Not mentally ready for this baby.....think babies can sense that and stay put a bit longer? « Back to Group Discussions

[DeChRi]

Silly question, but I always here about moms who have something going on, and as soon as they wrap that up, they go into labor. Like baby senses...ok Now is a good time. I was totally on the baby train, then after a whirlwind month of extreme illness in our house, plus unexpectedly buying a new house and packing and moving one, I totally put all baby thoughts away. Now here I am 4cm dilated, life's calmer, we are "technically" ready for baby, but my brain goes into panic at every contraction and screams....no! Not yet!!!!!! But formnomreal reason. I panic at the thought of gathering the stamina to get baby number four out.

Anyone else not quite mentally ready? And to you think our bodies have a sixth sense about it?

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

That happened to me. at 39+2 my daughter came down croup and I put all my energy into telling my baby to STAY PUT. At 39+6 I had a meat delivery to deal with, and I was telling my baby that anytime after 40 was good. Water broke at 40+1, had baby at 40+2.

[justKate]

I absolutely believe this, even if we don't know the reason--and it sounds like you've had plenty!  I also think labor can be delayed by less than ideal positioning--like a nuchal arm or something that we don't necessarily know about.  I'm trying to transmit to baby over and over that things are good, she can come any time...not working so far!

[CarlyVHT]

I hope this is true only because I really want to wait until Monday to have this baby :). We have PLANS tomorrow! Then again, I know come Monday I will be totally ready and then I'll end up going to 42 weeks or something. I really have nothing major in the way of having the baby anytime, but for silly reasons, I am hoping to avoid this weekend, the 11th (a sub midwife that I have never met is on-call), and the 20th (because we really don't want a 4/20 baby). Any other day would be just fine  .... like Monday or Tuesday of this week, so that I don't have to worry about going back to work!

[usagi629]

I completely understand. I am in the same place where I keep telling baby to just "stay in a little longer". I keep thinking because this is my 2nd, that she'll come "early", but I keep hoping that isn't the case.

Honestly we're hoping (and it's looking pretty good so far) to have DS's new "big boy" room all setup and have him moved into it by tomorrow evening. After that, I feel like I'd still like at least ONE MORE WEEKEND to get some other things completed.

We've moved my office (I work from home as a software engineer) from upstairs to downstairs (basement), which involved ripping up old linoleum tile, removing tar adhesive, building out a frame/surround for a "cover up" for the sump pump in the room, painting, putting down new flooring and all that goes under it, then finally actually moving all my office "stuff" down there and out of DS's "new room".

This weekend we've gotten the "big boy" room painted, and tomorrow we'll assemble his new bed and headboard. There's a good bit more to do additionally to move him from the nursery, but I'm confident we can get it all done tomorrow with nothing else planned or going on. So, hopefully baby doesn't decide tomorrow is the day to come out and join the fun. :-P

Even after we finish up with that though, most of my office "stuff" is in our guest room downstairs and my mom is going to stay with us for 2 week once the baby arrives, so I kinda need to move all of that back out before she gets here, not to mention laundering the sheets and tidying up the room (and the rest of the house... O.O)

That said, yeah there's a lot to do that I'd WAYYYY prefer to do BEFORE baby arrives, but honestly... if she came RIGHT NOW, I'd get over it... things would work out... it would be OK... and so I'm just trying to be calm about it and keep in a frame of mind of acceptance that whatever happens will work out. ;-)

[saudade]

I'm not mentally ready. Basically because there are things that are not going to be in place until the 11th and until I have all those things in place (little things, really in the large scope of things) then I can't allow myself to be "mentally ready" and yes, I believe that we can hold on to baby because we are not mentally ready.

[chapluqa]

I'm also not quite 'mentally ready' although that's mainly  because I'm still waiting for the hose, liner, and attachments for the birth pool to arrive (I borrowed the actual pool from a friend).  I think they will be here tomorrow, so then at least all the physical stuff will be here. I still need to get a few things from the health food store for my birth kit, but if necessary I could do without them.

As I've mentioned, my mom is not arriving until the 21st, so I put in a request with baby to please wait until she gets here, if possible. But if he/she wants to come before that, we'll be ok.

I completely agree that if you don't feel ready, your body will put off going into labor until you do. Perhaps this is also why some women go several weeks past their due date when with previous children they gave birth earlier on. It seems to me that the mind-body connection is extremely relevant to the entire labor/birth experience.