39 Weeks: Any Time Now

During the last few weeks of pregnancy, it's typical for your doctor to switch from seeing you about once a month to every week. Usually it's to check that everything is still going well with the baby, also to see that everything is going well with you, and whether or not you're starting to show signs of delivering soon. 

Now, for those who don't know (and there are a surprising number of people who don't know?), labor and delivery is not a process that happens within a 40-minute TV episode. It doesn't tend to come on suddenly (although it can), and labor tends to last long enough that we don't get to see the baby at the end of the episode (but there are always exceptions). 

This is especially true if it's your first pregnancy. 

But before labor even starts, there are things your body will do to let you know that labor is coming up soon. You might start having more Braxton-Hicks contractions (not real contractions, but if your cervix has already started to ripen, they can sometimes help your cervix to efface and dilate a little bit). Your cervix will also start to ripen, which is a terrible word to apply to an organ inside your body, which means that it's thinning out and opening up, preparing to allow your baby to move outside of you. More things that will probably happen before labor gets into full swing: your baby might drop, moving further down into your pelvis to prepare for exiting. This is especially fun because it's painful, throws off your center of gravity even more, and causes her to constantly be pushing on your bladder. Non-stop. You might also pass your mucus plug! Which sounds disgusting, in all honesty, but your body is just trying to get everything out of the way so there's nothing blocking the baby's exit. 

And then, last but not least, your water might break. The classic symptom that your body is ready to begin labor. Did you know that your water can break and labor can still not start for a while? Or that you can be in the throes of labor before your water finally breaks? The last one is usually when most women's water breaks. 

Now, bear in mind, all these things I've talked about are all happening BEFORE labor contractions usually begin. Which is comforting! Baby girl started dropping a few days ago, which, while painful, lets me know that labor will be happening within the next few weeks. My due date is in 6 days, but honestly, while I'm uncomfortable all the time and sleeping is hard and standing even less fun and I really miss wearing normal clothes and not waddling, I'm okay! 

Now, is this pregnancy zen feeling I have being caused by the fact that I now have more lung capacity which equals more oxygen which means everything is better? It's entirely possible. Or the fact that I can eat a little more food now without feeling like I'm going to explode? Also possible. I always feel better when I can eat food. Is it because I have all the information it's really possible for me to have and I know everything's going well and that knowledge soothes my anxiety? That's probably more accurate. She will come when it is time, and I have accepted that fact. 

Will I still feel that way when/if I pass my due date? We'll find out next week!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 24: Nesting Mother Awaits the Return of Bucky Barnes

Image
So, this past week has mostly been pretty chill. Nothing major happened (at least not that I can currently recall) and baby girl has been continuing to do just fine - the normal circumstances of kicking/punching/parkouring inside of me are continuing. You can actually, if you're lucky and paying attention, see the movement when she gets me particularly well. As is common in the second trimester, nesting has started, spurred on by the generous donations of several friends. Mostly it just involves me wiping furniture clean and making pretty little piles of clothes and other baby things until Isaiah and I get rid of/move all of the other stuff that we'd put in the baby's room. But, as slow as progress goes, it is going, and there's no rush for the baby to get here. look, it's me and baby standing next to a crib! We've been very blessed to have generous friends and family who are willing to help us prepare for our baby's arrival. It's given us a l...
Read more

THE GRAND UNVEILING

I would like to take this time to welcome you all to my new blog: Properly Pop Punk: My Pop Punk Life. I uh... really don't have much else to put here. Be on the lookout for my first actual post, which should be coming as soon as I have a free evening! Be safe. Don't get eaten by bears. That's not very pop punk.
Read more

Dancing Man

So, in the course of my daily activities, I spend about four hours of my day on The Bus commuting to and from town (for those of you not familiar with Hawaii vernacular, The Bus is the major, surprisingly efficient mass transit system that goes through most of the island. Town is Honolulu.) Now, I spend a lot of time on the bus. I see a lot of different people. But the other day, one man in particular caught my eye. He wasn't doing anything with any of the other passengers, but he was sitting off in a corner, headphones covering his head, and when he tilted his phone screen I could see that a music video was playing on his phone. But none of those are markedly different from many of the other Bus passengers. No, what made this man different and caught my eye was the fact that this man was dancing . Picture it now. A tall man, with a square jaw and hooked nose, long brown curly hair caught in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He had bushy eyebrows and his skin was a gol...
Read more