To induce or not to induce . . . .
. . . . . that is the question. We of course never thought we’d be coming up on 40 weeks, fully expecting #3 to show up well before that, especially since it was SUPER LOW from like week 35-37 or so. Alas, we are pushing 40 and #3 seems to show no interest in appearing. Yes, we ARE anxious to meet it, but even more anxious about the fact that the midwife is going on vacation on Monday, the 19th and will be gone for two weeks. We REALLY want her to do the delivery, and not the back up midwife. I was hoping to talk to her today, but I ended up seeing her assistant since she had to go off to a birth. As it turns out, the assistant I saw (she has two) is actually a midwife herself and has a practice in PA. That meant that if Evelyn was not available, I could request Lori S. and have her do all of the “stuff” and the backup midwife wouldn’t have to do anything. Sothat was good to know. But still, we’d really like Evelyn to do the catching, especially since she didn’t get a chance to last time.
Anyway, so my original goal was to talk to Evelyn about how to convince #3 to arrive before her vacation. I ended up having this conversation with her assistant and she recommended several things:
- a really strong brew of red raspberry leaf tea (which I am drinking as we speak . . . man, that stuff is strong! it’ll put hair on your chest!!)
- black and blue cohosh (work together to get labor rolling)
- accupuncture
- chiropractor
- sweeping of membranes
- evening primrose oil (orally and inserted right next to the cervix – helps to soften/ripen the cervix)
Accupuncture and chiropractor were out . . we just don’t do that. Clearly, the RRL tea was fine. I’ve been drinking it for about 3 weeks now, in a MUCH weaker form. Mostly I was drinking it to help get the uterus ready and to help ease the labor pain. After consulting with Rick, we decided to start with the RRL tea, and then buy the cohosh in case we wanted to try it. Turns out I couldn’t find it (wasted an hour driving around B’more today), but I guess that’s okay, because I’m still not totally sure what I think about messing with Mother Nature.
Babies come when they are good and ready, but I suppose sometimes they need a little nudge. I’m more comfortable doing the natural methods over things like Pitocin or Cervadil. But for some reason, even the natural methods make me go, “hmmm . . do I REALLY want to do this?” So the question of the hour is “to induce or not to induce.” I guess I’ll just keep drinking this cup of tea and then see if anything comes of it!
A Diva Moment 
I had the same sentiments with Zimri. My hospital midwife (notice she does not do home births) was PUSHING pit, and I refused. So I ended up being self induced by DRIVING FOUR HOURS to Albuquerque. It was WONDERFUL. Can’t wait to find out how it went with #3.