Week 41: Day 3 ~ 9 days overdue

So...obviously, the castor oil didn't work. At least, it cleaned out my bowels for sure - but no labor. Not even ONE trace of labor...it's almost like my body was like um..yeah, we're actually not going to do that today. Or tonight. Or ever. LOL!

Seriously, though, it's been kind of strange. Sunday (7 days overdue) all day I had contractions, some of them kind of strong and enough to alarm me a bit. ALL day! Then they just stopped, and ever since then it's been verrry quiet. But the baby is definitely moving around at least 8-10x per day, just slower.

Today is my appointment, in one hour actually, so we'll see what she says. The midwives at the birthing center are very laid back about this sort of thing - I'm sure I'll be classified as "just" 9 days overdue to her. But I'm still going to ask what our plan of action should be - I mean, IS it possible that this baby is not fully mature? Am I not full term after all, maybe? Because everyone says that castor oil won't work if your body isn't ready for it to...but that's confusing if you look at me, 8 days overdue yesterday and it did NOT work. I might even ask her to check and see if I'm dilated, I don't know...I hate doing that, but it'd be nice to know. Although, kind of depressing if I'm only at like 1, and not effaced at all.

I know time seems to stand still when you get this far overdue, it really doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen. Seriously! Every day I wake up, no contractions, life goes on like normal and meanwhile the clock is ticking for my nanny to be gone. I guess I shouldn't stress about it - even if we only get her for 2 weeks after the baby is here, that's more than I had with my last baby. So hopefully will make a difference in how I heal and recuperate.

I'll be back to let you know how the doctor's appointment went. =)

...I'm back! It was a good visit...and just like I thought, they were really laid back about my being this overdue. BUT they did say that they needed to schedule an ultrasound between week 41 and week 42. Totally standard procedure, the baby seems very healthy and normal. So we'll see - they also said that they'll measure and see if my due date is approx. correct, or if we're way off. I'm curious about that.

I got in a bit of trouble for taking the castor oil - but mostly because they said it usually DOES work and then, they want to know so they can get ready for me to come in. So it was just because they wanted to be prepared, not because it was necessarily a bad thing to do - although she did say it can be hard on the baby. Not sure why, I forgot to ask.

The OTHER thing we discussed was my stress over having my house help leave in just 2 weeks. Stress and anxiety over something, they said, can also be viewed as "fear" to my body which in turn, signals for the baby not to come. So they asked/suggested if it would be possible for her to stay on another week if we needed her to, to make me feel better and not so rushed like hurry, hurry, our time is running out.

So I talked to DH and also talked to her, and both were totally on board with that idea. So - IF I feel like I need it, and I probably will, she is free to stay on for that first week in August, until the 7th which is a Friday. It's really, really hard for me to give myself permission to actually spend that much money but...at the same time, how often do we have a baby? In the long run, I think it will pay off if I'm able to heal and recover enough to be able to take care of my family in a normal amount of time.

My next doctor's appointment is on Monday...I'll be 15 days overdue by then so here's HOPING I don't make it to that one!!!!!!!! =)