40+1 heavily engaged but not dilated :(

[MamaMeggie]

Just had my appointment with midwife at 40+1 and was obviously hoping to not have to attend it in the first place but she still hasn’t made an appearance. Was offered the sweep, which I didn’t expect but decided to go for and she couldn’t do it as she said my cervix is closed!
Baby girl is engaged quite a bit and midwife was able to feel her head in the check but said that she’s literally just waiting on the other side of the cervix to come out but can’t because it’s closed.
Apparently my cervix is still quite long and the first part is open but the second part is not. Off home I go to do lots of ball exercises, sex and drinking RLT smoothies 😩 I did a 4 mile walk the other evening, including curb walking and sideways up the stairs etc and it did nothing! I’ve been active the entire pregnancy and am an active person in general so midwife agreed I probably have to overdo it somewhat for my body to respond.
I just wondered if anyone had any other tips and tricks to help soften and open up cervix? Midwife believes that as soon as it starts to thin she won’t be long off arriving as seems ready to go and it’s just waiting on the cervix.
Not the news I was hoping for and feeling a bit disheartened but baby’s heart sounded good and everything else seemed well so that’s always good.

Due dates aren’t that accurate, keep doing what you’re doing and baby will come when they’re ready. You’re doing great mama!

Babies very rarely attend on their due date, and you're only one day over. It might be a wee while yet, particularly if it is your first baby. Good luck!

The sex can help as the prostaglandin in semen is a natural version of the gel they use to induce labour and activate the cervix. So good sex and extra orgasms to also help release your oxytocin - with nipple stimulation- should all help. Meanwhile enjoy this last week of things that will be tricky with a baby- long hot baths, coffee shop trip with friends, maybe even a hairdresser appt or something?

Yeah she’s my first so I was expecting to be a bit late anyway but it’s always nice to have them when they’re due haha. She’s also been measured as quite heavy at a 38 week scan so although I know they’re not extremely accurate I am concerned that the extra time in there isn’t doing any favours for that! It’s not doing great things for my anxiety regarding movements even though she’s moving as normal all the time.
Thank you! :)

I personally think they come when you relax about it, get your favourite foods, films, books lined up, get cosy. Sex is great. Do some nesting but stop trying to walk the baby out or you’ll be exhausted before you’re even in labour.

@fourelementary Yeah I wasn’t aware I had to “keep it in” as the midwife put it, so the sex the other night probably didn’t do a lot in helping soften as I went straight for the usual wee and wipe 😂

We don’t have a bath sadly so no baths for me! Not to sound a bore but I don’t drink caffeine at all (just don’t like the taste) and socially I don’t enjoy that kind of thing. I’d love to get my hair redone as my roots have grown out a lot but obviously want to avoid the bleach until baby is here so that’s off the table too! :( I’m a gymnast so I would enjoy doing anything active but unfortunately not been able to do anything of the sort for quite a few months now, missed out on a lot of Ninja warrior courses and climbing activities, not to mention training 😩 so my life has become a big mundane to say the least 😂

@HippeePrincess I thought that would be the case when I finished work, as I have an active job as well as being an active person but sadly not the case. Have done lots of eating fav food, watching movies, playing games, adult colouring and relaxing but nothing seems to have done the trick hence taking my own intervention to push things along now 😂 it’s been very hard for me to relax as I’m an active person, so now trying to get more active again from the last 2 weeks of less activity, but I’ve only done the one 4 mile walk, before that the longest was a 10 minute trip to the shop. It seems neither are working and she’s adamant she’ll come when she’s ready but as I say I worry about her staying in for longer

Bless you, I'm in a similar boat, so no tips unfortunately, just dropped by to offer my sympathies. I had a sweep done last Friday, the day before my due date, but was only 1cm dilated. Unfortunately the sweep didn't work, and I'm now nearly 5 days over due date with no inkling of when my little boy will be here 😖

Just wanted to come back and update if anyone was interested, though it’s a bit of an essay!
I ended up losing my plug in two parts throughout day at 40+3 and waters broke early morning of 40+4.
32 hours of Labour later, baby arrived via emergency CS as I never dilated past 3cm stretch to 4cm and they were worried about waters being broken over 24 hours. Almost went down the route of drip and epidural, but once epidural was in baby started showing signs of distress such as heart dipping occasionally and very small amount of meconium in my waters at that point. My bloods also came back as showing sign of infection for me which they worried about passing to baby. As the drip can cause distress and several of the midwives believed I would end up in emergency c section anyway but at a much more worrying stage, we decided to go straight in for it and have baby arrive safely. She was 8lbs 5oz.

She’s 2 weeks old now (been stuck in newborn bubble!) and though the Labour didn’t go in any way as planned, I’m just glad to have her here and of course she was worth every minute of that excessive labour! They couldn’t understand why my labour wasn’t progressing as some of my contractions were 8 minutes long and the intensity was high on their machine! I had even been contracting for 60 seconds every 1-2 minutes from the minute my waters went at home so we assumed she would come fairly quickly. It slowed at the hospital which they think is likely why it took so long as they weren’t coming frequently enough but they were baffled by the length and intensity of them.

Anyway, she’s worth it all ❤️

@LotusPetals I would assume you’ve probably had your little boy now as I’m replying to all this so late! Hope it all went well for you and you’re also enjoying the newborn snuggles!