An update covering late Wednesday (the 27th) to tonight...

Hello everyone who seems to be reading this! I am amazed at some of the responses I've received, from all over the world. Truly incredible!

Firstly THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for your ongoing support and friendship, and your comments - it has made all the difference to what has been a terribly stressful and emotional few weeks...

Although I have been quite down, and wondering what to do about everything (so many things to decide!), I am feeling quite a bit better this evening for several reasons which I will explain...

Firstly - I decided yesterday that I just did NOT want to do anything but focus on my body and my baby, and try to bring this labour on myself using my own instincts and intuition. I know any induction, natural or otherwise, if kind of interfering with nature - but I'd prefer to do it myself than chemically in the hospital. That's just my choice.

So I started by cancelling my fourth acupuncture session as I simply felt it wasn't doing anything for me. I also told my midwife that I wouldn't need to see her today, that I felt fine and needed a day to myself. Then I read up on optimal foetel positioning, as I firmly believe I wasn't having more cervical progress as baby wasn't staying down engaged long enough. I learned a LOT, including ways to change which way the baby is positioned in utero - but a really enlightening bit of info is that babies like to face the placenta in utero - and as my placenta is anterior (at the front) the baby was moving at times into a posterior position which was raising his head out of my pelvis, stopping the cervical pressure, and delaying ripening of the cervix.

So I know now that if I sit/lie/stand in certain positions and avoid slouching etc, I can keep him more anterior and therefore exerting more cervical pressure. I did this all day yesterday and for all day today and he has barely moved from his optimal position, which is GREAT.

I also tried a routine yesterday of drinking a cup of RLT (raspberry leaf tea) with a dropper full of my blue/black cohosh potion every half hour for four hours - while taking EPO (evening primrose oil) orally and internally - I also walked a lot, outside and on my treadmill - rocked on my fitball, and swayed while I stood - and did plenty of nipple stimulation. Oh fun!

By last night when I went to bed (about midnight) I was feeling a bit 'odd' and had experienced some shooting pains and tightenings that felt quite different than before. Hard to explain but I just felt like something MAY have changed. I finally got to sleep around 1:30am after reading for a bit - I just wasn't very sleepy.

At 5am this morning I woke up with some very strong abdominal pain and cramping (I hesitate to call it contractions) - and for the next 2 hours it continued about every 15 minutes. I was convinced I was in early labour - especially when the one just before 7am was a DOOZY that radiated from my thighs, across my stomach, and finally rested in my lower back making it REALLY burn. After that one my whole body started trembling. I woke DH telling him I thought something might be starting - but then I only had two more very mild feelings and was able to fall back asleep at 7:30am till about 9am - and nothing more happened. I was pretty disappointed by this - throughout the day I had lots of BH and some mild cramps but nothing to get excited about.

I spoke to my midwife in the afternoon - she said if the feelings had continued it might have meant something but she didn't really think it was labour or even pre-labour. She sounded really skeptical. Grrr. Not what I wanted to hear.

To backtrack slightly and to cover late afternoon Wednesday - she had come by my house on Wednesday arvo (I don't think I had written about this previously) and during my check up she did an internal and another sweep but found I had gone BACKWARDS from the day before and baby was higher, cervix was less favourable and posterior - basically it was a big setback and she didn't think I was going to be in labour any time soon. The sweep hurt and she didn't feel like it would do much. I was back to the same status as the previous Monday when she predicted possibly another week till the birth at the rate I was going. That is part of the reason I got so down and decided to do my own thing yesterday and not see her or anyone at all.

But based on that lack of progress, we decided then that the plan of attack from that point on would be for me to go into the hospital (where she works, and where I would transfer if it were necessary) on Friday night (tonight) for a CTG to monitor the baby. She said a really lovely head nurse was on, who she trusted and who knew she did home births, and that she would let me come have the monitoring and then discuss my options for the following week. We tentatively decided that I MAY allow an induction on Monday but I definitely wanted to have the weekend to try and go naturally as long as baby was fine at the checkup.

So when I spoke to her again this arvo, I told her I'd still go in for the CTG (even tho I felt I may be in pre-labour) so off we went this evening not knowing what to expect or how much pressure we would get from the medically minded to induce this 2 week late baby. I had visions of being called irresponsible and being cautioned against harming my baby - and she confirmed it could well be the case. I knew I would have to be strong. I expected a fight that I didn't really feel up to, being so emotional and feeling quite fragile. I'm usually so strong.

So we turn up, and my midwife had just finished her shift - but she took us in and strapped me up to the monitor checking baby's heart beat and doing a print out. All my stats and details were taken to see whether the health of myself and baby was good enough to let this pregnancy last longer...

Well, the upshot is that both baby and I are super healthy, and baby is more than happy in there and doing wonderfully. The head midwife was an absolute gem - a British lady in her late thirties who, as it turned out, naturally birthed both her sons into water at home. She was very sympathetic to my situation, and we discussed my options, I felt she was more like a friend than anything and immediately trusted her.

I told her that what I would like to do is to have the weekend to allow my body to labour spontaneoulsy, then come in to monitor the baby again on Monday and get a biophysical profile done (to check the placenta is still feeding baby well etc) and then consider induction for maybe Wednesday. I had been given a bit of insider info actually - my midwife told me that the hospital only books 2 inductions a day, and that Monday and Tuesday were full. So Wednesday - which was also her day off, so she could come in as one of my support people - would be a really good day, and would mean I'd been able to wait for 2 weeks 5 days for my baby to come naturally. I said that if my body wasn't going to go naturally by then, that I would accept an induction because it would feel like a balanced decision.

Some home birthers won't agree with that but I have so many factors to consider (Dave back to work on the 10th, the health of baby, the risks going up & other factors), not least of all our stress levels through all of this and how it is becoming an issue rather than the happiest time of our lives - and I (we) feel that this is a compromise I (we) can live with.

Anyhow - the head nurse said she thought that as long as the monitoring on Monday was as good as the CTG tonight, that I would be armed with great ammunition to support my request to wait till Wedneday. Then she went in to bat with the Dr for me, and I know that wasn't easy! They don't like babies to be cooked this long! But she said the Dr agreed - he is happy at the health of baby, and has agreed that I should go the weekend, see what happens, and then come in Monday morning for a CTG. At that stage, he will talk to me personally and quite likely suggest an immediate induction to cover himself/the hospital - but if I refuse, he will gladly order a biophysical profile, and then if that is good we can negotiate the induction date which wouldn't be any earlier than Wednesday. Hopefully - with that much time up my sleeve - the baby will come in the meantime.

So I now have at least 5 days of being able to calmly wait for baby - knowing that after that time I can meet him whenever I choose, and that in the meantime he is healthy, happy and safe - and that I have the support I need from not only a home birth perspective, but also a medical perspective, to keep trying for this much awaited home water birth. What a relief all of that was! You could have felt the weight come off our shoulders, we have been so stressed!

So after that bit of reassuring news, the head midwife did an internal with my consent, and found that my cervix is anterior, very soft, about 3cm dilated, and only about 1/2cm thick. Baby's head firmly engaged, but still a bit more room for it to drop and thin out the cervix a bit which may happen before or during labour. AMAZING! I am so far past where we were only 48 hours ago!!! Even my midwife was really excited and amazed at my progress, and I take full credit for it considering everything I did yesterday (and to a lesser degree, today) to get this exact result.

Anyhow, then the midwife suggested a sweep and said that she thought it was the perfect time for a successful one to put me into labour within 48 hours. She did the sweep instead of my midwife (saying she had 'magic fingers' hehe!), and I must say she was much more experience and seemed much more effective than my midwife!! She said she was able to separate the membrane for 2cm up all the way around, could feel the baby's head easily and predicted I would have baby by the end of the weekend if I try sex, orgasms, nipple stimulation and visualisation. I told her "don't go telling me what I want to hear!" but both she and my midwife still feel I should get a GOOD SLEEP tonight :) If nothing else I feel much more positive now :) I have FIVE DAYS, plus the reassurance of knowing my baby is ok, and my body is working WITH me now! I feel so much more empowered!!!

OH and even better news - they said that if I DID go in for induction, they felt that with all my progress to now, and any I would make up till Wednesday, that all that would be needed would be a membrane rupture to start labour... no drip. So... then I can labour more peacefully without being confined to a bed. AND they have spa baths in the rooms - so I can at least labour in water if not give birth. I mentioned this and the head midwife said "Well, we DO birth in water sometimes you know" and looks at my midwife in a cheeky way...

I said "I thought you aren't allowed to?"

And she said "Well, I have to TELL you that I advise you to get out if you start pushing, but I can't MAKE you get out, and legally I am not allowed to pull the plug if membranes are broken so... if you don't/can't get out, what are we gonna do?"

Hmmm - sounds good to me!!! I'm feeling much better about everything now! I'll keep posting here with updates but I am VERY hopeful that I will have baby in arms in a pool full of warm water by the end of the weekend! :) Fingers crossed!

Oh and to my son - you OBVIOUSLY want to be a March baby and to be born in Autumn - just to prove me wrong about being a February Summer baby. Is THAT how it's gonna be around here hmmm??? OK son... you can get your way. JUST this once! :)