Do you personally feel that walking speeds labor?

[Indianamom2]

FYI-sittin in Dr office. Ctx have been about 7 min apart for over an hour and getting stronger. Especially when I'm up and around. Fingers crossed. I wanna meet this kid!!!!!!!

Sounds very, very promising. I'll bet you're dilated more than you realize. Best wishes for a quick and smooth labor and delivery!

[MoJo]

Hoping today brings the good news that you had a healthy baby yesterday!

[c&j04]

Hormonal much???? So, ctx started at 10am and never went away. With walking, they settled down to exactly 7 min apart for almost two hours and progressively got more intense. Had one while I was getting checked in, etc. Strapped to the monitor (which the nurses couldn't attach correctly) supposedly for 30 min, ended up an hr waiting for Dr....while I'm pushing this disc into my stomach to track baby's heartbeat because ''She'll be right in, do you mind? If you can, we dont have to redo everything"

AND I'M NOT DILATED ENOUGH TO REALLY EVEN GET A NUMBER!!!!!!!!!!!! She was definitely doubting her skills because she knows me well enough that I wouldn't have been there without a decent amt of pain.

So, back home.

Not one ctx since yesterday evening.

[Indianamom2]

Awww, I am so sorry. I know how much this stinks. I had no progress with my second even at 10 days past my due date. I hurt so much that I just wanted him OUT.

I totally understand, but hang in there and don't do what I did...and get impatient and just agree to be induced. Granted, I was already late, but it did make things so much harder I think. DD #1's all-natural labor was much easier.

[Katigre]

Please go to www.spinningbabies.com and see what you can do to shift your baby's head position - being head-down in the pelvis but just slightly off-center will lead to stalled labor, longer labors, and lack of dilation and is an easy path to lots of interventions. But it is often very simple to fix if you just use some positioning tactics listed on their pages - I can say from my labor experiences with DS and DD that the spinningbabies stuff shortened my labor by hours and fixed my dilation issues.

[Katigre]

Wanted to add...being told 'the baby is positioned perfectly' means that the baby is head-down, but there isn't a way for the dr. to verify that the head is the right angle inside the pelvis. Many doctors and nurses think that all that matters is head-down and that is NOT the case.

Imagine your pelvis as a clock - a baby who is head-down but whose nose is facing 2:00 is a different labor pattern than a baby whose nose is facing 9:00. And if the baby's head is tilted even a little bit (called 'acynclitic') that makes things even trickier.

Malpositioning, even with a baby who was head-down, was present in both of my labors - I had contractions very spaced out for days, my dilation progression was glacial, and with DS's birth I ended up with some interventions because his head was not coming down to put adequate pressure on my cervix to help it finish dilating. (52 hour labor start to finish)

With DD's labor, having gone through this with DS, I was more prepared and when my labor started taking the exact same pattern as it did with DS, I sent my husband to spinningbabies.com and we did the Abdominal Lift-and-Tuck and it changed everything - my contactions came closer together, I could feel DD's head putting pressure on my cervix, and just three hours later I was pushing (her labor was 18 hours start to finish).

[c&j04]

Katigre-
On it. I have nothing else to do.... thanks

[m448]

Hang in there and I agree with Katigre. The only thing I might add is having a half glass of wine as you relax a bit in the tub. All my babies have been head down but the first was posterior (ouch), the second asynclitic (angled) so my labor dragged on from Christmas until NYE and finally the third was properly positioned and I was also sifted during labor by my doula.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I know it is frustrating. I highly recommend not counting and timing the contx anymore. Real, active labor contractions are typically 3 minutes apart. Timing the 7-10 minutes apart can be draining and not really tell you much. When you have them, take a big drink of water, take a bath, take a nap. Or go to the movies, go to the pool, just hang out. If it's the real thing then it will progress. Don't drive yourself batty! I did that with my first from week 37-41. I timed every twinge and willed it to be labor. I thought if I could just make the pattern happen that it would be labor. Exhausting physically and emotionally. Week 41-42 was so much better because I just surrendered to the process and got on with life!!!


Ds1 was posterior and I suspect it was an issue. But, ds2 was anterior, just right but he was 10 days past edd. Since I never expected him to come on time I really didn't care or mind at all being on the late side. The whole zen approach worked great for me (and it's not typically my style before you dismiss my idea as being too crunchy ).

GL!!
Beth