"The Plan"

Ok, I am cracking myself up because whenever I think about the words, "The Plan," I hear Julia Stiles saying it in the hilarious scene from 10 Things I Hate About You. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the movie. If you do know what I'm talking about and just don't find it very humorous, blame my lack of sleep. :)

I couldn't find a picture from the actual "the plan" scene, but this will do. :)

Moving on...

Apparently there may be something to my husband's proclamation that I am 'addicted' to Facebook, considering the fact that I didn't post after our midwife appointment and people started to wonder if I was in labor. Press the "chillax" button people, no labor or baby yet! Don't worry, it will not be like in the movies where labor starts in a crazy fast-violent way. (Spoiler Alert: Don't you just love how in the movies women grab their bellies making "Oh!" sounds and then the next scene they are either screaming their brains out or holding their little bundle of joy? For those of you who have never been in labor, this is kind of a skewed picture of reality, sorry.)

So here is the deal with me and Ellie...

FIRST of all, she is only now (as of 6/6/12) as late as her brother was--9 days past his 'due date.' The midwife thinks it would be cool if she were born today since her birthday would be like 6+6=12. We'll see, but as of now (3:24 am), no immediate signs of such event.

When we went for our appointment yesterday, I fully expected to have her strip my membranes (more info here) and hopefully at least go into labor within the next 24 hours. This is what we had done when we were pregnant with Ezra and he was born in less than 24 hours. There were some differences this time around that made me decide not to strip my membranes--yet.
1. You never know if this is actually going to work (see link). Even though it worked last time, every pregnancy is different, so it might do nothing but make me sore and uncomfortable right now.
2. When we did this with Ezra, I was dilated to 4 cm. I am currently only dilated to 2 cm. I asked her to check me so I could further judge my "to strip or not to strip" decision. Midwives do not routinely check to see how dilated you are. This is because people can start at 2 cm. that morning and have a baby by that night or sooner, OR people can walk around for days at 7 or 8 cm. It really isn't a good indicator of when you will start labor or how long it will be, plus it is pretty unpleasant for the mommy (I am still sore). The midwife could only get the tip of one finger into my cervix tonight. I remember the sweeping of my membranes last time being much less than comfortable, so I can't imagine how it would feel with me not being dilated as much, or if it could even be done effectively. The good news was that my cervix was thick but soft, so hopefully the dilation process will be a less painful one than it could be alternatively.
3. We go back in 3 days, so I can have her strip me then if I am starting to feel desperate. Note: I don't mean 'desperate' because I am just "ready to have this baby out of me" (see previous post). I am, however, going to start getting desperate for her to be born by the 11th so we can still have a home birth.

SO, having explained all that, here is our 'plan' for in the meantime.
*Continue previous 'plan' to help encourage labor:
-Take Evening Primrose Oil once per day (3 capsules).
-Take Blue and Black Cohosh Herbs (nice little sugar pills that I put under my tongue up to every 15 minutes).
-Sit on yoga ball to encourage my pelvis to open/strengthen pelvic floor muscles, abdominal muscles, and back. I do this unless I'm awake in the middle of the night and first thing when I wake up because, let's face it, I don't have the best sense of balance anyway, and I'd like to avoid falling anymore during this pregnancy (twice at school, once at my own baby shower--yeah, I'm cool).
-Power walk daily. This has gone from me walking our cul-de-sac in the mornings while Ezra plays in the driveway, to Josh, Ezra, and I walking to Walmart and back in the afternoons. We are fortunate enough to have great sidewalks the whole way and Ezra stays in the stroller without complaining because there is so much to see. My 'coaches' don't let me slack, either. Josh doesn't slow down with me unless I tell him I'm having a contraction, and the other night, Ezra was turning around and saying, "Come on babe!" (He wants to be like his daddy, that one. :) )
-Think happy thoughts! <--This is my little addition that I'm trying to make sure I do every day. Instead of getting discouraged, I'm trying to be thankful for the extra prep time and get some projects done around the house that I've just not had time for before.
Last week I organized our hall and bedroom closets. This hasn't been properly done since we moved in and it felt very nice. The other night I organized the part of my kitchen cabinets with all my baking stuff. I was getting tired of having to dig for everything, and trust me, you drop one Pyrex bowl on your toe, and you know it is time to get organized!
I have one cabinet that still needs to be organized--the one with all the sippy cups--this is insanely chaotic and I'll be glad to have it done so that bottles, etc. can move in alongside them peacefully. Also, I have a stack of Sterlite baskets that I used for books in my classroom that I want to use to organize Ezra's toys. His room is a bit of a disaster lately. I guess I'll work on those two projects today. :)

**The new part of our plan is this...remember those "nice little sugar pill" versions of black and blue cohosh I've been taking? Well, apparently they have a big brother, ha. Now I have some more concentrated versions of them. They are called "tinctures" and are a stronger, alcohol based extract.

Of course, we aren't talking like so much alcohol this would even give you a 'buzz,' but the funny thing is, this girl has NEVER had ANY alcohol in her life.

I'll give some of you a few seconds to stop rolling on the floor laughing as you imagine what my reaction is going to be like. Josh was beyond amused by the thought, ha!

The instructions for using them were to do 1 black and 2 blue squirts into something small--like shotglass size. Believe it or not, I don't have one on hand. ;) I am using a medicine cup.
To make it act more quickly, you are supposed to hold this under your tongue for 1 minute. She told me it would burn, etc. and it still took me a while to understand that these were in that kind of alcohol (I'm telling you, I'm a bit naive when it comes to the subject).
Alternatively, you can mix them into a little bit of juice and just swallow the whole thing quickly. The midwife suggested I try this method first and then try the other later.

After all the hub bub my husband created around the whole thing, I decided I'd better just go for it so that I wouldn't be afraid to try the harder way if the second way was awful enough.
Sorry to say, it wasn't that interesting a reaction. It did burn, so I'm sure my face wasn't pleasant-looking, but I only ended up with it under my tongue for about 30 seconds. After that my spit glands took over and I had to swallow. I think my mouth was afraid I was going to burn it and the safety kicked in! I quickly took a few swallows of apple juice to cool my mouth, and overall, it wasn't that terrible. I guess it's like anything--if you think it's going to be the worst thing ever or you keep thinking it will get worse, you can survive it better than you thought (note: this was also true about labor for me the first time). My throat did have a slight burn for a while afterwards, but I survived. My mission today is to do that as much as I can handle it (maximum of every 30 minutes), while continuing all the other lovely herbs and exercises. I am starting to sort of feel like a science experiment at times, but it will all be worth it to get Ellie here safely and to have a natural home birth. :)

So, to wrap it all up, I'm going to be taking herbs all day, exercising, re-organizing Ezra's room and a kitchen cabinet, and sitting on my yoga ball when I take the time to sit.
Yesterday I felt like a failure as a mom since I spent about 3 hours working on my blog trying to get a giveaway set up (Go enter now!), so Ezra was left to his own devices for that amount of time and then it was time for lunch, cleaning, and a grocery trip. All in all, he didn't get much attention, and had 3 potty accidents, which wouldn't have happened had I been more aware of him.
This morning we have already toasted bagels and topped them with cream cheese and he is watching Dora The Explorer while I finish up this post (I started it in the early morning hours after my potty break, lol).

That's all for now, folks! I'll update when there is an update. Until then, go enter my giveaway--even if you don't have someone to put these shoes on, they would make an excellent gift! :)