40 weeks 2 days

Thursday night (the night of my due date) I was actually having some pretty good, regular contractions, but by 11pm they'd all but stopped. I was disappointed to say the least.

That morning around 4am, Liam came into our room saying he couldn't sleep. This hardly ever happens anymore. I told him it was hours and hours before he was allowed to get up and that he'd have to go back to bed. Instead, he wanted to sleep with us. I let him, since he won't get the chance to snuggle with us by himself much anymore.

So there he slept -LIKE A LOG- until after 7:30am. For a boy who's normally awake by 6am, this is nothing short of a miracle. It was so sweet to be able to lay there with my big five year old boy and rub his back, smell his hair, listen to him breathe... all things I would've missed if my labor had progressed that night.

It gave me some perspective.

So yesterday I was ready to be patient and trust that this little one knows when he needs to be born and that He knows when the timing will be perfect.

My mom and I went out to run some errands yesterday and to try to get some walking in. Although we were out (and I was on my feet) for over three hours, I was having nary a contraction. Then when I was standing at the stove getting supper ready, I thought I felt something... maybe my water breaking??

I ran to the bathroom, where I sat confused. If my water HAD just broken, it was terribly under-whelming. I called my midwife, who said she had another mom and new baby to visit and would then swing by to test if it was actually amniotic fluid or not and to do an exam. In the hour and a half before she got there though, it became clear that it HAD been my water breaking... every time I bent over, more would leak out... like rolling up a tube of toothpaste!

When she got here, she confirmed what I already knew, did an exam (I was 3-4cm and significantly effaced, but babe was still pretty high) and another membrane sweep (Can I stress how unpleasant those are?? And she's THOROUGH. Ouch.) She left me more homeopathy and instructions to take 50mls of castor oil if I really wanted to get things going.

The homeopathy didn't seem to do much this time. I didn't sleep much last night cause I was too excited and kept waiting to see if anything was happening. I did have a few good, strong, somewhat painful contractions during the night but never more than one or two at a time.

So here I sit, finishing the last bit of my banana/orange/raspberry/castor oil smoothie (I can hear you all licking your lips) and hoping that it'll do the trick. I wasn't planning on taking castor oil, but once your water breaks they only give you 24 hours to go into labour before I'd have to transfer from my midwife to the hospital - which I don't want.

Bottoms up.