Tuesday, January 29, 2008

I'm in labor!

You might be surprised to hear this, especially since I obviously took the time to blog about it, but it's true. Now, to be clear, labor might take a week or four, but I learned today at the doctor's office that I am one centimeter dilated and 50 percent effaced.

For those who don't want to be TMI-ed, stop reading now. For the curious, I found this from ncnc.essortment.com:

As the cervix thins to what is necessary for delivery, 100 percent, the cervix starts dilating and progressing in one centimeter increments. Prior to 5 centimeters a woman is considered in the early stages of labor. From 5 centimeters to 7 centimeters is the beginning of active labor. From 7 centimeters to 10 centimeters a woman is in transition and near to having her baby.

That said, the nurse practitioner said she expects my due date to be about the same -- Feb. 20 (or Feb. 18, when her daughter was born!)

5 comments:

Katie @ CiN said...

So, this makes me wary of the medical profession's diagnosis of what is/is not labor :)

http://tinyurl.com/39h3bx

Andrea Tortora said...

Good for you, Jen. My best wishes for an EASY labor! Andrea

Gina said...

That story is awesome.

See, Jen, that's what you and Baby M need - a great story! I'm still holding out hope there's water breakage in the newsroom.

Jen said...

Uh no. I want to have gentle contractions starting at 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Then I want to have some coffee, cereal, a banana and juice -- maybe even some toast with fig jam and some cheese -- and sit down on the couch with my New York Times until they get stronger. I want to walk calmly to the car at around 11 a.m. (with my nicely-packed bag) after a warm, relaxing shower and get to the hospital just as the contractions are close enough to be admitted. I'll then be happy with the typical 13 hours or whatever of labor (preferably shorter) but have the baby in time to get a normal night's sleep.

In short, I want it to be the most boring labor story you've ever heard -- except for the extremely happy ending that I'll share with everyone until they can't stand it anymore.

The end.

Anonymous said...

What's TMI about a cervix dilating? None of would be here if cervixes didn't do their business!

Hope it comes on Brian's birthday so I can extra late-Pisces sweetness in my life :)

Love you and thinking of you a lot right now.