Today was a big first for me, because today at my 37 week check up with my midwives was the first time outside of the hospital that I’ve ever heard the word ‘dilated’ used in the context of, “Yes, you are dilated.”  What a beautiful word!

You see, despite carrying Alethea to 42.5 weeks, my body never began dilating on it’s own.  It was finally forced into it in a successful last ditch effort to avoid a c-section.  Of course, Alethea did eventually arrive and was healthy and strong, so it all worked out in the end, but I have to say that it was so depressing to go to appointment after appointment (and spend 2 days in the hospital going through failed inducement attempts) and be still told “Sorry, we don’t know why, but you’re not dilating, not even a little bit.”

Thus, you can imagine my relief when the midwife told me today, “Hey, you’re dilated to one centimeter.”  I know it’s only one tenth of the way there, but at least I’m guaranteed that whatever else happens, I won’t have to go through everything that I went through with Alethea.  Whew!

The baby is still sitting high, and there isn’t any indication that she’ll make a sudden appearance in the next few days, which is good, because we are SO not ready yet.  Funny how I went from being nervous about going way overdue again to being nervous that Baby B will show up before we get everything prepared for her.

I did ask at my appointment whether they would let us induce at 39 weeks, which is the week between Christmas and New Years and I was told that since my last child was so large, the midwives would let me be induced, but unfortunately the hospital doesn’t allow scheduled inducements during that time frame.  Something about hospital staff wanting time off for the holidays.  What’s up with that?!?!  Don’t they know we want our tax deduction?!?!

However, they can’t turn us away if B decides to come on her own, so I’m already looking into ways to get her to come early.  For sure I need to get the treadmill cleaned off, so I can do a whole lot of walking that week.  Of course, with Alethea I even tried sprinting on the treadmill at around 41 weeks and it did nothing except make me exceptionally sore.  But this time is different… this time I’m dilated!