It’s starting to feel like I’m living the movie “Groundhog Day” (you know, the amazing early 90s movie with Bill Murrary). Each night I go to bed and baby is extremely low and then I wake up and baby has wiggled its way up into my ribs and I get to start all over again, working all day to get baby to move back down. I even had many nights in the past few weeks where I had regular contractions for a few hours, but every time I went to sleep they subsided.
Apparently baby is more than happy, nestled inside my body and has no intentions of hurrying out. Things are happening, my body is preparing but the most important element to bringing any baby into the world has been lacking: the contractions.
After almost a week of nightly contractions though, I saw my midwife, she confirmed things are getting on their way and then the contractions nearly stopped, completely. I still get a few random, occasional Braxton-Hicks like I’ve been having all along but nothing substantial and it is driving me crazy! The baby’s head is extremely low (which is good) and sometimes it feels like the baby is going to fall out of me or my cervix is ripping (which I assume is good? No bleeding so not concerned) but still no useful contractions.
I spent a few nights sleeping sitting up in my bed, trying to keep the baby down in my pelvis and out of my ribs (s/he has a tendency to creep up when I lay down and the rib pressure is excruciating) which has resulted in such little sleep for this mama (1-2 hours at a time, then up to pee, then an hour to fall back asleep) that I abandoned this idea and am back to dealing with my yo-yoing baby instead.
I also spent a few days obsessing over getting the baby out and getting my contractions back on track but now I’m just too frustrated and tired to care. Maybe in another few days I’ll be ready to try again but for now I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens. Unfortunately I have an unknown amount of time left of being terribly uncomfortable (much more so than I ever remember with either of my girls). Laying is uncomfortable, sitting is uncomfortable and standing makes me tired and/or dizzy. So for now I’ll just spend as much time as I can floating around my pool since it’s the only place I’m comfortable.
For those of you who may not know the “tricks” these are the most common suggestions for kick starting labor (there are other more intense ones using herbs and such, but I prefer to stick to the ones that are more natural to my daily life):
- Walking
- Climbing stairs
- Spicy Food
- Pineapple
- Raspberry Leaf Tea
- Squatting/Swaying
- Dancing/Galloping/Anything that will gently jostle baby around
- Accupressure
- Nipple Stimulation
- and if you’re up for it: They say what got the baby in might help get the baby out!
