How did I not see this thread!
Oh hun its so hard not to worry! Sounds like it is your plug how exciting!
You will do the best job you can! Rememeber how perfectly tuned you are to birthing! Enjoy this experience and looking forward to your BA!
You know Heaven, you can do a check on your own cervix if you think you can manage to get in to some sort of position to attempt it. Make sure your fingers are clean to start. Gently insert a finger, and feel towards the back of the vagina. Baby's head should be easy to feel - hard, smooth, and round. And then you might be able to find your cervix. (Sometimes it stays well back until labour starts, but sometimes it moves forward a little earlier.) The cervix will be like a squishy donut shaped lump. It may be a "tall" lump, or flatter, and it may have a dip in the middle. The dip is where you may be dilating. If you can fit a fingertip in, that's about 1cm dilated. Two fingertips is 2cm, roughly. You can also see how it feels - firm, or soft. I think firm is something like your nose, whereas soft is more like relaxed lips. (feel free to correct and clarify anyone. ) The cervix will become soft as it prepares for letting that baby out. It will also get flatter as it begins to efface.
Don't expect to be able to tell for sure what is going on, especially after your first check. If you are curious about what your body might be doing, you can do a number checks over a couple of days, and observe any changes. And, even if you feel like you can't make heads or tails out of what might be happening in there, any stimulation of the cervix releases oxytocin, which helps to trigger contractions.
All the best for getting that little bean out soon! Hope your labour goes beautifully.
Cricket- thanks for that info. I have tried to feel my cervix because I've been using EPO and wanted to know if I was getting it anywhere near it. But I couldn't reach it!! My belly is too big and I can't get anywhere near it, lol.
Ouch, lots of cramps today.
Last edited by Heaven; February 27th, 2009 at 01:21 PM.
Well I think something might be happening. Still losing my plug and have been having period type cramps all day. They started to get a bit more painful and more often so I started to take notice of how many I have been having over the last few hours and in that time it's been every 10 minutes. Think it might be a bit less than that now but I haven't been timing. It's like low down in my tummy really strong period pain for about a minute or 2. Is this what you call contractions?? I have no idea, lol. They hurt!! How am I going to put up with them getting really bad!! They're bad enough now and I can't keep sitting or lying when I get one, I feel like I have to get up. Oh jeez. I am in love with my heat pack atm.
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How did I not see this thread!
) The cervix will become soft as it prepares for letting that baby out. It will also get flatter as it begins to efface.
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