induce – Butterfly Crossing

Welcome back to this week’s installment of my week by week pregnancy guide. If you want to catch up with previous weeks, scroll to the bottom.

Week 38

At this point, should you give birth, your baby is not considered early, reducing most of the risks associated with premature birth. Right around now you will be seeing your doctor every week. The running joke with my doctor was “I hope I miss my next appointment.” Sure enough, this week I gave birth to Munchie.

Are you in labor? If you want to know what that feels like, look at Week 36 for my best definition.

Once you are in labor, there are several stages. The first is uncomfortable at worst, consisting of mild contractions, sporadically timed, and pretty brief. This can last for days. The second phase is where your contractions become more regular, meaning their intervals will be more regular and predictable, and their lengths as well. Once your contractions are about ten to fifteen minutes apart on a regular basis, go to the hospital (or wherever it is you decided to give birth). This phase lasts several hours. It is also during this phase that your water will most likely break. Your doctor may break it for you to speed up the process. Either way is fine. The last phase is the bridge between the second phase and delivery. Your contractions are going to get longer and stronger. And you will have this unbelievable urge to push. If your doctor tells you to hold off (for whatever reason) but you can’t, and you do start the pushing process, there is no going back. Once the baby is descended, do NOT close your legs, you will crush the tiny little baby skull. Usually I am not this adamant with my advice. But this time, I am very much so. In fact, I would be yelling for emphasis right now if I could. I have read entirely too many stories where women were instructed for one reason or another to close their legs to slow down labor, only to result in sever damage and even death to their babies.

For those of you not giving birth just yet, hang in there, just a few more weeks at most! If you do not give birth within the next two to three weeks, your doctor will more than likely induce. At this point it is completely safe.

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Happy Monday! And welcome back to another installment of my week by week pregnancy guide. If you want to catch up with previous weeks, then feel free to scroll to the bottom.

Week 37

Your baby is now breathing inside of you. It sounds creepy, but it is actually kind of cute. At this point everyone was saying I should take a tour of the hospital where I would be delivering. I didn’t get a chance to, and honestly I don’t think I would have cared. When you get there you will be wheeled straight into the delivery room. After which you will be taken to your room, and you will be there until you go home. With Munchie I was in the hospital for the whole mandatory two days. With Ducky my doctor sent me home same day. So really, whether or not the hospital chooses to display O’Keefe or Monet in their hallways doesn’t matter. Skip the tour. Go get some ice cream instead. Unless of course you are lactose intolerant, in which case don’t. But feel free to skip the tour anyway.

Some doctors will want to induce during this week. If so, find out why. If there is a legitimate health reason, such as preeclampsia, or other factors, then by all means, trust your doctor. However, I have friends who’s doctor had them induced without any valid reasoning aside from scheduling convenience. Sorry, that is not a good enough reason for me. And it shouldn’t be for you either.

Now your doctor will want to see what position your little one is in. Until now your baby was probably doing somersaults. Which was fine. But at this point his head should be down, otherwise you have a breech. If so, then your doctor may try turning the baby over from the outside. This can be very painful for you, as it is something like a violent massage. But it does not hurt the baby in any way. If this doesn’t work, then you play the waiting game. You may not go into labor as soon as you might think, giving the baby time to rotate on his own. However, once you are in labor and he still hasn’t turned, you are most likely looking at a c-section. As scary as this may sound, it is not the end of the world. You will recover, and at this point, the best thing you can do is trust your doctor. However, until you are actually in labor with a breech baby, trust your instincts.

Two weeks to go!!

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