Being over-expectant

I find myself 41 weeks and 1 day preg­nant today. As Delene was born 11 days after her due date, I had made up my mind since the very begin­ning of this preg­nancy that this baby was going to be late too. I told every­one that too. I wanted to save myself the hard real­iza­tion that came to me by the due date the first time… I have to say here that there was no chance that my due date could be uncertain.

All health pro­fes­sion­als assured me that this time it would go faster. I believed them up to a point. I agreed that I was a lot more active this time around and a lot more fit. One day, when I was 36 weeks preg­nant and cycling through the city with my daugh­ter in the buggy behind the bike, I looked down at my gears and real­ized that I could not gear down any fur­ther… And that was on a down hill! That and the fact that my baby was kick­ing me quite a bit when cycling made me stop cycling.

At around 38 weeks, I had seri­ous cramp­ing. It was so heavy that I got quite exited! I even got a friend around to come help pack my hos­pi­tal bag… It was just cramp­ing. When I saw my gynae­col­o­gist that week, she said that I was 1cm dilated… I read about it and knew that one could be up to 4 cm dilated for four weeks, but I have to be hon­est and say that I did get my hopes up! Then at 39 weeks, I lost my mucus plug. I was so exited that I man­aged to draw blood whilst shav­ing my legs! Well, yes, they say that this too could hap­pen long before deliv­ery. When another friend went into labor on her due date and deliv­ered the next day, I was green with envy. Then I real­ized that I had let go of my instinc­tive deci­sion that I will not expect to have this baby on or near the due date.

Still laugh­ing about all the tales about things that could bring on labor, I started read­ing about them. There are so many! Some com­pletely silly, but some I can see work­ing. So when the due date came and went, I started try­ing some… I

• walked… a bit. Pain in my pelvis made it a bit hard to go too far.
• tried drink­ing rasp­berry leaf tea… Uggg! I don’t like tea in any way, but the stuff made me feel quite unwell.
• had acupunc­ture.  Three times. Once a week. The last one was 4 days ago.
• ate pineap­ple
• ate curry
• drank sparkling wine
• had warm baths
• had sex
• tried nip­ple stimulation
• got a gym ball and bounced around my home
• nested
• stop nest­ing
• got bored
• watched a weepy movie
• drank the ver­bena* tea the mid­wife told me about. Well, I have been drink­ing it now for 4 days.
• had some fresh dates

So, I have tried many things.

There are still some other things I could try, if I want. These are:

• drink­ing Cas­tor oil with orange juice…
• Hav­ing a mem­brane sweep by your health care professional
• Home­opa­thy
• Evening prim­rose oil on the cervix
• Using the herbs blue cohosh and black cohosh
• Blow­ing up balloons
• Wear­ing my best under­wear… sods law…

Try­ing these things made me come to the point where I real­ized that if the baby isn’t ready and will­ing to be born, try­ing these things may not help at all. So, should I con­tinue try­ing these reme­dies until they do pay off or should I just relax and allow nature to take it’s course? I don’t know yet! I would like to have my baby soon and I would do just about any­thing to avoid being induced when my 42 weeks are up… But would it work?

Does any­one know of a dif­fer­ent rem­edy? Has some­thing worked for you? Let us know!

* Ver­bena Tea: Boil 1l water with 2cm of gin­ger, a cin­na­mon stick and 10 whole cloves for 15 min­utes. Add 5g of Ver­bena tea leaves and stand for 10 min­utes. Strain. Drink 3-5cups of this per day diluted with orange juice or apri­cot juice.

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• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
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Tagged as: home remedies, labor, Pregnancy