The Waiting Game

The last couple of weeks of pregnancy are easily the worst. I've reached a point where the baby could come any day now. But it could also still take several weeks for him to arrive. And there's nothing to be done about it. All of the signs of early labor double as symptoms of late pregnancy. This hasn't stopped me from obsessively googling everything from back aches to spotting to weird pressures and pains. But the hard truth is that the baby will come when he comes and there's not a thing I can do to change or predict when that will be.

Well, that's not entirely true. Because he's so big, my doctor offered me the option of inducing a week early. When she presented this option, she said I'd need to make a decision that day if I wanted to get an appointment before my due date. At first I was all for this. I've been wanting the kid to come early, if only because I'm so done being pregnant. But I also knew it was worth doing some research and figuring out what all the risks were.

After a lot of back and forth and going down a few rabbit holes on the internet, we decided it wasn't worth it to induce early. It turns out that the risk of a c-section because the baby is too big isn't all that different from the risk of a c-section after an induction. Plus the induction comes with a whole host of other risks, especially if your body isn't quite ready to give birth. Since there was no real justifiable reason to induce early, we decided not to. So now it's just good old-fashioned hoping that the stars align and the kid comes before his due date.

Though we did decide that it's worth inducing if he's still hanging out past his due date. Although that decision was also helped along by the fact that I appear to be closer to labor and therefore an induction would be less risky.

So that's where we stand now. As of my doctor's appointment this morning (yesterday, by the time this posts), I'm 3 cm dilated. Which means basically nothing. The kid could come today or next week or still be hanging out when we reach my induction appointment. I'm still hoping he comes a bit early, though now that's mostly because I don't want to trek to the hospital for a 6 am appointment.

In the meantime, we're about as ready as we can be. The nursery is all put together, and I think we have everything we need. I'm sure we'll discover more we need as we go, but the store isn't that far away. I haven't packed my hospital bag, mostly because the things I want to pack (pillows, shampoo, etc) are things I still use every day. But I should have time to do that once I know labor is starting. Which, by the way, is also weird. In the movies they always show the woman going into labor and rushing out of the house. In reality, it's only 8% of pregnancies where the water breaks before you go to the hospital. For everyone else, you time contractions for 60-90 minutes before calling your doctor who will decide whether you should come in or wait longer.

So it's all about waiting now. Waiting for labor to start. Waiting for it to shift to active labor. Waiting to go to the hospital. And then probably more waiting. But, as the kind nurse told me this morning, I can't be pregnant forever. Soon enough he'll be here, and everything will change. More importantly, I'll be able to have a tuna melt and a beer.