Leading to Labor

I never knew how hard the last few weeks of pregnancy would be. My SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction... glamorous name, right?) had gotten out of control. My hips, pelvis, and lower back were in such excruciating pain. I would dread night time. Rolling over in bed was such a daunting task. And don't even talk to me about getting up to pee 5 times in the night (by getting up, I mean crawling to the bathroom). I don't mean to sound like a baby, but I got pretty fed up with my doctor not even knowing what this was. He kept playing it down. In my research, not very many people here in the U.S. seem to really fully understand SPD. Most of the info I came across came from the U.K. They know tons about it, and it's accepted as a well-known problem. Anyway, if you have SPD, call me and we can commiserate, because I will totally get it!

I was originally hoping to go over my due date for maternity leave purposes (so I could get paid for the last week of work instead of getting nothing). How naive I was. Overdue? No thank you. I would keep hoping she'd come early every single night ("maybe this is the night"), and I'd get so depressed when morning would hit and I would have to show up and teach school another day. Yuck. It didn't help that every doctor appointment I had I would go in with such high hopes of being dilated. But I have a very stubborn cervix apparently. I was never dilated at any of my appointments (hardly even dilated when I showed up to labor and delivery, but more on that to come). I had tried everything to help jump-start labor. Walking, (even walked the Hurricane canal trail which was NOT fun with broken hips), bouncing on an exercise ball, rubbing clary sage on acupressure points, spicy food, you name it. Just not castor oil. Nope. Anywho, I wanted to document a few things from each trimester of pregnancy just for my own non-existent memory...

Trying to hike baby out!

1st trimester: Pretty good until the nausea kicked in--I hate barfing so bad, so I started taking Zofran which helped a ton but had its own terrible side effects (super bad constipation. I didn't know that was a real thing until now). Zero energy.

2nd trimester: Golden age. I wish I would have taken way more advantage of this awesome trimester. I mean, it had its challenges, but compared to the what was coming in the third...yeah. Once the nausea wore off, I had a little bit more energy and was able to actually exercise a bit and got more things done in our house.

3rd trimester: SPD hit. And hit hard. My overall movement was severely limited. If I even tried to do a little house work (literally just like some laundry and dishes), I would be in bed the next day not able to move at all. Lucky for me, I have an amazing husband who basically finished all the painting in our house and got things back to a livable state.

38 & 39 weeks: Still not dilated. I would get little contractions or labor pains and get excited that something was starting to happen, but then nothing. Baby girl was measuring small and was projected to be 6-7 lbs.

Spiritual stuff: Austin gave me the sweetest blessing with my dad one Sunday. He blessed baby girl and my body. That I could bear my burdens. He blessed me that labor and delivery would go well without any complications (huge relief as a C-section is for some reason my biggest fear). My husband doesn't ever get emotional. So when he does, it really gets to me. He told me some really sweet things in that blessing, and that I'm going to be a great mother. It filled my heart to the brim to hear those words and feel the spirit from Austin. Love that boy of mine. He will be a great father.

Baby Girl (written in my journal 3 days before delivery): Amelia Kate, get here already! I just cannot wait to snuggle you and breathe you in. I know there's no way to truly prepare myself for this huge change in our lives as parents, but we are so ready! So stop being stubborn and come out! I can already tell you are an active little chickadee (your last ultrasound showed some fuzzy hair on the top of your head). Your daddy is going to love playing with you and teasing you. I have a feeling you'll be able to dish it right back. You just feel sassy in there. Hopefully my next journal entry is either at the hospital or shortly thereafter and not a miserable entry about being over-due. I'm already too cranky for that! Love you, little girl!