Lara had two appointments last Friday. These were the last appointments before the scheduled induction – March 6th.
Mark your calendars.
The induction process and the happenings of that day will undoubtedly be complicated I’ll try to discussion some of what will happen in a later post.
The first was her final examination. I wasn’t there for this one as I had to drop of Jaxon at daycare. Lara was in good shape and the provider confirmed that she was a dilation of 1 cm. I had no idea what they meant, as most men would think but never say out loud. So as any many of a certain age would do, I Asked Jeeves. Lucky for me, he explained the issue in the form of food from Made for Mums. Naturally, food make this someone easier to understand – right?
At 38 weeks pregnant, a blueberry is what baby girl Fife-Myers has to wiggle through to escape. Again, not that she is in any particular rush. For those looking back at Jaxon’s induction, Lara went from about a cherry to an orange in about an hour – after four days of being on the evict the baby juice.
The second activity was a membrane sweep. Again, I had no idea what this term meant, even when it was explained to me. Me understanding this was like me explaining an astronomical unit to Jaxon – unsuccessfully. Opening Netscape Navigator, I visited the Baby Center see pictures like the one below.
The relaxed and boarder line aroused facial expression of a nearly exploding airbrushed belly of pregnant women juxtaposed with a medical professional apparently reading a Wall Street Journal doesn’t tell me anything.
Thankfully, the Babycenter website also provides an illustration:
I found this to be the funniest thing – like noting “Baby’s head” because this can be misunderstood.
As I don’t read medical non-fiction, I went into Lara’s appointment with few to zero expectations. I only knew what Lara told me, that the procedure could ripen the cervix, perhaps expediting the birth process. Her saying this made me think of avocados, which probably wasn’t the point she was trying to make. The reason why I came to this appointment was that the sweeping process could be a painful experience so she may need me for support. As a supportive and affectionate person, she naturally had to prompt me to hold her hand during the procedure.
The provider, Jashia, seemed nice, attentive and competent, so I didn’t immediately feel that the baby would just jump out. She explained the methods of opening the cervix and we also discussed the logistics hospital registration and timing on the induction date – March 6th.
I did pause when she said that the procedure was like the cervix getting a massage. I wanted to laugh like Jashia and Lara were laughing but that would be manlaughing – totally inappropriate. I gave an approving nod.
So the procedure happened. The thing about it is that we looked in different directions in silence for 15 seconds. I don’t know what the proper etiquette is for a sweeping of the cervices, I guess that’s it.