Amy began her maternity leave as planned the day before her due date, but it turned out Baby Leif had other ideas. He held out another nine days past his anticipated arrival date, giving Amy plenty of time to test all the old wives' tales she could find about things that should get labor started -- eating spicy food, driving on bumpy roads, eating pineapple and grapefruit, walking, acupressure...nothing seemed to do the trick. You can hardly blame him; it does look pretty cozy in there!
The tides turned just in the nick of time, since Amy's midwives were concerned about an ultrasound showing a low amniotic fluid level measurement, which they said could indicate a decline in placental function. Just hours before Amy and Aaron were planning to go to the hospital to begin the recommended induction of labor, contractions started on their own, and Leif was able to make his way into the world on his own hormonal timetable, as we had hoped.
Side note: Since research has shown that the average gestational period for first-time Caucasian moms is actually 41 weeks + 1 day, Leif was really just about perfectly on time, not "overdue" at all!
No comments:
Post a Comment