I tend to over share personal information about myself so I forewarn those of you who might not want to read about my "progression" to stop reading now. This is a TMI post. :)
Two Wednesdays ago (7/13) I went for my first official check to see if I had dilated at all. Being the first appointment to check and only 36 weeks I figured there would be nothing to report. Quite the contrary. Turns out I was already dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced. Dilated is a pretty common term so most of you know what I'm talking about, but effaced is a special one that never entered my vocab until being pregnant (I'll elaborate). As I described to a friend....dilated to a 2 means my cervix has opened 2 cm (you get that part). However, effaced does not really have to do with the position of the baby as some mistake. When you are effacing they grade this in percentages so 0% and your cervix is long, normal and hard and 50% it’s half the normal length and by 100% it’s like flat (paper thin). 70% effaced just means my cervix has thinned out a lot. So, to much of my surprise, when the doctor told me these numbers I was shocked. I wasn't happy, I wasn't sad, I wasn't really anything except scared. Not that we weren't prepared to have Hannah sooner it's just like every mother-to-be hopes that the baby is healthy and to me (not to my doctor) 36 weeks was too early. Some doctors say 37 weeks is full term while others consider 38 weeks full term and your due date is set at the 40 week mark. The doctor said at this point, if I were to go into labor they'd do nothing to stop it. Now, I know 36 weeks is far enough along (believe me, my niece is proof that babies are resilient even being born at only 26 weeks) but I really really wanted Hannah to bake longer. By the end of the appointment, I did everything I could to keep from freaking out. Of course, first person I call is Jeff and even though he sounded excited I started to cry. It was more like a panic cry. As the doctor explained, there’s really no telling when the baby will come. She said I could have her that night or in two weeks but she didn’t figure it would be much longer than two weeks from that day. That very evening Jeff and I packed our hospital bag….
Last Wednesday (7/20) I made it whole week without having her and was at the second check up appointment to see how I was progressing. Officially 37 weeks and 3 days pregnant and the doctor said I was still dilated at a 2 and 70% effaced. To me, that was great news but as the doctor explained it wasn’t really indicative of anything. Baby could still come any day. In fact, another change had occurred since my last visit. Here comes another prego term….I was -1 engaged (i.e. the baby has dropped). Engaged is the position of the baby. The more positive you go the lower the baby’s head is in your pelvis. -3, -2, -1, 0….0 being the baby is sitting very LOW in the pelvis…about as low as the baby will get. Once you get into the +1, +2, etc you are literally having the baby!
So here I am, it’s Friday (7/22) and still no baby. I’m glad she decided to stick around in there a while longer. And even though I’m uncomfortable it makes me happy to know that there’s a greater chance, if we were to have her right now, of everything being okay. At this point, she will come when she is ready to come. We are super excited to meet her and can’t wait to welcome her into this world!
