38 weeks + 1 day

This is the longest I’ve ever been pregnant.

Some of you may want to slap me for even saying that but for me, we have entered uncharted territory. I’ve been trying to ready myself for labor again and *trying* to read anything that was remotely helpful the first go around, but to be honest I’m just exhausted.

The kind of exhausted where you get 8 hours of semi-uninterrupted sleep, an hour nap, and you still want to fall asleep before your toddler at night. It takes all my energy just to keep up with her, to be honest…it is pathetic how tired I am.

In trying to prepare for labor the second time, I found my old phone and had a reminiscent trip down memory lane. In week 37 day 6 at 11pm my water broke at home. The previous Monday my cervix was super high and tightly closed. I checked into the hospital at 12pm and I was 4cm. Two weeks ago my OB called my first delivery a special case after she asked me if I knew when to call in. The look on my face must have been enough because she began explaining things plainly.

With Elizabeth I had no contractions or braxton hicks until a hour after I arrived at the hospital. None. Somehow, unless I didn’t feel it, I went from high and closed to 4cm. And then from 1 am to 4am I went from a 4 to a 7/8. And then I sat. I was a 7/8 from 4am until 12pm. 8 hours in semi transition. It’s no wonder I got an epidural. I remember telling Alex that things were really not that bad until Pitocin hit the scene. And then everything hit the fan. Going through labor at a 7 without pitocin seemed more like a piece of cake but since I was at a 7 so long with my water broken, the show had to go on. This time I’m not going to try and be a martyr. If pitocin enters the scene I’m signing up for my epidural immediately not 4 or so hours later. I was CRAZY!

So basically at 38 weeks 1 day this time around I have no idea how labor really starts other than what I’ve read/heard. And so far I’ve had some braxton hicks, enough one night that I called my sister the RN and asked her what contractions felt like. Somehow in HIs kindness the Lord has erased any memory of what real contractions feel like.

And here I sit, 38 weeks, 2 cm, 50% effaced, –1 station, with my membranes stripped this morning. Here’s to hoping that works. I know lots of people are the just wait, they’ll come when they are ready, but we’re ready. And I don’t have any lofty aspirations for the world’s most amazing birth experience. I’m happy as a clam to go as long as I can and then sit in pure bliss chatting it up with the doctor and nurses with an epidural and clear mind as my baby enters the world.

To each their own.

But 38 weeks, 1 day.

I can’t wait to see when she’ll make her debut!

And for posterity sake, here I am at 36 weeks…I look relatively the same even now.