Exit planning

OK! Enough wallowing and complaining! Let's talk about getting this fiesty little gal out.

(The wrap is very definitely helping, incidentally, which is hugely contributing to my ability to actually stop complaining about my abs for 30 seconds. We're down to "sharp pointy stick" pain instead of "hot searing poker ripping through muscles" so that's a pretty good downgrade. Yay hippie fixes!)

Last week at my ob/gyn appointment, right around 37w2d, my doctor had a frank discussion about Getting The Kid Out. With polyhydramnios, there are some potential complications to take into consideration, especially if my water were to break on its own. It appears that with so much fluid up in there, if it were to all rush out in one big gush, it could essentially sort of sweep out more than one would like - for example, accidentally detaching the placenta in the process, or what my doctor was more specifically worried about, umbilical cord prolapse. This is when part of the umbilical cord slips out - like, literally, is hanging down outside your body - which is Extremely No Bueno. Since it's the one and only lifeline to the baby while kiddo is still inside the body, once a loop of it pops out and is subsequently pinched by the cervix (especially during, say, contractions) it cuts off all oxygen to the baby. This is Incredibly Super Serious and requires an immediate emergency c-section - and you can imagine, if this happens at, say, work or home and not while already in a hospital, there is often not enough time to call 911, have the ambulance arrive, get to the hospital, and THEN have the surgery.

(WARNING: THIS PARAGRAPH IS KIND OF GRAPHIC YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP IT. I did some potentially ill-advised googling on cord prolapse once I got home, to see exactly what I was dealing with and also because knowledge and information are good for me in situations like this, and.. yikes. The [very few] stories I found of babies surviving cord prolapse in a non-hospital environment all had one thing in common: a) the mom had to realize both what was going on and the severity of the situation immediately [a vote of confidence in googling info!] and b) had to have another party literally shove the umbilical cord back into her uterus and HOLD IT THERE, MANUALLY, until they got to the hospital and could have surgery. I mean quite literally have someone with a hand INSIDE HER UTERUS holding the cord in there. So. Good to know. I let Chris know his job in this eventuality; he's thrilled excited ...aware.)

So spontaneous water breaking: not what we want! On the other hand, I am laughably un-dilated at the moment. Despite having Braxton-Hicks contractions regularly since 24 weeks, as well as an irritable uterus that responds with a sustained contraction any time I'm standing or walking, and regular bouts of every-five-minutes-for-at-least-an-hour contractions even while lying down.... none of the contractions are "productive" in the sense that they're having any effect on the ol' lady bits. Meaning I am not a "favorable" candidate for induction at the moment: if they were to induce me, my doctor's opinion is that it would be slow, grueling, painful, and still likely result in a c-section because my cervix is just not interested in letting a baby out right now.

This left him very torn as to what his plan was for me. Ideally I should have this baby before 40 weeks, because apparently the poly risks continue to go up as I go overdue; if they try to force the baby to come out early she will probably not cooperate without a c-section. The ABSOLUTE best case scenario would be for me to go into labor on my own sometime in the next 2ish weeks (not caused by my water breaking) although I am not holding out a lot of hope for that: both my sister and I were prettttty overdue as babies, and I don't know a lot of other first time moms who went early. Also I have the least cooperative possible kid in there. So his official plan was to not make an official plan yet, and to wait and see how I looked at my next weekly appointment, which - yay! - is today.

In the meantime, I did get an excellent piece of news at my weekly antenatal appointment late last week (I'm still going in 1x/week - separately from my weekly ob/gyn visit - for an NST and a sono to measure fluid levels): my fluid went DOWN significantly for the first time since they started monitoring it, so I'm now *barely* considered to be poly! I'm hoping this means the prolapse risks are also significantly down, and that it will also put my ob/gyn more at ease in allowing me to go over 40 weeks. I mean, talk to me once I AM over 40 weeks and I suspect I may be singing a different tune (one that sounds a lot more like GET BABY OUT NOW I DON'T CARE HOW SHE NEEDS TO BE EVICTED) buuuut over here on the non-overdue side of 40 weeks, in theory I would like to let things happen as naturally as possible and have my body go into labor naturally rather than via induction. (Everyone who has ever gone over 40 weeks, please feel free to laugh uproariously at me.)

So! The hope is still that I go into labor myself in the next just-under-two-weeks, but if not, going over 40 weeks may now be a more viable option. Or maybe I'll find out I'm dilated at my appointment today (HAHAHA yeah probably not). No matter what, I don't expect Contrary Baby to choose an easy exit - she's been having too much fun causing us stress for the entire pregnancy; I don't envision her birth going a different route :)