40w 6d (aka Shouldn't I have a baby by now?)

Well, yes, I am six days over my due date and should technically be a mum by now. But it doesn't seem like my body wants to play ball - i have had no contractions, no waters breaking, no 'show', no nothing. Just endless days of still being pregnant. An internal inspection by the midwife this morning confirmed that my cervix is long, and well and truly shut. Oh, and the baby's head isn't as far down as she thought last week. There was no way she could do a membrane sweep, so I got a rather uncomfortable cervical massage and that was it.

I'm frustrated and disappointed by all this - I know how common it is for first babies to be late, but I had really hoped that my body would have taken some steps towards being ready for labour by now. As it is, I am now booked in for an induction next Monday (which will be 41w 5d). In some ways that's a relief - at least there is an end date beyond which, technically, my pregnancy won't continue. But induction means I'd have to give birth on the labour ward - saying bye bye to all my best-laid plans for a nice private birth in the birthing unit, using a birthing pool, etc.

So I have six days to get this baby out naturally. Think we will be trying lots more walks, curries, and having sex without laughing too much...

40 weeks! (but no baby yet)

Well, here we are at 40 weeks of pregnancy - officially the day on which Coco should make his appearance. This morning I weighed in at 11st 9lb, meaning I have put on two and a half stone during this pregnancy. But with the baby fully engaged and still measuring off the scale for his/her dates, I should be in for a significant weight loss when he finally pops out!

So at the moment I am still waiting around, like Joan Sims in Carry On Matron, for a baby that seems in no hurry to appear just yet. If there's no news by next Tuesday, the midwife will do a membrane sweep; if that doesn't get things going then we will have to look at induction. But hopefully nature will take its course before it comes to that.

39w 5d

Just a quick post to say how amazing it feels to be only a couple of days from my due date, after all these months of waiting. Of course, there's nothing to say that I won't go two weeks overdue - I really hope not, though, 'cause I really want to meet my baby and I'm fed up with being the size of a house.

Got an appointment with the midwife tomorrow where hopefully we'll find out that Coco's head is fully engaged (was 2/5 for the last two visits). Then there's not much to do but sit around and wait...

Having a swell time

So my body has decided that 38w is the perfect time to inflict swollen feet on me. Yesterday both feet were puffed up like an old lady's; today my right foot is more or less back to normal but the left one is still somewhat oversized. Going for a walk seems to help, so I'll need to drag myself off the sofa a bit more frequently than I have been these past couple of weeks.

My hands have also been a bit puffy the last few weeks - my engagement ring won't fit on my right hand any more, but my wedding ring is just about OK. Still, I think I'll start taking it off at night 'cause I don't want to wake up super-swollen one morning and have to get it cut off...