A big update

No, baby has not joined us yet. Nor am I in labor. The big I refer to is my belly.

The update is that if she does not make an appearance tonight or tomorrow, bright & early monday we are going in to the hospital for an induction. This was not at all what I wanted for a birth experience. But I will be 42 weeks on Monday and I am just plain sick of being pregnant and of the tentative planning and hoping & daily disappointment. Who knew I would wish so much for contractions?! I would much prefer the contractions that come with a natural labor than those that are medication induced. I am worried about the slippery slope of interventions that might happen at the hospital. Once I am there, I am there until baby comes. There are different options as to how we go about that & we might have to change tactics depending on how things are working. But I know they will need to monitor me and will most likely want me on an IV. I know that some inductions bring on really intense contractions and women who could handle normal contractions need epidurals due to the relentless contractions caused by induction medications. So I am not excited, but I am also trying not to be too negative or scare myself. We gave this girl plenty of time to come out on her own. She has been healthy, I have been healthy. If at 42 weeks (despite my body successfully going into labor on its own twice for the other girls) she has not come, then I am ready for some sort of medical intervention. If I had chosen to do a home birth with midwives maybe they would have let me go a few extra days as long as we were both healthy. But there needs to be an end point to this pregnancy.

I was so happy with how Etta's birth went. How I labored at home for quite a while, progressed quickly through the transition phase at the hospital in the big tub, birthed in a position I wanted without any pain medication and had a fairly easy recovery. I was proud of my body's ability to handle the process and the midwives ability to step back and let me make decisions. And that is what I wanted for this birth. Maybe it will still happen. Maybe. But if not, she will come Monday or Tuesday after induction and we will be so glad she is finally here!