We have been seeing OBGYN Dr Aziz for the past say… erm.. I don’t know, 5 months maybe? And despite his fatherly encouragements, pesky “pregnancy is not a disease” and “you cannot expect me to explain to you in an hour, what I have learned in a lifetime of being a doctor” statements… one message has always been consistent. First time mummies always deliver 2 weeks early. Right……..
Therefore, as my EDD is on the 19th of April (for all you single women out there, EDD means Expected Delivery Date aka full term aka 40 weeks), I was expected to give birth at 38 weeks, which would be around the 5th of April. And so on the 1st of April, we made our last minute necessary baby shopping, cleaned the house, placed the luggage in the car, assembled the playpen in the bedroom and we waited. And waited… and waited. The 5th of April has since arrived, and gone.
So we went for our scheduled appointment on the 8th of April. (We waited for more than 3 hours!!! But that’s another story… aacckk!) Dear Dr Aziz performed an internal examination of my cervix and voila! he says… “looks like you’ve got a longggggggg way to go”. I was dumbfounded, hubby was shocked, and me being me – started on a barrage of questions, which of course he handled calmly. And no, I was NOT calm. It was so frustrating, its like taking candy from a child, its like telling a child that Santa does not exist, its like prohibiting a child from playing with bunga api during Hari Raya! Nope, we did not take it well. And of course, carrying this baby in me for the past 9 months has been really taxing on my bones (I swear, my bones creak whenever I get up to wee wee in the middle of the night), not to mention the extreme weight gain and my poor puffy feet.
And so he gave us another option. Induced labor. And me being me, argued (yes, I love to argue.. I come from a family of lawyers!) that induced labor is very much more painful than normal contractions. He neither agreed nor disagreed, but explained that if Aiden goes past 40 weeks, he would have to induce the labor anyway, as placentas have expiry dates. Oh, and also if the induction fails, I would have to go through a caesarian as the induction would have distressed the baby. And not to forget, 30% of induced labors end up in C-sections. Ooohhh and the best one – “I’m only available full day at this hospital on Wednesdays so choose either 15th or 22nd of April”. Jeez… how accommodating (cynical laugh…)!
So why the heck are we still contemplating induced labor? Blame it on the excited mummy and daddy who simply cannot wait an extra 2 more weeks to meet their bundle of joy :)
N.B: We have not made up our minds, and are still deliberating. Why do life decisions have to be this tough??!!
