Overripe and Overdue

I was certainly not expecting to be here now, in my 41st week, five days overdue, with this baby still lodged in my pelvis.

With Gustav, my water broke one evening eight days before my "expected" due date and he was born 2 quarts and 38 hours later. I thought surely the next would come early too. Isn't that typical for second/third/etc pregnancies? For nearly three weeks now, I've been ripe and ready, on my toes, with the infant car seat installed and my hospital bag packed and sitting in the back of the car. Every day I've been waking up thinking, "Do I feel any different? Will it be today?" And I swear that I do. And still, it's not.

I know that, in many ways, I should be thankful. My health is good. I'm at a reasonable 205 lbs, quite mobile, and not on bed rest. I don't have elevated blood pressure and don't have to make trips to the fire department for accurate blood pressure readings. My "raging UTI" has been neutralized with a run of antibiotics. Baby's health appears to be good. She's still kicking and hiccuping and has lots of fluid to float about in. Her head is still down and her heartbeat is strong and steady. My cervix is, as my midwife put it, "soft as buttah" and has begun to efface. This being our second child, I feel more confident in my body, what it is capable of doing and enduring. It has known labor and childbirth. It will be familiar in some way. I'm optimistic. This time labor will come naturally, progress smoothly, and we will have few complications with the birth. I wish I could say that I've got the right attitude, but...

I'm a cantankerous cow, inhabiting an uncomfortable body bloated with impatience and more than enough fluid.. which has begun to seek the exit. I've got pressure deep in my pelvis, a dull pain in my lower back, acid reflux, and can we ever forget the hemorrhoidal blossom. Perhaps its the loosening ligaments in my groin or maybe it's the head in my pelvis, but I just have so much trouble lifting or adjusting my legs. Walking? Hah. It's either a pathetic knees-to-feet walk, like I'm clutching an orange between my thighs, or a ridiculous drunken wobble on itchy bloated feet. Someone get a camera. It's like all the discomforts of pregnancy hit me in these last weeks. Perhaps it's just balance for those 37 weeks of nearly carefree and symptomless good living.

The treasure of supposed labor-inducing techniques and remedies is near-exhausted. I've been popping the evening primrose oil capsules, chugging the raspberry leaf tea, eating pineapple and spicy foods, applying pressure to the accupressure points in my hands and ankles, stimulating my nipples, getting regular and happy infusions of prostaglandins from Johann, walking up and down stairs/hills/grocery store aisles, contradancing, stretching, lunging, squatting... Nix. Forget castor oil, it sounds way too unpleasant. But I do have some fenugreek tea which, the box warns, shouldn't be used during pregnancy as it can induce labor. Reeeally? I sure hope so!

Come on body, let's lay this egg!