Running Out of Time
BROTHER UPDATE - We went to the midwife this morning. Tomorrow Susan will be one week past her due date, and from that point on the risk of still birth starts to increase, so we really need to get things going. Susan is currently 4 cm dialated (out of 10) and the midwife stripped her membranes again, saying she was fairly confident that it would send her into labor this evening. We are taking this confidence with a grain of salt, as this is the fourth time we have heard similar words (twice with Lux and twice now with brother) and the previous three times it didn't pan out.If we don't go into labor before Friday, we start having some testing to make certain that the baby is still healthy. If he is, then we are given a reprieve until Sunday morning, when we will go into the hospital to start induction procedures. We will start with breaking Susan's bag of water, hoping that will be enough to kick start her into labor on her own. If not, a few hours later they will start giving her pitocin (an synthetic version of oxytocin, which your body produces on its own to send you into labor) until labor starts and continues.
A medical induction is not what we were hoping for, but we feel fairly calm and confident about this - not only hopeful that it will not be necessary, but that if it is it will be done in a manner we are comfortable with. In addition, the midwife has given us the hope that even with pitocin, which can cause very strong and painful contractions, that Susan will be able to labor without an epidural.
REGULAR PROGRAMMING
Lux is sleeping a little better, or rather we are reacting to her natural sleep patterns in a better way. We realized that because of our earlier emphasis on getting her to sleep in her new toddler bed, we had been rushing in to comfort her whenever she made the smallest peep. In the beginning this may have made sense - it kept her from getting out of her bed and insisting on being in ours. But we kept it up too long, and have been going in to "comfort" her way more than she needed, which meant a lot of sleepless nights for us. Last night we let her cry, and she went right back to sleep every time, with one exception. The first time she cried out, it lasted for several minutes and we went to check on her. She seemed to be asleep, yet was crying and talking in her sleep - we think she was having a bad dream, poor thing. She needed some real cuddling to calm her, though she never once woke up fully.
Last night, Lux said thank you to her father when he gave her a fork. It was totally unprompted and very cute, if a little garbled. She also very clearly asked for a "bar" (fruit and cereal bar) for breakfast this morning, then for some egg (which she didn't eat, but c'est la vie).
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