Spoiler alert…I was pregnant for all of week 39. Yes. ALL OF WEEK 39.
Here are some things that I tried this week to help naturally induce my labor and/or get baby in the right position.
I bought an exercise ball and I have been sitting, bouncing, doing circles, doing figure eights, ALL THE THINGS.
In reality, I should have been doing this for weeks prior to week 39. All the resources that I read about getting baby in the correct position suggested this could be done as early as the start of the second trimester. I, personally, think that’s a little too early. I probably should have started when they told me at 36 weeks that she was sunny side up.
I had a friend come over and show Scott and I how to rebozo sift.
It’s a really simple technique that helps baby get in the right position. I got on all fours, a blanket is placed under your stomach, and you gently pull up and gently shake your belly side to side.
So my friend did this the first time and showed Scott what to do.
When Scott and I tried to do it ourselves, it was a hilarious shit show.
I swear, I wish I had taken a video, or at least a picture of this.
I got on all fours, both dogs proceeded to lay underneath me, Scott was dying laughing and neither of us could take it seriously. We were laughing our asses off. We eventually got our shit together and he was able to do this technique on me.
Probably one of the most interesting things I did was get acupuncture to induce my labor.
I was 39 weeks and 6 days. I made the appointment on a whim. I had never gotten acupuncture before. And I wasn’t scared of needles, so I figured it was worth a try.
My acupuncture appointment was with several different people. It was called a community appointment. We all sat in zero gravity chairs. Most of the people I was with were reoccurring patients. She knew them by name and knew their ailments.
I was able to watch all of the other people get their treatments done first. It was really interesting. And I was glad that I got to watch all of the other people first.
When she got to me, I was a little nervous, just for the simple fact that I never had this done before.
She talked to me a little bit about what it should and should not feel like.
The first needle she put directly in my forehead, then she put one in each of my trap muscles, she put a couple in my hand, and then a couple in my feet and legs. When she inserted the needles, none of them hurt. She then told me that she was going to hook up electrodes to two of the needles in each of legs. She turned up the electrodes until it felt like a very light tapping of a finger.
When she was done, she walked out of the room and said she would be back to check on all of us soon.
As she was inserting the needles, I found myself getting very anxious.
When she left, I was extremely anxious.
I was really unsure why. None of the needles hurt.
I kept trying to calm myself down, but nothing was working. I was really getting myself worked up.
I started sweating profusely. Then I started breathing heavy.
I really thought I was going to have to tell her to come back in and take all of this shit off of me before I passed out.
She came back in and she could tell I was a little worked up. I guess my face said it all. She put two more needles in me to calm me down and then asked if I wanted a lavender eye mask. I immediately said yes. I would try anything to calm me down. She stayed in there for a couple of minutes and I could slowly feel myself start to relax. Not fully, but I wasn’t extremely worked up anymore.
As I tried to relax, I could feel my head start to hurt. It was basically from temple to temple. It started out dull and then increased.
She asked if I was okay to continue and I said yes. I felt as though I was relaxed enough to continue, but I also found myself counting down the minutes until she would take everything out of me.
I have no idea how much time passed. I didn’t have my phone and there wasn’t a clock. It felt like an eternity.
An eternity finally passed and it was time for my needles to come out.
The first needle she removed was the one in my head and my headache immediately intensified. The only other one that gave me greif was one in my right hand. She told me it was going to bruise. And it did, almost immediately.
I told her that my head was killing me. She asked if my mind was running the whole time and I told her yes. Apparently that’s not good. She massaged that part of my head for about a minute.
When all the needles were out, she gave me a heel massage. I have read before there are pressure points in the heel that can induce labor.
Then she went to my trap muscles.
She dug her thumbs in my traps so fucking hard that I yelped out in pain.
She told me to just hang on because this would help. And she didn’t stop for about a minute. It was torture. She said the pressure points in my traps would help move everything down. I told her prior to my appointment that baby still hadn’t dropped and wasn’t engaged at all.
I slowly got up out of the chair and there was a legit sweat angel in the chair. So embarrassing.
We made some small talk for a minute. She asked if I wanted a follow up appointment for Thursday. The day of my appointment was Tuesday. I told her I wasn’t sure. She gave me her card and said to text or call her and she would fit me in if I wanted to come back in.
I had a doctor appointment with my OB the next day so I wanted to wait and see if any progress had been made before I committed to an appointment.
As I left, my only complaints were my absolutely horrific headache and I was super tired. I can’t really complain about being tired because I knew that was a side effect.
My head hurt basically all day until I went to bed that night.
I actually slept really good that night, so that’s a plus. And I woke up feeling refreshed.
Only time would tell if the acupuncture worked.
