Dealing With a Past-Due Pregnancy

Three of my four pregnancies were past due by two weeks or more. And while it's a fairly well-known fact that the due date is an estimate at best, that doesn't help your mental state as the days get checked off on a calendar and your already bloated body aches in even more places that you didn't know you had as time passes. On top of the waiting you may feel like you’re gaining ten pounds every extra hour past your expected time of delivery. Frequent visits to your doctor’s office occur now, about once or twice a week, to make sure the fetus isn’t getting crowded or stressed. As long as everything looks rosy, they’ll let you go past due date for a couple of weeks, even if you beg for them to take this thing out of you NOW.

Concerns in regard to the health of the baby notwithstanding, going past term is usually just annoying. We want that golden day to happen according to our plan but it will almost always be according to junior's timing instead. In the meantime, there are chores to do and possibly paychecks to continue earning, so despite all the discomfort you somehow manage to continue waddling through your days and getting things done. I've had more than one co-worker keep the rest of us on nervous watch as her due time not only came closer but also slipped past and still she clocked in each day. I know that each of these women was not the only one to breathe a sigh of relief when the blessed event finally occurred.

The wait can be exasperating. It felt like my fourth child was determined to reside within me eternally as I faced the end of my third week past the estimated date of arrival and still the doctors and nurses assured me that he was just fine and dandy. Well, I wasn’t feeling so dandy anymore and wanted the process to be over with already. I actually forced the issue with him by taking a very long walk(a total of approximately 80 city blocks) that finally got things started. Looking back, I know that I’m lucky to have made it home before the contractions became steady and strong enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. But at the time I was not exactly at my most rational and I have a wonderfully healthy boy to show for the effort.

So while it may feel like you’re going to be pregnant forever and each day seems to add more hours as well as pounds to your life, take heart. Eventually your baby will decide to come out and see what the wide world is like. You really won’t be endlessly pregnant. It only feels like it.