Still, don't hold your breath or anything. This past weekend was spent doing laundry and hanging out at Target rather than packing the hospital bag and installing the carseat. Harrumph.
*My first internal exam a few weeks ago was courtesy of the NP, and let me tell you, I'd rather have contractions (the cute, painless kind) all day every day than have her examine me again. When it happened I thought it was so freaking unpleasant because of the pregnancy, but then after a perfectly comfortable (if one can use that word in this situation) exam by the actual doctor a week later, I'm positive that it's not me, it's her (the NP). Whereas my doctor is tall and thin and has fingers that correspond accordingly, the NP is short and round, and so having her examine me required a little more force and "maneuvering" than I'm used to. It was a little like being probed with the pointy end of a football, actually, and when she reached up to push down on the top of my uterus while her fingers were still "engaged in my pelvis," I imagine it looked not unlike a toddler trying to pick up an excersise ball that is as wide as he is tall. Who knew that the height of one's examiner would so directly influence the experience of a pelvic exam? The more you know...
Sorry about the dashed hopes. My fingers are crossed for Wombat to come between December 1 and December 15 so you don't have to worry about the Dreaded Christmas Baby.
An added incentive to an early baby is that it will cost me less if he's born in Nov., since Dec. 1 is the start date of my new, more expensive insurance plan. I'm gunning for Nov. 29.
Aw MAN. Dumb doctor. But still! -2 is awesome! I still think you'll go early because of all your contractions alone. And good grif lady you had me cringing at the internal exam descriptions!!! Pointy end of a football?!? *shudder*
Lots of positive vibes coming your way for the little wombat to arrive before the insurance premiums go up! ((HUGS))
Lots of positive vibes coming your way for the little wombat to arrive before the insurance premiums go up! ((HUGS))
All righty then, Nov. 29 it is.
You hear that, Wombat? Get moving!
Big fist, warm heart.
Ah, I know how bad it feels those last four weeks when nothing happens. At least you'll have four more weeks (maybe) to sleep and not listen to crying. Those weeks all make a difference with the maturity of the baby as well. But it still sucks when you are in those last weeks and just want the baby OUT.
Sleep? What's that?
Personally, I was too occupied with peeing, heaving from side to side, leg crazies, heartburn, congestion, and various other complaints to do much of that so-called 'sleeping' business at the end. At any rate, here's hoping for a Nov. 29 birthday!
Yes, from about 9 p.m. until I can fall asleep, it's like slow death by jimmy-leg every single night.
Good luck. Once I got down to the last four weeks, I lived in a state! of! constant! readiness! He could come any time! Despite the conventional wisdom about the unlikelihood of first time babies coming early. It could happen I kept reassuring myself!
An entire basil plant, labor stimulating massage, 2 attempts at stripping my membranes, a week on bed rest to avert preeclampsia and some very concerted nipple-twiddling later...mine showed up one day after my due date.
Hope you are the exception to the rule! :)
girl, pack your bag!
at 37 1/2 weeks i went to see my dr in the afternoon & he said everything was fine. that night at 2am my water broke...bag wasn't packed (not even started!), carseat was still in the box.
Ugh. Anyone with big(ger) hands doing a pelvic exam is enough to make me run screaming out of the room, paper garment be damned.
Wombat: get out before Christmas, baby.
I'm telling you this I guess so you will hate my guts, no not really, but .....with my first, I started pre-term labor at 32 weeks and by 35 weeks I was 4 cm and I walked around like that til....41 weeks when I begged someone to finish me off.......
Second child, went to 2 cm at 28 weeks and manage to hold him off til 35 weeks when protein in urine and blood pressure got out of control...
So, nah, you doc isn't a liar, they don't know, they just all make educated guesses.
I, too, am gunning for November 29th. GO WOMBAT!
Oh dude. Listen. You take your due date and add two weeks to it. And you tell yourself THAT is when the baby will come. I know it sounds like some sort of sick torturous thing to do, but otherwise the hope of an early baby WILL KILL YOU. I speak from experience, my friend. The last few weeks are murder anyway, and if you keep expecting the baby to make an early arrival and then he doesn't and has the audacity to come on time, well then. It just makes for one grumpy mama to be. So I swear, just try to tell yourself he'll be coming in January and you'll thank me for it.
I'm currently convincing my hopeful subconscious that this baby's due date is March 30th instead of January 8th ;o)
/assvice.
I am a long-time lurker but I had to comment! I know how annoying it is to hear everyone else's story, but you might like my own. Maybe not, but I am going to tell it anyways!
I had just started my weekly appointments at 35 weeks and at 35 weeks, the NP told me NO WAY, NO HOW was I close to giving birth. All sealed up nice and tight, blah blah. I was huge at this point and tired of people telling me how huge I was.
Long story short, I gave birth 3 days later. SO THERE NP! This was my first child, too.
I would say you want to hold out for another week or two for the baby's sake, but good luck to early birthing anytime after that!
P.
I was 1cm dialated one week (34) nothing the next week (wtf?) and then had Dahlia at 36 weeks so...ya just never know. We didn't have the car seat installed or all the snacks packed...and I would do that differently next time!
COME ON, WOMBAT! :) Here's hoping for Nov 29...that sounds like a really nice birthday.
oh, the end of pregnancy sure is fun, isn't it?? ;) i hope for your sanity that you are right. it sure was more enjoyable to go almost 4 weeks early with my son than it was to be OVERDUE, many, many day overdue with my girls.
:)
Just to throw another story out, the doctor didn't even bother checking me until I was 38 weeks and nada. One day before my due date, I was 1 cm and my membranes were stripped **shudder**. I ended up going into labor at 2:30 am the day after my due date. So my due date came and went and I was all pissy about it and then 2 1/2 hours later, it. was. ON.
I guess I just don't understand why you'd truly want your baby to be born five weeks early. I mean, sure you're sick of being pregnant, but that's pretty much a pregnancy rite of passage. Chill out and let the wombat finish cooking, yo. (as if you have any choice in the matter!)
Not five weeks--three and half. He's fine to come out now. So says I and so says the experts. And I don't want him born TOMORROW (I still have another week of work); I just don't want to go to 42 weeks and have him induced on Christmas (after which my parents will have gone home).
I had internal exams from multiple doctors and only one of them really hurt. When I complained about it she said that's just the way it is. But it didn't hurt when anyone else did it. Thank God she wasn't on call when it was finally time to have the baby (2 days late, sorry).
My friend recently had her first baby two weeks early, so I'll send along the same good vibes and prayers! :)
I'm hoping you're early because I want to be late to finish up stuff, and the statistical mean for first time moms is 40wks 8 days (I get this from Henci Goer, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth) and my convoluted understanding of statistics means if you're bringing the mean down I can push it back up. That's mathematically logical, right?!