Hi ladies, was just hoping to hear about some similar experience or just get some opinions!
I had my 36 week midwife appointment yesterday (at 35+6). I mentioned to her that in the last 24 hours my discharge had ramped up considerably and also changed consistency to be much more watery rather than creamy, and asked if it was possible my waters could be leaking. So she gave me a bit of a telling off for not ringing Triage straight away, then rang them for me and sent me off for monitoring at the hospital. Luckily the monitoring was all fine and I still have a happy baby in there (I hadn’t been worried about her movements anyway, but it was still lovely to be reassured). I was examined by a doctor and she said my waters are definitely still intact and it was just crazy discharge which is normal. All a happy outcome, so not really the point of my post!
But some of the other things that came out of yesterday have got my head spinning and I want to know if others have had similar experiences, and if so when did baby arrive?
Firstly, midwife wrote in my notes that we are at 4/5, which I know means 4/5 of the baby’s head can be felt, so 1/5 is engaged. Is this normal for 36 weeks?
Then when on the monitor at the hospital, the midwife said “Can you feel those tightenings?”. I hadn’t been feeling anything, but looking on the graph I was clearly having regular tightenings of the uterus . I asked if they could be Braxton Hicks and she just said “They could be?”
Then when the doctor examined me, she said my cervix was shortened, and that it was uncommon for a first baby to be in such a favourable position for labour at this stage. Also she wrote “1cm” in my notes which I can only imagine means I’m 1cm dilated? Most of what she has written is otherwise illegible which is rather frustrating! She then started saying things like “don’t worry, if you go into labour at 36 weeks we won’t do anything to stop it, most babies do just fine at 36 weeks and don’t need any additional care” which had me spinning a bit.
Finally she said “Everything is fine, you can just carry on with normal midwife care, when are you seeing her again?” so I replied “well I just saw her this morning so it will be 2 weeks today”. She then gave a little laugh and said “oo, I don’t think it will be 2 weeks!”. But when she left the room the midwife was much more conservative, saying things like “You just can’t tell, you could still go overdue but at least it looks favourable if you need a sweep” etc.
So my head is a spinning a bit and I’m feeling a bit shell-shocked today! I’m analysing every little twinge I feel (also I feel a bit betrayed by my uterus that it has been contracting without even letting me know about it!).
I feel a bit daft to feel that way; obviously I knew I was reaching the end and baby was coming soon, but I fully expected to be late as it’s my first. So I’ve gone from thinking I have 4 to 6 weeks left to thinking it might be less than 2 weeks! I don’t even finish work for another week and a half! 36 weeks just seems so early?
So ladies, based on the above, what do you reckon my chances are of going full term? You hear about people being 4cm dilated for weeks, and that babies come whenever they are ready, but all I can think is that the doctor seemed to think it would be soon, and surely doctors know what they’re on about?
If nothing else, just reassure me that it’s normal to start suddenly freaking out a bit about actually having the baby, despite the fact that this was very much planned, very much wanted and we literally have everything ready and in place – I feel so daft!