Operation: Labor Induction

Ok, seriously. Baby, you are two days overdue and I don't want to be pregnant for ten months. Time to get serious about getting you out.

Everyone has heard stories about how to induce labor. Go for a walk. Have sex. Drink raspberry leaf tea. Drink Castor Oil (yuck). Eat pineapple. Or, in the case of a lovely young couple in my birthing class, go to the zoo.

I've picked my poison.

My friend/massage therapist/doula/young mom/magic maker told me to get evening primrose oil and start taking it. Baby brain intervened and made me forget until I saw her again today. Finally, I decided to write it down so I would remember to get some. Check.

Long massage by the above magic maker to try to induce labor. Check.

A lady in the elevator yesterday told me to eat pineapple... and lots of it. Check.

The old tried and true raspberry leaf tea. Check. Bonus: it also contains rose hips.

Plus, I have been taking the homoeopathic EZ Birth for about a week now and I have upped the dosage to the maximum 5 pellets twice per day. Check.

We were going to go to the zoo yesterday but ended up having to take a side trip to the hospital to check on the baby's heart rate. Everything is a-ok by the way. But it took a lot of time to get there, get parking (yeah, about thirty minutes of driving around), and to actually get the NST done. All is well and the lovely nurse who checked on us looked like Alyssa Milano. She was very sweet.

I should mention that today tonight is attempt number one of evicting my little tenant. I have about two pounds of pineapple sitting in my fridge... well, about half that now since as I type I am chowing down on the other half of it. I'll eat it all if I have to.

Sex. Well, it's not that kind of blog so no comment. But something completely unrelated, I learnt two things that you should not do to your husband while pregnant. Number 1, do not fake labor or water breaking. Ever. They don't think it's as funny as you do. Number 2, don't do impressions of Fat Bastard especially when nude or almost nude. Seriously. It's doesn't help matters. Not that any of that ever happened to me or anything. Er... a friend of mine did it and told me. Yeah, that's it.

Back to Operation: Labor Induction.

Dood has a hockey game tomorrow night that he is hoping he will get to play. My goal is to be not pregnant by then. Oh please let me be right.

One of my early labor coping strategies is to blog so for the two or three people who read this, you'll know if the above strategies worked or not. I hope my next entry will be written while in labor and not in frustration and pineapple overload.

Maternity Leave

Where the heck did the time go? Tomorrow marks my first official day of maternity leave - a day I have been anticipating and a little freaked out about for... oh, about 9 months. I spoke to another one of the moms at my birthing group who was on her first day of mat leave when I saw her last and she had the same anxieties. Thankfully, I am not alone. Dood even said that I shouldn't look at it as anxiety but as "nervous optimism". That guy always knows what to say.

The reason I am a little anxious "nervously optimistic" is because I haven't ever really been out of work. The one time I was out of work I had a job before the end of the week. I guess it was a wake up call that my work is too much a part of my identity.

I'm nervous that I will have too much time to think now. To worry about all the things that could happen at the end of this pregnancy, during labor, as a new mom. Thankfully I slept quite a bit this weekend and I didn't have time to think.

My plan for the next few days (if I don't go into labor) will be to sleep, eat, poop and repeat. I'm pretty much going to be an infant before my infant arrives. I'm not really making many plans. I do have a check-up with my midwife and a visit with a friend planned... but that's about it. The rest will come as it may. I started to make some plans and then I kind of slapped myself and realized that this is not the time to make any plans. This is the time for rest.

UPDATE
Day 1: I slept in until 10:00 and then went for a walk and got some groceries
Day 2:  Got up at 5:00 and rolled plastic bags, made muffins, brownies, and supper. Went for another walk and to the birthing class.
Day 3: Slept in until 9:00 and went for a long walk with Mr. Newman. Paid a visit to the midwife. All is well.

This maternity leave stuff isn't so bad after all.