Overdue

Ladies. I need you. 40+6 here with my 3rd pregnancy, soon to be 2nd baby. Trying for a VBAC. Scheduled for my “backup” c-section at 41+1 (Friday). I am starting to absolutely panic. I really REALLY don’t want another cesarean. Especially now that I have a 30ish lb 2 year old at home who would really feel the brunt of my recovery. But I just won’t go into labor! When we picked the csection date they gave us the option of doing it for 39, 40, or 41 weeks depending on how “committed” we were to the idea of a VBAC. And said they really don’t like to go far over 41. So we went for it with 41+1. Never did I think we’d actually reach that date lol for the record my practice has been super supportive of the whole process and didn’t pressure me about the VBAC or a repeat section at all. It’s just the policy to book a backup date for moms attempting VBAC.

So, I’ve had 3 sweeps/membranes being stripped over the last week. I’ve had two runs of painful contractions Monday and Tuesday night that were averaging 5-7 minutes apart for a minute long each and kept me up all night then fizzled out by morning - I even called out of work yesterday thinking that it was go time! But no. Everything subsided by 10:30 AM. I lost good chunks of my mucous plug at my sweep last Thursday, and then spontaneously Sunday (just mucous no blood), and overnight tonight (blood tinged mucous). But it just seems like nothing sticks. I had an ultrasound and a non stress test Monday and baby looks good, fluid levels look normal, and my placenta looks “smooth” aka healthy still (post dates they can start to calcify and function less efficiently).

I have another scan and NST at 10AM today - going to request a 4th (!!!) sweep if they’ll do it. But I really am starting to panic I’m not going to go into labor and I’m going to just have this scheduled section Friday. What breaks my heart is that with 2 c sections under my belt, I’m not sure anyone would let me labor and deliver if we were to get pregnant again in the future, so I really feel like the stakes are high this time around. My practice currently won’t support a VBA2C. And I really do want a vaginal delivery, for a variety of reasons. My daughter was a scheduled c section so I never even had a contraction with her. I guess I’m just looking for encouraging stories. How long after loosing bloody mucous did everyone go into labor? Any VBAC successes for moms in similar situations? Really keeping my fingers crossed that going to work today and trying a 4th sweep will get things going. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Thanks if you made it to the end of this long post! Here we are just waiting waiting waiting...