Overdue Reminiscing

As Emmeline's first birthday nears, I keep thinking about what it was like one year ago when we were waiting (and waiting and waiting) for her to arrive.  As most of you reading this blog know, Emmeline was born eight days "late."  Our due date was June 14th but she did not arrive until the 22nd.  Due dates, of course, are just best-guess estimates.  And generally most first-time moms deliver "late."  But since my mom delivered all of her four children early (I was even 10 days early), I was convinced that we, too, would deliver early or on time.  I couldn't have been more mistaken.

We invited my mom to be with us when the baby was born so she arrived in DE on June 10th. She agonized over the day to arrive because she didn't want to come too late, thereby missing the birth but she also didn't want to arrive too early and miss out on time with the baby after the birth.  Well, she ended up having plenty of time before the baby was born.  For twelve days we tried to fill up our time as much as possible.  We went to the Wilmington Italian Festival (at which a lady told me she went four weeks overdue with one of her children), shopped, did a lot of walking, went out to lunch, ate quite a bit of cheese, ice cream and fruit, and spent time with our friends.  We also finished preparing ourselves for the baby to arrive but since I had been working on the nursery all spring, there wasn't a whole lot to do.  On Emmeline's due date my mom and I actually got into a car accident.  It wasn't a big accident and we were fine but it certainly was very traumatic.  To made sure that the baby was OK, I opted for the ambulance and the maternity triage.  Since I had been contracting for a couple weeks, the doctors made me stay for 24 hours.  It was an awful 24 hours.  It was exactly the opposite of what we wanted our labor to be.  Since we had planned to deliver at The Birth Center with midwives, I did not have an OBGYN.  Because of this, I had to deal with several male doctors checking my cervix periodically.  They treated me like some sort of animal as they were cold and uninterested.  The doctors and nurses did not relay very much information to us and ignored our questions.  This is completely different from the midwives and nurses at TBC who are warm, caring, and helpful.

While in the hospital I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 24 hours (and that is an eternity to a pregnant woman!), I was hooked up to an IV and two different monitors, I had to spend the night alone and got chastised by the nasty night nurse because the monitors shifted as I slept.  Thankfully my contractions did not get any stronger and I was allowed to go home the next day.  We were all so relieved to be out of the hospital!  That evening my mom made the best spaghetti dinner that I have ever had in my entire life.

While in the hospital, I had begun to lose my mucus plug.  I was convinced that the baby wouldn't be long.  Little did I know that she would wait another seven days!  I know that I was not very pleasant to be around as I was huge, uncomfortable, hot, grouchy, hungry, and overdue; I am sure I did a fair amount of whining.  To induce labor we walked a lot, I took black and blue cohash drops, and walked up and down stairs.  We talked to Emmeline quite a bit, too, hoping that she would get the hint.  People had all sorts of ideas about how to induce labor (see "Going Greek" post about the Ouzo).  One of my uncles even called to sing to me!  On Thursday, June 21 I had an appointment with one of our midwives.  To get labor going, she scraped the membrane around the amniotic sack.  This didn't break my water; it was just supposed to separate the sack from my uterine wall.  Apparently it is an effective, non-invasive way to kick-start labor.  And for us it was.  I went into labor at 3:00am the next morning. Stay tuned for Emmeline's birth story in a following post! 

Whoa!  We were about 39 weeks

when this picture was taken. I was

pregnant for two more weeks.

 

Paul and I at the Wilmington Italian Festival

in front of their version of the Trevi fountain.

This was one of my biggest maternity shirts but 

you can see that my belly was still hanging 

out the bottom.

On the phone with my sister Kelsey

 ("Yes, I am still pregnant..."). My mom

and I were on a walk in Brandywine Park.

This was the last picture taken of me pregnant.  It was June 19th and my mom, my friend Kate, and I were at the mall trying to kill time.  I saw this magnet at a coffee shop and thought it was appropriate for my situation.  It says: "What are you waiting for?".  While we were at the mall, several people asked me when I was due.  When I told them that I was five days overdue, they would smile nervously and slowly back away.  I guess people think of overdue pregnant ladies as a ticking time bomb.  While I was in one store, a clerk asked me if I was alone and then said "Don't have that baby in my store!".  She also told my mom that it was not a good idea to leave me alone.  I still am not sure if she thought I was going to wander away in a pregnant stupor or maybe sneeze and pop the baby out.