1 Down, 9 More to Go

Centimeters, that is! Whatever happened on Sunday night, it resulted in my cervix being 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. You know what that means? It means that things are really happening! My body is getting ready to give birth to a baby. Insane.

Now, my doctor was quick to mention that it doesn't mean I'm about to go into labor. There are women who walk around at 3-4 cm dilated for weeks without making any other progress. However - remember back in February when the Maternal-Fetal Medicine doctor first mentioned induction to me? And then in July, when they changed the plan a bit and said that I could probably go to 40 full weeks and then be induced, as opposed to doing it early? Well, my feelings about inducing labor have been mixed from the very beginning. Inductions apparently work best when your body is beginning to go into labor a little bit already (when your cervix is, ew, "ripe"), and have the highest rate of complications when your cervix is still long and closed and the induction process has to start from scratch. My OB had warned me that if we got to 40 weeks and the baby was still just hanging out in my belly with no indication of busting out anytime soon, he might not want to start an induction because the last thing we want is (and this is a direct quote) "a long, hard labor followed by a c-section." Um, yeah, let's not plan for that.

But! As of yesterday, we know that my cervix is already beginning to change and my body is tentatively getting ready to give birth. I wouldn't necessarily want to induce today, but I'm already in a better position for an induction than I could have been at this stage. And I might go into labor on my own anyway, who knows...