Isaiah's Birth Story, Part 1: Pre-Labour

Isaiah’s official due date was October 3^rd, which basically meant that he could be expected to show up...oh, anytime between about September 12-October 17^th!  This arbitrary nature of due dates tends to leave moms (and all of their family & friends) in a state of prolonged suspense.  With Mariah & Kassiah, I was quick to share my due date with some level of false confidence.  But learned my lesson and always cushioned the due date answer with ‘so hopefully he’ll arrive late September or early October’ to help others (and myself) keep calm and carry on ; ) 

Of course that worked amazingly well…not!  In my 37^th week, my discomfort seemed to get exponentially higher to the point that I could wait to not be pregnant anymore.  Baby sat so low in my pelvis that I was penguin walking during the day and could barely move without back pain at night (although I was still sleeping for the most part).  And of course, I started to daydream about how much I wanted to meet this little creature inside me to see what he looked like and get to know him.  For some reason, because he was a boy, I had pictured him looking differently than the girls.  And maybe since I'm not a terribly imaginative person, I honestly couldn't even start to think about what he might possibly smell like or act like...I had probably forgotten a lot of that from the girls' time.  Mariah was born right on her due date, and Kassiah came 5 days late…so I decided to mentally prepare for the worst and tell myself Isaiah would be late (even though I thought & wished he would come just a little bit early).  How crazy is it to know that labour could start at any moment, while also preparing for the possibility that it could be weeks?!? 

Pre-labour

At my 38-week midwife appointment, I tried to pry the news I wanted to hear out of Theresa: “So, the 3^rd baby tends to come early, right?” to which, Theresa gave me her usual diplomatic response: “you really just never know”.  For a second, I wished she was a know-it-all doctor who would pointlessly check my cervix, tell me I was 1 cm dilated (which actually means nothing unless you’re in active labour!) and say “yup, this baby is coming any day”.  Instead, Theresa half-jokingly told me on the way out “hopefully the next time I see you will be at your house and not at your 39 week appointment”…that was just enough motivation to make me smile.  I texted my doulas later that week to complain about my discomforts and tell them I wished baby would arrive.  Although, I was scared to jinx things since they had just recently told our yoga prenatal class that “if they had a dollar for every mom who felt like her baby was going to arrive a week or two early, only to be overdue…”.  But luckily, the doulas decided to give me a bit more hope – telling me that Sunday (Sept 27^th) night was not only going to be a full moon, but a ‘Supermoon’.  

Now, I’m not a superstitious person, so at first I thought they were kidding…but then I learned more about the moon’s impact on women’s cycles, on people's mood & behavior, and on childbirth.  Doulas & midwives can tell you anecdotally that they get a lot more calls from mamas in labour during full moons…and you will probably think they’re lying since there is technically no scientific evidence to prove this theory.  But I’m starting to believe more in things that aren’t well researched, and less in things that are supported by overly confident statistics.  Like [insert judgmental opinions here], yup, I'm saying it: vaccinations.  This topic will be a whole other entry, so please suspend your comments until I have a chance to explain my complicated views...Anyway, I’m guessing the reason no evidence based research demonstrates a positive relationship between births and full moons is that most births are hospital births...and most hospital births involve some level of induction or medical intervention.  If there are any young eager researchers out there, who happen to be interested in midwifery (okay, that’s a rare combo)…I would love to see stats on natural childbirths during full moons!  

Okay, let’s start curbing this tangent (clearly my post-partum mania is still in effect after 4 weeks!).  So I suddenly remembered that Mariah was born during a lunar eclipse, which at the time I thought was just a neat coincidence but now think that moon had a powerful effect.  So I decided this was it…I was counting on this full & Super moon!  Starting Saturday Sept 26th, I started to feel ‘something’…mainly a very dull (so dull, I couldn't be certain that I wasn't imagining it) low back ache and more pelvic pressure than usual.  Sunday September 27^th both got a tad more noticeable…but still no contractions : (  I even stayed up past my 9:30 bedtime for the first time in pregnancy to try and catch a glimpse of the supposed red coloured Supermoon…but it was cloudy when I looked…and I went back to bed disappointed. 

To be Continued