Friday Follow-Up | Still Pregnant

40 weeks today!

Elizabeth Suzann X Alabama Chanin organic cotton Marlena dress (small) | sold out
Elizabeth Suzann linen clyde vest (small) | I purchased secondhand from slowre
Melissa Plastic sandals
Ace & Jig scrap bag

So, this happened.

I was scheduled for an induction on Wednesday.  First, there was a schedule mix-up because I thought I was going in the evening and they called me that morning asking where I was. So, I had to completely rearrange my day, etc., and get to the hospital ASAP.  Luckily I had my bag ready, etc., so there wasn’t much to do, but it was so disruptive; I had a whole day of stuff I wanted to accomplish before going to the hospital.  And of course I assumed when we came home next, it would be with a baby.  So you know, final preparations and all that.

Get to the hospital, was finally calm and relaxed, and checked in, went to my L&D room, started the process.  I was 1-2 cm dilated and mostly effaced so started with cervidil to finish ripening my cervix and see if I’d dilate more.  We were going to start with Pitocin at 9 PM.

Now, this was largely an elective induction, but it was also HIGHLY recommended by my doctor.  It was also going to be a rather “gentle” induction, to try and ease him out, if you will and avoid the “cascade of interventions” I didn’t want, and mentioned in my last post and to my doctor many times.  Still, I assumed the pitocin would work and induce labor successfully and we’d go home on Friday with our baby.

Well, he wasn’t having it.  The doctor did start me out on a very low dose of pitocin and was increasing it slowly.  They had to stop it for a while because they weren’t happy with the baby’s reaction to contractions early in the morning.  It was mostly that he moves around A LOT and I kept getting uncomfortable and had to switch positions so they couldn’t get a long enough reading on the fetal monitor.  He was fine.

The fetal heart rate monitor though UGH.  That is now the bane of my existence.  They have wireless monitors at my hospital but only two and they were in use, so I had a big bulky obnoxious one around my belly.  BUT, my little guy is notorious for moving around a lot and being hard to pin down for very long, so nurses were CONSTANTLY coming in to mess with the monitor, move it around, make me try different positions, etc., to get him back on the monitor.  I couldn’t walk around or sit up for very long because they’d lose him.  So I was basically laying on my left side for 20 hours.  SO UNCOMFORTABLE. Oh, and they wouldn’t let me eat anything.  Oh, and the REFLUX, It was the worst I’d ever had.

After they’d increased my pitocin a couple of times the nurse checked my cervix again for any change and there was none.  So as we’d discussed with the doctor beforehand, we decided to come home and go back in to our regular Monday doctors appointment.

We could have decided to stay on pitocin and really ramp up the dosage.  We could have broken my water.  But that would have committed us to getting him out no matter what, and breaking my water at that stage of dilation would have been “mean” as one of the nurses said; I really would have started feeling the pain of the contractions and have MUCH longer to go since I was barely dilated.

I was really frustrated though, thinking we’d wasted time, etc., whatever, why did I go in for the induction in the first place, blah blah blah.  We had a window of opportunity before the due date. He’s healthy, moving around, so decided to try and deliver him around his due date and not risk going much beyond, but that wasn’t in the cards.

Life, right?

I’m glad I have a doctor who listens to me and respects my preferences when it comes to intervention.  I’m not opposed to any necessary interventions, but after trying to induce and it not “working,” none of us were willing to double down and force him out at this time.

I am vigilantly doing kick counts now and hyper aware of his movements and my contractions (although those are very hard to feel – I mostly feel them in my back) so I know if I should go back to the hospital.  I will not hesitate if any little thing feels off at all.

Otherwise, we’ll go to our regular appointment on Monday and discuss the options from there.  As of today, we’d be officially past the due date, so we’re thinking it’ll be another induction next week.  For real this time.

It was hard for us to come home without a baby.  Surreal even.  And it’s hard still being pregnant.  But I feel confident that he’s okay in there, and I’m okay out here (much more comfortable at home than I was in the hospital), and everything will still be okay.

He has a (strong) mind of his own, just like his parents.  I shouldn’t be surprised.

Anyway, I managed to get new arrivals up on Slowre, and even though I thought I wouldn’t be able to ship them out on time as I promised, I was.  But now am officially on maternity leave from that, and probably from here too for a little bit, unless I have updates, or something else important to say.

I am so lucky and happy to have this community and the incredibly generous love and support of Leo during all of this.  He keeps me calm and grounded, and you guys keep me feeling safe and surrounded.  Thank you.

On a lighter, clothing-related note, I used my Shopbop credits I’d been saving up to use and buy post baby stuff on a couple of Ace & Jig pieces.  Here’s one:

Ace & Jig Jacob jumpsuit in fern (medium)

I love this, I love the textile, I love the jumpsuit.  I can’t wear it now, even though it fits, and wouldn’t want to anyway – it’s HOT.  I think it will be a bit big afterwards, but not immediately, and even so, it’s not going to be tooooo big, so I’m keeping it.  I knew I wanted this textile and had been saving up my Shopbop credits for just this kind of thing.

I also got the Ace & Jig Gallo dress in size small and I can wear it now as a jacket, definitely not a dress LOL.  Also really like this textile/color and will keep it to wear in a few weeks.  I think the small will fit me perfectly when my belly decreases in size just a bit.

Anyway, those are updates for the week, thanks for checking in!!!!! Have a great weekend.