Nesting much?
I did this last week (completely emptying, washing, re-filling and neatly labeling all of my spices and herbs), along with a whole slew of other cleaning and organizing tasks. It may be a bit over the top, but it does make me smile to see how pretty it looks.
I need some more distraction, though! It is swelteringly hot here (we're in the midst of an unusually hot heatwave this week), and even though I would normally not mind waiting out my due date or even beyond, I am just so ready for this baby to come so that I can cool off just a little! I'm officially due in about a week, so in reality I don't have that long to go, but the days are dragging by right now.
So just for fun, can I get you ladies to entertain me a little?
I'd love to hear the wacky things you've done while nesting, crazy techniques you've tried to induce labor, or simply funny stories about labor and birth!
Ready, set, make me laugh!
These stories are so funny, especially the one about washing the ceiling. I can totally picture me doing that : )
When I was pregnant with my 3rd, who was due in August.... I decided on a 90 degree day that our car really needed to waxed. My husband just shook his head when he pulled in the drive way and saw me waxing the car. When I was pregnant with my 4th, due in late Jan. I decided I needed to go outside and clean the glass of my sliding door. It was tricky trying not slip on the ice in snow on the deck.
Too funny! These all bring back memories! With #4, this past December, I also remember attacking the spice rack with gusto right before she was born. Also tried shoveling the drive, walking, and delivering plates of cookies to the neighbors. With baby #2, I had eaten a bunch of fried chicken at Wednesday night church dinner, and was in labor by the time I got home. :)
I meant to add that my second daughter was 4 days later, and that I'm also a PCOS-er! :-)
These have been fun to read! :-)
I have two girls. My first labour (8 days early) was brought on by LOTS of walking. It seemed all my friends wanted "one last day out" before I became a mother. At the end of the third day straight of walking all over town, my water broke. Six hours later I was holding our daughter!
For my second daughter... My husband and I were travelling (we're missionaries, and were home on furlough reporting to churches) up until I was past 38 weeks. Not overly smart, but it had to be done. I was doing everything I could imagine to keep labor at bay until we reached our home. So finally, at 38 1/2 weeks, I stepped things up- cleaning out closets, talking long walks with our two year old, etc. One specific thing didn't send me into labor, but all that did dialate me to past 4 before contractions started. Once they did start, they were on and off all day, so I prayed and asked the Lord to stop them if it wasn't real labor, and break my water if it was. I was tired and either needed to sleep or have this baby! That was at 10pm. At 11pm my water broke. At 12:19am Baby Girl #2 was born!
To start labor or just to get your cervix nice and ripe, the best thing I've found is nipple stimulation.
My best birth story was #3 (of five). I'm an L&D nurse and I went to work on a Sunday evening and started having ctx's on my way to work. I took a patient who was in labor with her first baby and was 2 cm dilated. She got an epidural and continued to labor while my ctx's got closer and closer. By 10 pm I was wondering if I'd be first! But she was completely dilated by around 10:30 and delivered at 11:43. When her Dr. came in the room, she asked me "So, how many weeks do you have left?" I replied, "Oh, I think more like hours!" She volunteered to check my cervix after the delivery. I was 4cm. By now it was 12:30 am and I called my husband to come and join me, asked a co-worker to clock me out, and got into bed. My daughter arrived at 1:24 am, just 15 min after my husband got there. My Dr. did not make it--the on-call Dr. was there instead.
The next morning one of the nurses was looking over our log book and noticed that I listed as the delivering nurse on one delivery and the patient on the next!! She assumed it couldn't be right, but my night shift co-workers assured her it was!!
At 38 weeks pregnant I decided I didnt like how my kitchen cabinets were arranged and completely switched them overnight. Thank you pregnancy induced insomnia! The best part is DH works third shift. He came home and went to get a glass and couldnt find them!
I was due Feb. 3rd, and on that day there was a big fire in town. I'm the only female firefighter and well, I wasnt about to go fight any fires in my condition! So I hung around the station all day cooking pizzas for the guys and answering phone calls. I babysat for a while when one of our guys got too exhaused and had to go to the hospital. I called his wife remembering they had two young children sleeping at home. I watched TV and knitted at their house while she went to get her husband. Afterwards, around midnight I went back to the station to help clean up. I was on my knees rolling hose on my due date! Walking to my car around 2am, my water broke! 20 hours later, my son was born. =)
My second baby, I meticulously cleaned out my purse while we were driving to my parents' house for Christmas dinner. Later that night a little "Christmas celebration" with Dh induced labor, and the next day we were holding our son!
I'm due on Sunday, August 2nd, and I'm about to go stir-crazy here too...we live in Texas...and it is too hot to even sit outside!
I started pre-term labor at 34 weeks, so I was on bed-rest for two weeks, so I could get to 36 weeks. Then we were good to deliver at home. Well...here we are. I've had prodromal labor (contractions that start and stop but hurt...) for about 10 days now.
I keep thinking that I'm in labor, and I'm nesting like crazy. Anytime we get close to having enough dirty laundry to make a load (which takes about five minutes around here...with a messy two year old and a volunteer firefighter husband) I throw it in the washer and fold it right out of the dryer. I'm starting to scare the college student that lives with us. *grin*
Soon, right? SOON!
With all 3 my nesting started like 8 weeks before my due date! Can you imagine how much cleaning I could get done then? I usually ended up reorganizing just about everything in the house lol.
I know I rearranged furniture, painted walls and baseboards, put together baby furniture, sewed cloth diapers like crazy this last time, and randomly cleaned or did things that struck my eye. You just can't leave anything alone or undone at that stage haha. Only one thing kept me back some is that my pelvis always tries to separate some and my sciatic nerve really gives me problems then. So I would do all that one day, regret it the next day or two, and then start all over again!
That natural way does help but I'm not sure that was what made it work. I tried castor oil with orange juice (about gagged). Both of those things made false contraction.. which help dilate but not 'start' real labor. Also tried walking. This last one I picked up my 3yo at the time in the kitchen, she was sitting on my belly and next thing I know my water broke.
Okay, you DEFINITELY have too much time on your hands! :) But the heat can make you do crazy things. I was out in Seattle this past weekend, and they were all dying due to the heat, so I know what you mean. It felt fine to me (cooler than home), but without A/C, they were all very hot!
The day before I delivered my second baby, the baby furniture store called to tell me that they had just received one of the double strollers that I had been searching for for months. I threw my 2 year old daughter in the car and sped over there. Once home, I carried the 50 pound stroller up my back stairs and into the house and assembled it right away. I was so happy to get it before the baby came that I paid no mind to the fact that I probably shouldn't have been lifting it.
Well, it may have been what sent me into full blown labor, because my son was born the very next day, the day I hit 36 weeks. And my husband was away on a business trip!
Lesson learned: With the next baby, no heavy lifting. And no letting my husband leave town past 30 weeks! :p
Hang in there, your little bundle will be here before you know it!
I had tried EVERYTHING (castor oil, pineapple, walking, etc.) to bring on labor, and then a doctor friend called and recommended, um, repeating the actions that made the baby with my husband. A few hours later labor started.
These have been great stories, I have to add my own.
I was really sick throughout my entire pregnancy. Between the morning sickness that made me lose weight (and didn't stop until I was 7+ months) and getting double pneumonia at 32-33 weeks, I had a rough time doing any really preparing.
Because of the pneumonia, I had to move in with my parents (1 story ranch home). I was not to do any physical activity, walk up stairs, lift anything etc. I remember about a week after I moved back in, having an overwhelming feeling that the room was wrong. It had to be rearranged. Can you guess where this is going? I shut the door to my bedroom for two days and started moving everything. My then fiance (now husband) caught me while I was disassembling the bed frame, having already moved the mattress and box springs. It was then decided that I was to leave my door open and I was put on full bed rest.
A few days after being caught, I insisted that we had to go to a huge children consignment event. We went, gathering everything that we needed (several trash bags full). After a hour, I waited by the door, watching our bags while my husband and mother ran around. I was starting contractions, but didn't want to say anything for fear that they would want to leave instead of getting things.
Our son was born the next morning, health despite the illness and hormonal craziness that I went through. That's what counts in the end.
Mine is not incredibly crazy.
What was funny about my first birth was that, my husband (who works for the local power company) had been called away the day before tho help restore the power for people affected by Hurricane Katrina. (I live in Florida and Katrina hit here first before it did on the golf coast). The day he left I had a great time cleaning and cooking. Then that night I started contracting. I figured they were braxton hicks. By 5am I called the dr and she told me to get to the hospital. Only one problem....my husband was 2 hours drive away, and didn't even have a car. (he and his coworker were driving a bucket truck. I hopped in the car (after calling a neighbor who was sound asleep and didn't answer the phone). Drove over to the hospital and my husband (raced up I-95 in his coworkers brand new Mustang) and arrived just as I was getting into the hot bath in the birthing room. I had our son about 30 minutes after hubby arrived.
Moral to the story?......My trying to induce my own labor did nothing. Only the most severe weather event made my baby come that year.
Oh yes. Living the heat as well over here on the island. Unbelievable for the westcoast isn't it? Although I'm now over 39 weeks I have no desire whatsoever to go into labour until it cools down a good 10c degrees. Plus there are still loads of berries to pick and freeze! But instead of nesting (which this house sure could stand for) I'm taking it real easy in the heat to prevent labour. All these contractions and the cramping send me for a wee lie down throughout the day. I've never lead such a quiet, mellow life--and I've got a 7,5 and 2 yr. old.
I was scheduled to be induced the Saturday after my due date with my son. I really wanted a natural birth so I had been talking to the local midwife throughout my pregnancy. Here are some things I did:
~for a week (or was it more, I don't know, it was 6 years ago!) I took (orally) Evening Primrose oil capsules. The last week I was supposed place them next to the cervix to help it soften up even more. All I can say is that is an unrealistic instruction to give to someone 10 months pregnant.
~I was supposed to do some "curb-walking". All you do is walk down your entire block with one foot on the curb and one in the gutter. Then turn around so that the opposite foot is on the curb. She said it opens up one side of the pelvis at a time and wiggles the baby down into position. Tip: If you have your 1 yr old toddler walk in front of you so it looks like you're following her your neighbors won't think you're nuts.
~I took Castor Oil. She recommended 2 oz in a glass of Orange juice. I took it at 10 pm and I mixed it in the smallest glass possible so I could be done with it as fast as possible. It was stir, stir, stir, gulp! Stir, stir, stir, gulp! It tasted horrible! But it worked! My labor started like clockwork the next morning!
~I had a 3 page birth plan that I forgot to drop off in advance. So I made 2 dozen double chocolate Ghiradelli muffins, for the nurses, at home while I labored. It was a good distraction. I just paused while stirring when a contraction hit me.
and finally one more:
~I went to school to be a nurse, and Anatomy was my favorite subject. I think placentas are the most amazing miracle! Your body grows a complex organ, uses it, and when it doesn't need it any more - it discards it! Fascinating (in my book)! So I told my husband to make sure to take a photo of it. When I got my photos back after we were home 2 days later I had a meltdown. There was not one single photo of me and my son on the day of his birth... but there were 2 photos of the placenta! I think I cried for 3 days.
With my second child my husband knew I had a need for everything to be in order right before and after the delivery. When I told him I thought I was really in labor and that we needed to get our things to go to the hospital he instead picked up the broom and began cleaning. He insisted that we hang on until the floor was clean and the dishes were put away so everything was set when we came home. What a sweetie!
I can't remember which pregnancy it was, but I remember DEEP cleaning my fridge. Last pregnancy, I did more sewing than cleaning, it was strange to get the strong urge to be crafty rather than clean!
Last summer I was very pregnant (daughter was born in mid-Sept.) and we live in Colorado where there are usually mild summers and no need for a/c. Well, unfortunately for me, last summer was one of the hottest on record and we don't have a/c. I found myself parking my lawn chair right up next to the kiddie pool where the boys were playing and sitting there with my legs in the water.
Yes, please, Nola! Let's trade weather! I would gladly give you some of our heat and sun for a bit of rain and cool! :)
P.S. Want to send some heat here? We've mainly had cool and rain, once again. This might make you laugh: this morning on the radio alarm that woke me I heard the announcer say to another radio person "hey, what's that I saw in the sky this morning, its round and yellow?" LOL maybe we should bottle up our rain and send it out west.
I went all out this last time and wanted to wash and clean everything. I remember asking my friend how she thought the best way was to clean the furnace floor covers. Not sure what they are called. You know, those little metal grates that sit on top of the floor and cover up the hole that leads a pipe to the furnace? She told me she had no idea, she'd never washed hers. :)
I washed all the windows that I could get to on ground level while it was nearing freezing...
I had my husband move all the furniture so I could wash the hardwood floor underneath, and I wanted to paint the living room (using a good environmental paint) and even somehow convinced my husband to go get it with me. We still have the paint....oops. We will use it sometime hopefully this year.
I can't remember much else right now, but surely my husband would since he thought I might be going crazy. :)
After 2 weeks of tractor and 4 wheeler riding in our bumpiest fields I was a week overdue with Charlie and the midwife told me to go to the hospital the next morning to be induced. We decided to get ready by renting DVDs for the long wait in the hospital, buy board games and go out to dinner with our parents. I ate about a full pound of spicy ribs. When we got home Aaron got everything loaded in the car and went to bed. I took a long hot shower and suddenly went into labor. 11 hours labor I had my Charlie.
About a week before my firstborn's due date, I completely emptied out and reorganized our front hall closet. At four in the morning. When my husband heard noise and came out to see what it was, he took one look at me, shook his head, and went right back to bed.
About an hour later, I crawled back into bed, feeling much better.
You gals are great- keep the stories coming!
One great thing about nesting and the desire to do physical activity to bring on labor is that it results in a very clean house! LOL!
On Sunday night, I had some contractions and couldn't sleep in the heat, so I was up from 11pm-1am, cleaning my house. Every day since then I've continued to do more cleaning and organizing, and today will be no exception! Last night even found me outside at 10:30pm (partly because it was at least a few degrees cooler than inside the house), doing laps around our neighborhood to try to bring on labor. It didn't work, because I was just too tired and hot by 11pm to keep going, and I finally fell asleep after a cold shower with the fan blowing straight on me. Maybe today's the day? Hmmmm, should I scrub the baseboards or wash the windows? :)
(Seriously, I think I'm going to wash my windows! Wish me luck! LOL!)
Really enjoying these posts!
I have 2 nesting stories one about my mom and my own.
My mom washed the outside windows with a mop, I arrived shortly after to sparkling clean windows.
My daughter was born at 37 weeks, that day I took everything out of the kitchen cabinets reorganized and wiped down every can, spice jar and canister with a rag. There was no need to do this since we had only lived there a few months and it was already clean.
nesting, I know that feeling! Weirdest thing I started to do? Mopping/scrubbing all the baseboards in the house and then moving onto the basement...the UNFINISHED basement floor, lol!
to get labor started?
a spinning (cycling class) in the morning, mowing the lawns in the afternoon and a 4 mile walk in the evening. LoL! I was pooped but it worked...I was 6 days overdue and ready to be able to tie my shoes again!
Sarah M
So I don't have any kids yet, but I have a story from my great-grandmother who worked as a nurse for about 5 minutes (she had trouble giving shots to an orange).
There was a woman in their town who had immagrated from Mexico (they lived in Texas) and had a LOT of kids. One day this woman came into the hospital, and without asking her my Nanny and the doctor fully prepped her for delivery since every time she had been in there she was having a baby. Not until she was in the stirrups and ready to go did they realize she wasn't in there to deliver...but because she had hemmorhoids.
They asked her why she was there the next time she came in...
I washed all the ceilings during one nesting episode.
I did the same exact thing a few weeks ago! My son was 10 days past his due date and it was something to keep me occupied. I like the orderly look it gives anyway, I have everything in our cabinets in jars labeled already.
My twin boys are 6 weeks old(tomorrow). I started sewing nursing pads. Dh came home from work and started apologizing because he thought he forgot to buy disposable ones. 5:30am the next morning my water broke.
Yup, I can definately vouch for the method that Shannon suggests! While I think it did give us a few 'false starts' in the end that's definately what did the trick!;)
This was my first child, so I wasn't sure what to expect. My due date came and went. I was dying to change the furniture around in our living room. I just couldn't stand the configuration anymore! My husband wasn't supposed to be home for several more hours and I could not wait that long. So I rearranged our oversized couch, loveseat, chair, and the rug! While I was in the middle of rearranging, my friend called to see how I was doing. She laughed so hard when I told her I was in the middle of rearranging the living room. When my husband got home, he just shook his head. It didn't bring on labor, but I was able to relax a little bit more :).
I'm 35 weeks pregnant, and yesterday I bought my first ever Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, with the intention of using it to clean my macbook. The situation quickly spiraled out of control...I magic eraser'd our front door, all our power outlets and light switches, and the refrigerator. I just couldn't stop myself!
My daughter was 10 days late and I was ready for her to be born, so I tried walking. And walking. And walking some more. Unfortunately, I'd thrown my back out decorating her room (do NOT try to hang things on the wall or put things up on high shelves with a hug baby belly!), so I had a horrible limp the last few weeks of pregnancy. I must have looked a sight walking all over the place hugely pregnant and limping like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And it didn't work - I still ended up getting induced. Not this time around!
with my second I was 2 weeks late and getting rather impatient. I heard that eating a whole pineapple might work. So, I sat down and ate every last piece of an entire pineapple. I just kept stuffing yet another and another piece into my mouth until the whole thing was consumed. Ugh. I sure was stuffed. No baby popped out, either. Too bad! Then, I got on the tredmill and ran and ran and ran, and I bounced and bounced all over the porch. My 2 yr. old daughter thought I was hilarious. But I was desperate! I took evening primrose oil both ways, etc.... nothing worked. oh well, least it was all fun.,
You know that natural method of inducing labor that midwives often recommend ;)? It's not castor oil, walking or eating spicy food. It worked for us with both of our boys.
With my first pregnancy the night before I wound up being in labor I was vaccuuming and didn't think the carpet edges were getting done enough, so I went through the whole house on my hands and knees and used a damp paper towel to clean the edge between the carpet and wall. My husband just watched and moved furniture when I needed.
I had my first son almost 6 months ago. He was due on February 6 and on February 12, the doctor decided it would be best to induce labor the next day. I checked into the hospital early the next morning when three other ladies were already in active labor. My doc decided to wait until lunch to induce and he went back to the office to see patients. Contractions began to pick up during the morning. I was induced around 1:00 pm and the doc thought we would have a baby around 6 or 7 pm. At 3:00 pm, my nurse discovered my baby's head had crowned! She told me not to do anything while she called the doctor to get to the hospital. He raced to the hospital with police on his tail and rushed to the delivery room where my son was delivered in about 5 minutes! I never got to ask him if he got a ticket!! :)