Finding Patience

It’s crazy how I can go from one day wanting Charlotte to come right now to the next day hoping that she doesn't arrive until closer to her due date. What has changed exactly? Let me explain . . .

It’s no secret that I've never been a patient person. Therefore, when I went in to see my midwife this last week, I jumped at her offer to check if my cervix was at all dilated. Come to find out that although I've had a decent amount of false labor, it hasn't done any work—my cervix is still closed. I was slightly disappointed at the time by this knowledge. She let me know that the dilation of my cervix at this point isn't telling of when I’ll actually go into labor—she's seen women who are not dilated at all go into labor the next day, as well as women dilated at three centimeters that have not gone into labor for weeks following. Upon leaving the appointment, I had to call my mom and let her know about the lack of news (she was also excited about the possibility of my progress).

My mom gave me advice on what things I should be doing to make sure little Charlotte isn't born too long after her due date. I've been walking the dogs twice a day, so this is good, but mom recommended that I should be having sex every night. Easy enough . . . it’s like going back to how things were before I was pregnant, exhausted and uncomfortable.

Why is it so important to me that Charlotte comes around her due date? Besides the obvious reason being that I’m beyond excited to meet my little girl, I also have a goal of laboring completely naturally without interventions or pain medication. In this day and age, an expecting mother almost has no choice after 42 weeks except to be induced. I want to avoid pitocin if at all possible, because that causes stronger unnatural contractions and the possibility of all the other interventions that I’m hoping to avoid.

I still hope that Charlotte comes sooner than later, but while I was praying for her any day now arrival, I’m now hoping that she waits until closer to her due date in a week or so. There’s a good reason for this—I'm 38 weeks pregnant and yesterday morning I woke up with a sore throat. By the time I woke up this morning my biggest pregnancy fear came to life—I'm sick with a cold and have the following symptoms: sore throat, stuffy nose, watery eyes and body aches.

I can’t imagine going into labor feeling this way. Not only am I going to need all my strength and ability to focus to get through this labor successfully, but I also really want to be completely healthy when I first meet little Charlotte.

All I can do now is get as much rest as possible, eat tons of Amy’s Organic Vegetable Soup and keep extremely hydrated, all in the hopes of getting better before my little angel decides to grace us with her presence.

I’m pretty sure once I’m healthy, I’ll go back to wanting her here yesterday, but for now I’m hoping for at least a couple days of recovery time.