@Bltbear82 with pitocin, were you hooked up the entire time for monitoring? I just got the pills and I'm contracting/hurting now, but my BP is jumping like crazy so I think they will put me on magnesium so I don't have seizures. I just want to walk around... Blah.
Maybe this was answered early on - but what are all these early checks for? I'm just 35w3d, so I guess not at the point where I would have been checked, but haven't heard about this from my OB/midwives either. Is there a reason you'd expect to be very far along before 40 weeks when the baby is due?
I'm 35 + 6 days. Starting pills tonight to get things progressing because I'm only 1 cm, thick, and baby is high.
If I wasn't scared enough for induction!
@AliciaD39I was 40+4 when I was induced and DD. She was way high and I was maybe 2cm when I arrived at the hospital. It took 30 hours or so for her to make her descent and for me to dilate, but it happened. Best of luck to you, mama!
@Bltbear82 with pitocin, were you hooked up the entire time for monitoring? I just got the pills and I'm contracting/hurting now, but my BP is jumping like crazy so I think they will put me on magnesium so I don't have seizures. I just want to walk around... Blah.
I was hooked up for monitoring, I was able to walk freely to the bathroom but not like strolling the halls or anything like that. If you're doing an epidural it might help to get it earlier than you think you want it just to relax you enough to dilate more and bring you BP down too since you're not stressing as much. I got mine a little sooner this time in order to nap and rest my body.
Had my first check today after Friday night's false labor episode. 37w2d, 2 to 3 cm dilated, no effacement number but "soft," baby's head was low enough that it was the first thing the doctor poked when she started the check.
She said "it could be tomorrow or it could be two weeks," but she didn't seem to think I'd make it to the full 40.
I'm just hoping to get another week or two to clear out a little more of my caseload. If the tiny alien could maybe dial it back for a few more days, that would be super.
Had my first check today after Friday night's false labor episode. 37w2d, 2 to 3 cm dilated, no effacement number but "soft," baby's head was low enough that it was the first thing the doctor poked when she started the check.
She said "it could be tomorrow or it could be two weeks," but she didn't seem to think I'd make it to the full 40.
I'm just hoping to get another week or two to clear out a little more of my caseload. If the tiny alien could maybe dial it back for a few more days, that would be super.
Oh girl, I'm with you on clearing out the caseload, and we might have the same due date?! Sounds like your body is getting ready!!!! Fingers crossed we make it through this week! Actually my fingers are crossed for you, because I'm convinced I'll go over again.
Had my first internal check yesterday at 36 weeks...closed up tight! Baby needs to hold out till my mom gets here on the 20th anyway, so I'm fine with that. Now back to counting the days till my last day of work...
I'm also due the 14th and have been soft and 3 cm for 3 weeks! I'm not going to have her check me today since there isn't really any point and I seem to be stuck at 3.
Maybe this was answered early on - but what are all these early checks for? I'm just 35w3d, so I guess not at the point where I would have been checked, but haven't heard about this from my OB/midwives either. Is there a reason you'd expect to be very far along before 40 weeks when the baby is due?
I was checked at 36 when I got the Group B swab test. I think a lot of practices begin checking at 36W, although I'm not entirely sure why. They told me I was 1cm and 50% effaced at 37W2D. I asked what that meant, and it was clear they couldn't glean a lot of info one way or the other from it (I.e. I was told she "guessed I'd make it to 40 weeks, "but then again, it could happen tomorrow.") Okay then!
I was checked this morning at 36.4 weeks and am barely 1 cm and about 25% effaced. My cervix is pretty high as well. My OB was pleased since she doesn't like to see too much dilation before 37 weeks. I was a little disappointed but I guess she is happy in there for now.
Has anybody else noticed that whenever you Google around for old threads about "x cm dilated at y weeks" or whatever, all the posts are by people who had that measurement and then didn't have the baby for eleventy billion years? It doesn't even matter what you put in for x or y, the result is always the same: they didn't have the baby for eleventy billion years.
I can't figure out whether cervical checks really have zero predictive value or whether the only people who post in these threads are the ones who are grumpy because they figured they were about to be able to evict their tummy tenants and then found out that newborns are apparently as hard to get rid of as anybody else who's got a super sweet rent-controlled deal.
Either way it's not making me feel particularly encouraged on this exhausted, sleepless morning.
Just got checked again at 37W+2days, I'm a tight 2 and 75% effaced but baby isn't engaged yet. I was 1 cm and 50% last week. She still is really high but dr thinks she is head down so that's good news.
I am 39 wks. 5 days , 2 cm. dilated, -2 station. I'm guessing I am probably @ -1 station or 0 now, because this morning a big chunk of mucus plug came out this morning @7 and now contractions are starting to roll in right now. @ 1:16pm.
I'm 34w4d & got checked today because my weekly monitoring due to GD showed too many contractions (which i never felt). I'm soft & 3cm dialated but they're not worried. She it's normal for a second baby. She's still high. They just told me to rest more.
I'm 39+4 and not dilated at all. The only progress I've made is that I'm now 50% effaced. Turns out the baby hasn't dropped yet either and my OB threw around the fun possibility that my pelvis may be too small for her to pass through.
@Merciel The stories of people that were dilated for eleventy billion years before giving birth is all that is keeping me sane. I really need dilation to have no predictive value because otherwise I'm about to be pregnant for the next eleventy billion years times infinity.
37+1 (baby measures at 39+1; Dr. just decided not to change due date) with zero dilation. Cervix is just slightly softened. At this rate, it's gonna be a long time until I meet my baby....
36 weeks 2 days 3cm dialated and 75% effaced.... My mother and her coworkers seem to think imma pop in the next few days. The doctors want me to go at 38 weeks. Honestly its my first and i have no idea what to expect. And what labor is supposed to feel like.
My first check will be this coming Monday. I was very amused because my doctor very nonchalantly said "next week we will do the strep B test." If I was a FTM and didn't have this group I wouldn't have known that meant it was this first time in a while I was going to be displaying my lady business. Lol!
@ladysamlady@merciel This is a purely anecdote-based opinion, but it seems to me that cervical checks are only fairly predictive of labor if there's both a lot of dilation and the baby is very, very low based on what I've heard from others. I'm sure there are even outliers there though. Otherwise, it seems to be fairly random. Last pregnancy DS was low, and I was only a tight 1cm and not very effaced just a few days before my water broke and labor started. This time, baby is even lower and I've been dilated a few cm for several weeks now.
38w+5d. I just had my first check today because my contractions are getting closer and more consistent (as low as 7, but mostly around 10-12 minutes apart). I'm not dialated at all! And I have "quite a bit of thinning out to do." She said I could be in this early labor for at least a few days.
37wks 3cm dilated, 90% effaced. 39 wks 5cm dilated, 90% effaced. Still at home... But plenty of BH though.... STM, doc said as soon as I feel contraction, go to the hospital, do not wait... And told me she's on call this weekend... Might see me there... I guess it's any day now
I was checked at 38 weeks and was still closed. Got checked again today (39 weeks) and I'm only 1 cm. Doctor swept my membranes and been cramping alot since. Hopefully that helps get things going, if not I will be induced on Tuesday..
At my appt yesterday I was 36+3, 1-2 cm dilated and 90% effaced!! I know it doesn't really mean anything, in regards to labor being close, but I am so excited to see progress! Everyone in the world thinks I will go early ... because my belly is huge and because my doc keeps sending me to the hospital for random things that end up checking out OK... and yesterday he said he was confident he'd likely see me for next week's appointment but he's not so sure after that
Had my first check today. I'm 38 weeks, 4cm dilated and 90% effaced. I've been having contractions randomly but she said to go in if they become painful and regular. I'm nervous I won't make to the hospital and I've got DS and the person who will watch him is a 30 min drive away.
36+1, 1cm dilated, baby is in between -3 and -2 station, and cervix is "very, very thin" according to my midwife, though I wasn't given a percentage.
Side note, I was really dreading having this done after hearing so many women say how much it hurt but I was pleasantly surprised that it was just more uncomfortable than painful. I thought for sure that I would be in the group of women who abhor it because I actually found a lot of the poking and prodding that happened during my IVF procedure quite painful. Maybe I'm toughening up for the birth!
36+1, 1cm dilated, baby is in between -3 and -2 station, and cervix is "very, very thin" according to my midwife, though I wasn't given a percentage.
Side note, I was really dreading having this done after hearing so many women say how much it hurt but I was pleasantly surprised that it was just more uncomfortable than painful. I thought for sure that I would be in the group of women who abhor it because I actually found a lot of the poking and prodding that happened during my IVF procedure quite painful. Maybe I'm toughening up for the birth!
FWIW- It was only really painful for me when I was in actual labor.
36+1, 1cm dilated, baby is in between -3 and -2 station, and cervix is "very, very thin" according to my midwife, though I wasn't given a percentage.
Side note, I was really dreading having this done after hearing so many women say how much it hurt but I was pleasantly surprised that it was just more uncomfortable than painful. I thought for sure that I would be in the group of women who abhor it because I actually found a lot of the poking and prodding that happened during my IVF procedure quite painful. Maybe I'm toughening up for the birth!
My first check was easy and totally pain free. I think it only hurts if they try to stretch out the cervix or do a swab.
It hurt me...crampy...had to breathe through it. But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.
I'm 38 weeks tomorrow. Cervix closed but thinning out, though the midwife didn't give me a percentage. I will probably decline it next week and let them do one again at 40 weeks.
Gonna be a Debbie downer. Last week OB checked me and said "almost a 2". Was checked by a nurse practitioner (OB was called to delivery) and she said I'm "pretty much closed up". Then proceeds to tell me I'm measuring at 42 weeks versus 38 and scheduled an ultrasound for next weeks appt. Yay for going backwards and potentially having a giant baby!!! ((I'm fully aware this means nothing and measurements can be way off... I'm just being dramatic today ))
@Par13 Are you active/walking around or on bed rest? I'm 35w and 3cm and have lots of things to do/walking around but i've been told to rest. Since you've managed to stay at 3cm i'm curious if you still just go about your day or if you do relax/bed rest?
Re: How far along are you and how dilated?
Pascal86 Some OBs check your cervix after swabbing for gbs around 36wks. You can certainly decline a cervical exam until 40weeks - your call!
eta: I should say most OBs won't let you walk around while on Mag.
Mama to Three Girls:
Twins born March 2014 at 26 weeks due to preterm labor
and our 37weeker born May 9th, 2016!
She said "it could be tomorrow or it could be two weeks," but she didn't seem to think I'd make it to the full 40.
I'm just hoping to get another week or two to clear out a little more of my caseload. If the tiny alien could maybe dial it back for a few more days, that would be super.
Three weeks would have been great, two weeks would have been good, but seriously I'm so desperate, I'll take one week. GIVE ME ONE WEEK.
DS: Born 5-17-16
I can't figure out whether cervical checks really have zero predictive value or whether the only people who post in these threads are the ones who are grumpy because they figured they were about to be able to evict their tummy tenants and then found out that newborns are apparently as hard to get rid of as anybody else who's got a super sweet rent-controlled deal.
Either way it's not making me feel particularly encouraged on this exhausted, sleepless morning.
@Merciel The stories of people that were dilated for eleventy billion years before giving birth is all that is keeping me sane. I really need dilation to have no predictive value because otherwise I'm about to be pregnant for the next eleventy billion years times infinity.
39 wks 5cm dilated, 90% effaced. Still at home... But plenty of BH though....
STM, doc said as soon as I feel contraction, go to the hospital, do not wait... And told me she's on call this weekend... Might see me there... I guess it's any day now
Make a pregnancy ticker
36+1, 1cm dilated, baby is in between -3 and -2 station, and cervix is "very, very thin" according to my midwife, though I wasn't given a percentage.
Side note, I was really dreading having this done after hearing so many women say how much it hurt but I was pleasantly surprised that it was just more uncomfortable than painful. I thought for sure that I would be in the group of women who abhor it because I actually found a lot of the poking and prodding that happened during my IVF procedure quite painful. Maybe I'm toughening up for the birth!
My first check was easy and totally pain free. I think it only hurts if they try to stretch out the cervix or do a swab.
I'm 38 weeks tomorrow. Cervix closed but thinning out, though the midwife didn't give me a percentage.
I will probably decline it next week and let them do one again at 40 weeks.
Married: Oct 20, 2013
BFP 1: Aug 31, 2015
EDD 1: May 12, 2016
DD1 Emma born May 12, 2016
An Honest Account of New Motherhood (with Postpartum Anxiety, Depression, and OCD)
BFP 2: October 07, 2019
EDD 2: June 20, 2020
DS: 9/18/12 - 40w5d // DD: 05/17/16 - 40w