39 week appt, disappointments, and renewed hope

Wow, what a week!!! So since my 38 week appointment, I've been getting a lot of "pressure". Yeah sure some pressure down there, but mostly peer pressure. "You haven't had the baby yet" "Oh, you're still at work" "When's the baby coming". It goes on and on. Not to mention that between work and church, I'm trying to make last minute preparations for my departure which only reminds me that it could be anyday. That's exciting but also extremely frustrating when I go to bed each night with no labor pains and no baby.

So then finally David and I decided we would try some natural induction methods on Sunday night. Let me explain that this is what put me into labor with my son. I'm also 100% sure that it won't work if my body and the baby just aren't ready. I won't divulge every detail of what our "natural induction methods" are, but basically a bath, accupressure, massage, etc. The result was a few contractions some getting a little painful but basically nothing that lasted. Guess my body just wasn't ready. We tried again Monday with even less luck. Then Tuesday. Did the same routine but added a spicy dinner and by the time I had gotten out of the bathtub, I had 4 REALLY strong contractions. I started to time them while reading and they were consistently 5 minutes apart and I had to stop reading and breath through them.

So we packed our bags. Most of it was already packed, just needed a few last minute items. Then 2 hours later, around 10:30, we both decided I should try and lay down if this was real labor. If this was real labor, then just lying down shouldn't make them go away. Well I fell asleep and while I'm sure I had a few contractions while I was sleeping and even some strong enough to wake me, by morning, there was NOTHING! I couldn't believe how certain I was that this was labor and then nothing??? So very disappointed. David was also pretty bummed.

I'm still not 100% sure what to think. I honestly don't think my induction methods would have made my contractions go for that long if my body wasn't at least a little ready, but then why did they stop? Oh well. Fast forward to my doctor's appointment on Wednesday.

I was 3 cm!!! WOO HOO. So maybe all those contractions were doing something! And the best news ever. My doctor is in fact NOT going to be out of town next week. I guess it didn't line up for his kid's spring break schedules or something, so he isn't going to be in the office on Thursday or Friday but it sounds like he will be on-call all week. Such a relief!!!

So after lots of thinking, I'm just going to rest and relax between now and Sunday. Sunday is Palm Sunday. Noah is going to be performing in the kid's program and David and I's 1st graders will be singing, so it's definitely something we don't want to miss. If I go into labor between now and then, great! If not, then we'll try some of our induction methods again on Sunday. Otherwise, I'm just going to try to enjoy the last few days of pregnancy, get some stuff done around the house, go shopping, and just enjoy myself. I have to stop pressuring myself to have the baby everyday, it just leads to so much disappointment. I know she'll come when she's ready and evidently she must be pretty cozy in there. My biggest fear is going for too long and then worrying that the doctor will start talking induction, but honestly I really don't think I will go past my due date. I just have a feeling!