How long where you pregnant?
Laura Utt
long past your due date did you carry your child/ren? Or even
if you had your baby before your due date, how much before?
The reason I am wondering this is because when I have another
baby, what the chances could be for me to go very long past
my due date. I had a hard time, when I was pregnant, walking.
I was even induced because I couldn't stand being pregnant
anymore. I don't want to be induced with my next baby, but
if I go for very much longer after my due date, I will be
miserable, if that pregnancy is anything like my first.
--Laura Utt
Mommy to 11 3/4 months old Elizabeth
ut...@jacobs.cs.orst.edu
Paula Burch
ut...@jacobs.CSOS.ORST.EDU (Laura Utt) writes:
> I went a week overdue with my first baby. I want to know how
> long past your due date did you carry your child/ren? Or even
> if you had your baby before your due date, how much before?
>
> The reason I am wondering this is because when I have another
> baby, what the chances could be for me to go very long past
> my due date. I had a hard time, when I was pregnant, walking.
> I was even induced because I couldn't stand being pregnant
> anymore. I don't want to be induced with my next baby, but
> if I go for very much longer after my due date, I will be
> miserable, if that pregnancy is anything like my first.
Typically you are not "allowed" to go more than two weeks overdue. This
immediately sounds like unnecessary interventionism, but in fact there's an
excellent reason for it. Perinatal death rates go up drastically for
pregnancies that go longer than 42 weeks from the last menstrual period.
Inducing labor, or having a c-section if that fails, at 42 weeks saves
a lot of lives. (It's unfortunate that an irregular menstrual cycle can
make a pregnancy that's not really extra-long seem as though it is--in
such cases, ultrasound can be used to prevent an unnecessary induction.)
You have a better chance of not going past your due date in later
births, though. Nearly 70% of first babies are born late.
Paula Burch
pbu...@bcm.tmc.edu
Judi Mancuso
Question: how long were you pregnant?
Answer: Forever.
Actually, it just felt that way---my body started acting pregnant
(getting FAT) immediately after conception--assuming we had sex before
going to sleep, I always say (and it is VERY TRUE)--I woke up BEING
PREGNANT--gaining about 5 lbs. with conception and continually craving
food.
But here are my stats:
Vince --due September 7, l985, born September 20, 1985
Toni--due July 3, 1991, born July 10, l991.
I am not real sure if being overdue is something that just happens or if
we are prone to it. Unfortunately, due dates really are not perfectly
in tune with mother nature---it is like ETA (estimated time of
arrival)---my doctor pretty much told me that. I wonder if anyone did a
study about how many people delivered ON their due date. Anyway, the
thing is that we get this DATE in our minds and since we are all so
programmed into "being on schedule", "keeping appointments" and what
not, we get real pissed if it is even one hour past our due date! Since
I was so late with Vince I decided that I would ignore the due date with
Toni and just go about my business--and that sure did help me cope when
I was a week overdue! My husband didn't like it that I just did
whatever I felt like everyday regardless of the date! Everyday, I would
waddle (along with Vince) to our local swimming pool---I was so
HUGE!---everyone noticed me! I remember people asking me "when IS this
baby due?" I think I had the entire pool a nervous wreck. My theory
was---hey, at least if I go into labor, I have lots of people around me.
So, I would just lounge at the pool--dangling my legs in the
water--like a beached whale! I remember one day (probably a day or two
past my due date) people were pointing to me and saying "there she is!"
Then, my girlfriend told me that on the day I delivered all kinds of
people came up to her asking where I was!!! When I reappeared about 10
days after delivery--carrying the baby in a carrier--as soon as I
emerged from the locker room, this life guard started yelling---"there
SHE is!!" I was a celebrity at the pool that year! But,I really found
that I had to just ignore the due date to survive. In fact, our
answering machine had this message from about June 1 on "No, I am not
at the hospital so don't call there. Someone will let you know when the
baby arrives. And, yes, I am still here. Leave a message if you dare"
We did this because it seemed like everytime I answered the phone from
June 1 on--people would say "ARE YOU STILL THERE?"
Laura, I know just how you feel but honestly, (if you would have seen me
walking you would know that I was not having a real great time!)
sometimes we just got to put mind over matter and just get on with
things. Good Luck! Judi Mancuso
Elizabeth Norris
In article <wfn4B1O00...@andrew.cmu.edu>, Judi Mancuso <jm...@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
--------stuff deleted---------
>answering machine had this message from about June 1 on "No, I am not
>at the hospital so don't call there. Someone will let you know when the
>baby arrives. And, yes, I am still here. Leave a message if you dare"
>We did this because it seemed like everytime I answered the phone from
>June 1 on--people would say "ARE YOU STILL THERE?"
>Laura, I know just how you feel but honestly, (if you would have seen me
>walking you would know that I was not having a real great time!)
>sometimes we just got to put mind over matter and just get on with
>things. Good Luck! Judi Mancuso
People keep saying, "Are you STILL here?", to me, too. But the depressing
thing is that I'm not even DUE for 10 more days. My last day of work is
next Friday. Guess I look very ripe :-)
Wonder what they'll say NEXT week...
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth K. Norris, Instructor-Based Training sas...@unx.sas.com
SAS Institute Inc. (919) 677-8000
SAS Campus Drive, Cary, NC 27513 Extension 6735
Anne Paulson
I went a week overdue with my first baby. I want to know how
long past your due date did you carry your child/ren?
William was (drum roll please) *three weeks* late, and finally
induced. I was watched very carefully those last three weeks. In
fact I was in the hospital (for a knee infection unrelated to
pregnancy) on my due date and for a week afterwards, and I had daily
nonstress tests. I had several ultrasounds, and my induction was
prompted by the fact that the amniotic fluid was decreasing. Will was
two weeks late on a Sunday, and I couldn't get an appointment for an
ultrasound the next day, so I had it Tuesday, and they said "you go in
for the induction tomorrow". So the induction started on Wednesday,
and Will was born bright and early Saturday morning.
-- Anne
Katja Stokley
>long past your due date did you carry your child/ren? Or even
>if you had your baby before your due date, how much before?
>
>if I go for very much longer after my due date, I will be
>miserable, if that pregnancy is anything like my first.
>
subsequent pregnancies are even more trying than the first, because
everything isn't so new and different. I have three children - the
first was 41 weeks, the second 37 weeks, the third 42 weeks. I try
to assume that all pregnancies are going to last *at least* 42 weeks,
in fact I lie about my due date, because that way if it's earlier
I am pleasantly surprised. In fact with my second child, I was
*in transition* before my husband would admit that I was even in
labor. :-)
Katja Stokley
brenda kenworthy
until July 22. So, I was almost a month overdue and he was 10 lbs. at birth.
I'm 26 weeks pregnant now, and the doctor said (from measuring my uterus) that
this one is a big one too. Not another 10 pounder please...
Brenda
Code 522
>
>People keep saying, "Are you STILL here?", to me, too. But the depressing
>thing is that I'm not even DUE for 10 more days. My last day of work is
People have been saying that to me for a *week* now and I still
have *3 weeks* to go! I hope I'm not late!
Dana
--
----
Dana L. Uehling
Internet: ueh...@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov
Neal Bauer
:
: William was (drum roll please) *three weeks* late, and finally
: induced. . . . So the induction started on Wednesday,
: and Will was born bright and early Saturday morning.
Wow. Were you in labor for three days? Wow.
That reminds me of Calvin, right after he crashed the car: "At times like
these, all my mother can think about is how long she was in labor with me."
Anne Paulson
I wrote:
:
: William was (drum roll please) *three weeks* late, and finally
: induced. . . . So the induction started on Wednesday,
: and Will was born bright and early Saturday morning.
Neal Bauer asks:
Wow. Were you in labor for three days? Wow.
I reply:
No. Being in labor for three days is not unusual, nor is it a
problem; the laboring woman will probably be tired (!!!) but all
things being equal, a longer labor is less painful than a shorter one.
However, with Will, the induction didn't take the first time. I had
prostaglandin gel Wednesday night to no noticeable effect, then
Thursday was slammed with increasing amounts of Pitocin, also with no
results (no contractions, no nothing). Thursday night more
prostaglandin, and Friday morning more Pitocin. That same morning, my
midwife's backup's backup came in and announced he was breaking my
water. Thinking that it was a setup for a C-section, I refused and
fired him. The new doctor came in an hour later and broke my water
(by then I was too tired to fight any more, but firing the first guy
was clearly the right thing to do, and almost certainly avoided a
C-section). Finally I went into labor, and Will was born the next
morning after five hours of pushing and a little vacuum extraction.
Yes, five hours is a long time to push, and many doctors would have
sectioned me after two hours, but I am so glad that after everything
else, I didn't have a section too. I was weak from the month of
bedrest, I couldn't walk without crutches- the last thing I needed to
recover from was major surgery too.
Oh yes, I refused painkillers. Again, I'm very glad that I did,
because epidurals frequently slow down labors, and my contractions
were pretty marginal anyway. If they'd been slowed down any, it
would've been off to the operating room for me.
-- Anne
Darcy Gibbons Burner
>>
>>I went a week overdue with my first baby. I want to know how
>>long past your due date did you carry your child/ren? Or even
>>if you had your baby before your due date, how much before?
>>
Well, due dates can be pretty arbitrary. When I first discovered that I
was pregnant, my OB gave me a due date of October 6th. I disagreed rather
vehemently that this could be the case, and so they did an ultrasound and
have revised the due date to October 24th! (And my family has a history of
44 week pregnancies, though this could be largely due to late ovulation...)
Anyway, if I hadn't argued about the first due date, October 6th would have
come and gone and by the 20th they would have been trying to convince me to
induce labor, whereas now the baby gets to sleep in til at least the 6th or
7th of November before I start getting hassled...
--
* Darcy Gibbons Burner * "And overthrew them with propheseying *
* dbu...@isr.harvard.edu * To the old of the new world's worth..."*