The title of this blog post is inspired by my stretch and sweep that I had today. See what I did there?
Well, If you are a bit squeamish then don't read on haha. It is basically an internal exam, like a smear, where they do exactly, well its a bit Ronseal!
I knew roughly what they did, because I'm nosy and informed and like to ask questions about these things, but last night I was frantically searching the internet to see if they poke dry or lube you up a bit first. Thankfully they lube you up a bit. Sometimes it doesn't work, 1 in 4 it does. But those women it doesn't work have a higher up cervix or something, or its just plain old not ready. When the midwives tell you about it, they make you sound like piece of ripe fruit. The stick a digit in, feel their way to the top of your cervix (if your midwife has stubby fingers you are out of luck) and see if its open or soft at all. if it open they then run their finger around the opening all the way around to seperate stuff. They aren't breaking your sac or anything like that, don't panic, but they should be able to feel the baby's head and the fluid in the sac etc.
Then they also stretch out the opening a little. This is to kick start things a little bit. It is my understanding that normally in natural labour your body is waiting for a tip of hormones, called oxytocin and these are triggered by the cervix/vagina excitement. This is why a lot of people recommend having sex to start off labour, because semen contains natural prostaglandins (cervical ripening agents) that can help your cervix ripen. In addition to this, sex or sexual activities are relaxing and that too can start labour once you are all ripened and can start your cervix doing stuff. I'd like to think that the raspberry tea I've been drinking helped with the softening. Not that I was majorly soft or anything, but she got in there, thats the important thing.
It was a little uncomfortable, but I've done/had worse haha! And it is only for a little amount of time... but the midwife that saw me, who I have met before said I was very relaxed and this was usually a good sign for labour and we talked about my intentions to use the pool if possible. Now I just have to wait. If I am one of the lucky 25% then it can take 24/48 hours for things to kick off. I'm bleeding a wee bit, but thats common by all accounts.
Right, with all that done and dusted I would just like to express my utter irritatedness at Mothercare. Jesus. I ordered a lovely cot, well my wonderful friend ordered me a lovely cot, which came. The end of it was bowed and basically rendered the cot useless, so at the start of October I took the end into the shop and they said they would get me a replacement end. The earliest they could manage it was to get it to me by the 27th October. Well I wasn't happy about this because I was due 24th and I am not spending money on a temporary measure in the meantime. Lucky for them, I am late, but the 27th came and went and nothing. The 28th (today) came and went. Nothing.
I called them a week ago and they said it would probably be with me before the date they quoted, because the supplier was a good one... and I went in to speak to the manager of my local store and she said to let her know if it isn't around on the delivery date. I called her today (not wanting to go in whilst I am all swept and manky downstairs) and she chased it up for me, saying that she found out it was out for delivery (they come straight from the warehouse you see) but wasn't sure what the hold up was, but was confidence that I would have it before the baby was born, in the next few days. Wow, I am glad she can be so sure of that. I don't even know when Cupcake is going to be born. She did say though if I needed to borrow one from the store in the meantime, I was welcome too, but when I asked them this before they said they didn't have any in stock, or I would have just taken a replacement piece there and then! Sheesh. I do not want to have to come home from hospital with Cupcake, on my own, and assemble her cot (again, even though it's not hard) before I can do anything else. Ideally I would like everything ready but I guess that isn't an option. Bah!
Not much else to report really. Patrick talked with his parents about Cupcake, I'm not sure what he said or how it went, but I'm sure to hear about it... he said this morning that his mum had lots of name ideas, so thats a good sign! I was worried that they would think bad of me or something.
Well, If you are a bit squeamish then don't read on haha. It is basically an internal exam, like a smear, where they do exactly, well its a bit Ronseal!
I knew roughly what they did, because I'm nosy and informed and like to ask questions about these things, but last night I was frantically searching the internet to see if they poke dry or lube you up a bit first. Thankfully they lube you up a bit. Sometimes it doesn't work, 1 in 4 it does. But those women it doesn't work have a higher up cervix or something, or its just plain old not ready. When the midwives tell you about it, they make you sound like piece of ripe fruit. The stick a digit in, feel their way to the top of your cervix (if your midwife has stubby fingers you are out of luck) and see if its open or soft at all. if it open they then run their finger around the opening all the way around to seperate stuff. They aren't breaking your sac or anything like that, don't panic, but they should be able to feel the baby's head and the fluid in the sac etc.
Then they also stretch out the opening a little. This is to kick start things a little bit. It is my understanding that normally in natural labour your body is waiting for a tip of hormones, called oxytocin and these are triggered by the cervix/vagina excitement. This is why a lot of people recommend having sex to start off labour, because semen contains natural prostaglandins (cervical ripening agents) that can help your cervix ripen. In addition to this, sex or sexual activities are relaxing and that too can start labour once you are all ripened and can start your cervix doing stuff. I'd like to think that the raspberry tea I've been drinking helped with the softening. Not that I was majorly soft or anything, but she got in there, thats the important thing.
It was a little uncomfortable, but I've done/had worse haha! And it is only for a little amount of time... but the midwife that saw me, who I have met before said I was very relaxed and this was usually a good sign for labour and we talked about my intentions to use the pool if possible. Now I just have to wait. If I am one of the lucky 25% then it can take 24/48 hours for things to kick off. I'm bleeding a wee bit, but thats common by all accounts.
Right, with all that done and dusted I would just like to express my utter irritatedness at Mothercare. Jesus. I ordered a lovely cot, well my wonderful friend ordered me a lovely cot, which came. The end of it was bowed and basically rendered the cot useless, so at the start of October I took the end into the shop and they said they would get me a replacement end. The earliest they could manage it was to get it to me by the 27th October. Well I wasn't happy about this because I was due 24th and I am not spending money on a temporary measure in the meantime. Lucky for them, I am late, but the 27th came and went and nothing. The 28th (today) came and went. Nothing.
I called them a week ago and they said it would probably be with me before the date they quoted, because the supplier was a good one... and I went in to speak to the manager of my local store and she said to let her know if it isn't around on the delivery date. I called her today (not wanting to go in whilst I am all swept and manky downstairs) and she chased it up for me, saying that she found out it was out for delivery (they come straight from the warehouse you see) but wasn't sure what the hold up was, but was confidence that I would have it before the baby was born, in the next few days. Wow, I am glad she can be so sure of that. I don't even know when Cupcake is going to be born. She did say though if I needed to borrow one from the store in the meantime, I was welcome too, but when I asked them this before they said they didn't have any in stock, or I would have just taken a replacement piece there and then! Sheesh. I do not want to have to come home from hospital with Cupcake, on my own, and assemble her cot (again, even though it's not hard) before I can do anything else. Ideally I would like everything ready but I guess that isn't an option. Bah!
Not much else to report really. Patrick talked with his parents about Cupcake, I'm not sure what he said or how it went, but I'm sure to hear about it... he said this morning that his mum had lots of name ideas, so thats a good sign! I was worried that they would think bad of me or something.
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