Progress

At my doctor appointment last week I was overjoyed because I was dilated to 3 cm and 80% effaced. With Eliana that did not happen until I was in the hospital being evaluated for labor. All last week I expected to go into labor at any moment. I didn't. Poo. However, I got over it and decided that it would be great to hear today that I was 5 cm and could just go to the hospital if I wanted to. Well, that didn't happen. Instead, the doctor told me that my body seems to be perfectly ready for delivery, we just need contractions to get everything going.

I've been having contractions quite a bit...just not the useful ones. They have helped me learn to relax through them, but I wish Maya would let them move her down. There must be something oddly comforting about my ribs, because Ellie never wanted to move down, either.

So it looks like I'm dilated to 3+ cm (almost to 4) and am still 80% effaced. The doctor seemed to keep his fingers up there for a little while and started to push down on the baby. It's not the most pleasant experience, especially when you don't know why he won't take his fingers away. The doctor asked me if it hurt me and I said that it did. I wanted his fingers out, what else was I going to say? He asked if it hurt badly and I said, "Yeah, kinda" in a fairly exasperated tone. I really wanted his fingers out and that did the trick. What I didn't realize at the time was that he was working on stripping my membranes. We had talked about doing that at my last appointment, so it wasn't an ambush stripping. I just thought it was going to be different or that he would say something first. I had given my consent at the last appointment, so I probably should have suspected it. It wasn't until the appointment was over and we were talking about doing a more "vigorous" membrane stripping on Friday if I hadn't had the baby that it dawned on me. I asked him if that was what he had done when he asked me if it hurt and he told me it was. If I'd known that I probably would have let him keep stripping away. We'll see if we get results from it. If not, then we'll try again Friday. I'm convinced that if Maya isn't ready to come yet she'll ignore everything we do until we crack out the Pitocin. I'll have to go over my due date before we try that, I think. Pray for me; I can't wait to be done with this pregnancy.