Inducing Impatience

Mommy Pregnant with Baby J.

Baby J. has been out of the womb about the same time she was in it. It's kind of crazy to think about how long we waited for her. All of those months of waiting and waiting, wondering what she would like, wonder if she would be perfectly healthy or not. By the end, my wife and I had become delirious, completely and totally impatient. The last two weeks ticked away so slowly. I remember every time my wife would have a Braxton Hicks contraction, we'd rush to get a watch and start timing between contractions, hoping that this time would be the time she would go into labor. One time I remember really well, it was about a week before Baby J. was born, my wife started having contractions, they were roughly four minutes apart, they kept worsening, and we both really thought that it was finally time. After an hour of these contractions, they suddenly stopped, and they didn't return the rest of that day. We were so disappointed.

My wife tried a lot of the tricks to induce labor. Of course, none of them worked. Do they ever work for anyone? I'm curious to know. After being about a week overdue, my wife went to the obstetrician for a checkup, and she told my wife that it was ok to induce. So, my wife thought about it, and though she had wanted the birth to be as natural as possible, she conceded that she couldn't wait any longer. And so, we checked into the hospital later that day.

Everything went so well, but we have both wondered on occasion how much longer it would have taken if we had decided to just wait it out. Another week? Another two weeks? We joke that maybe the reason Baby J. didn't want to come out was because it was so cold; it was January after all, and the day we left the hospital was one of those bitter cold days, where it burns to breathe, and your hands go numb after only a minute or two of exposure. However, whatever the reason she was waiting, she was forced out, and we were glad for it.