Monday

Another day, another monitoring session. Everything looked fine. The OB swept my membranes again, as I was still only 1cm dilated and nothing had really happened; and this time it HURT. Oof. I had to breathe deeply and pinch my fingers, and as soon as it was over Cory came over and rubbed my back because apparently my face wasn't very pleasant. :) I've had some contractions since then but I can't remember if they're any stronger than the ones that happened as a result of the last sweep. On Thursday they should have some more firm plans for us, as they'll talk about us during their meeting tomorrow morning. She's still not all that worried about my blood pressure, which is good.

Of course, after the appointment I started getting obsessive again about looking online for statistics on the effectiveness of membrane sweeps, and found this:

"The review found that overall the intervention is associated with a 24% increase in chance of delivering within 48 hours, a 46% increase in chance of delivering within a week and a 74% reduction in likelihood of going 2 weeks over dates. (...) In summary, as a method of induction of labour, it is poor, but at the end of pregnancy, sweeping the membranes is a safe way of doubling chances of spontaneous labour over the next week."

Kinda reassuring, but I guess it's just the way you say it - "doubling chances" is kinda the same as "50% chance." Reminds me of looking up IVF success rates and agonizing over a few percentage points. I suppose you could look at it like this, though: there is a 100% chance this baby is coming out at some point. :)

I finished knitting my sixth soaker yesterday, and don't have enough yarn to make another (not to mention six is plenty), so I'm back to being a little bored (which is no fun when you also have a huge life event looming over your head and you have no idea when it's going to happen). I started reading a Dr. Sears book about breastfeeding, but I'm not sure how much information I'm retaining. I should probably just find some light fiction reading for this next little bit.

What else, what else... oh, random stuff:
* I have been eating a ton of string cheese. Not sure if it's because of the protein or what, but it's yummy.
* I'm also drinking lots of very lightly flavored sparkling water. I probably mentioned it before - the OB recommended it when I said I wasn't drinking as much water as I should. It definitely helps - it's fizzy and doesn't have any sugar or sodium or anything, just "natural flavors."
* A few weeks ago, I noticed that my fingers were swelling at night, and going down once I woke up in the morning. It's gotten worse since then, where it kind of hurts to grab the toilet tissue when I'm up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Turns out it's pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel. It's not enough to bother me much, though I can't curl my fingers under my chin which is my preferred sleeping position, but it seems like it's starting to stick around (though much less intense) during the day - my fingers feel stiff all day, especially when I try to clench my fists tightly.
* At lunch today, we were walking back to the car and stopped at a corner where a mama and her toddler were waiting for the light. The little girl pointed at my belly and said "baby!" and so as we crossed the street her mama and I chatted briefly about how far along I am and a little about the toddler's birth. It was fun to have a connection with a stranger like that.