Dilation yet???

[sistermama]

Anyone else a little dilated yet? I'm about 2 cm, with a smooshy cervix (I've been checking every couple of nights) and so now I'm pretending that I'm going to go a little bit early. You know, the fantasy of every third trimester prego But then I stop and realize that I have plans already for every weekend from now until I'm due and it seems so close!!! I don't even know where any of my baby stuff is!!

[4under6]

Not sure yet.
I usually start dilating at about 34-35 weeks or so, so we'll see on Friday's appointment.

[cottonwood]

I'm not checking dilation, but I'm pretty sure something is going on down there, as I keep having these... sensations. Not even sure how to describe them, but it feels like stuff is stretching out/loosening up. Which I am very happy about! (To me the fantasy is not that I'll go early, but that I'll have a shorter labor...)

[banana girl]

Honestly,....
I really don't want to know... it would just be one more thing to obsess about. It'll happen when the time is right.

I will probably avoid being checked untill it seems absolutely needed... maybe never. I'd rather just trust my body to get it right.

[mum2tori]

I doubt I'm dilating yet, even though I feel some stuff "going on". :LOL My OB doesn't start checking for a couple more weeks (I think its after 36 weeks), unless there have been LOTS of contrx and preterm labor is a concern. So far I had a couple of days of contrx about 3 weeks ago but I know it's because David decided to pick a fight and I didn't back down. So we were on the barely civil "roommate" attitude with each other for about 5 days. I of course had contrx the whole time and he "refused" to acknowledge that they were happening. No, no stress for those days.

ANYWAYS, :LOL I doubt I'm dilating yet, I don't seem to ever dilate until I'm really into HARD labor and my waters break. First pregnancy had contrx for 3 months no dilation, water broke had contrx for another 16+ hours... dilated 1 cm. Then went into overdrive contrx and dilated from barely 2.5ish to 10 cm in about 2 hours. Second pregnancy had lots of contrx for about 5 days (like every 8 minutes for 10+ hours... then nothing until the next morning) when in for a check day after my due date and NO change (barely 1 cm dilation) since my last check the week before. And I'd been having steady contrx all morning... my water broke about 4 hours later and Jack was born a couple hours after that. :LOL

[Caroline248]

I am about 1 cm and thinning...but I always walk around about 1-2 cms dilated for weeks. My MW thinks I won't progress too much more now since baby is butt first, no more pressure from the head...

Caroline

[Mom2baldie]

I havent checked myself yet (too afraid of what I might find!) so I dont know what, if anything, is going on down there. I figure I will around 38 weeks or so - Paityn was born at 38.5 weeks so Im sure I will be curious by then. If I checked now and was 2 cm or whatever I would just start freaking out thinking I was going to go into labor at any minute. Thats just my personality. Im obsessive. Its better if I dont know.

Caroline,
Riley was persistant frank breech (from 26 weeks on) and I was 2 cm at my 1st cervical check at 39 weeks. He was my first pregnancy and I never felt any contractions at all. I thought 2 cm was pretty darn good for my particular situation!

[chrissy]

I have no idea. I actually tried to check yesterday in the shower but my cervix is too high for me to reach. I'm pretty sure that since Noah's birth my cervix is always about a fingertip dilated so I guess I'm at least a fingertip.

I don't think I'll have my midwife check me at all at least until 40 weeks. Maybe not ever. We'll see how it goes, I guess!

[plantmommy]

I check the cervix every so often just for curiosity's sake, since I couldn't feel it with my last pregnancy. Last time I checked, I couldn't feel it either, because the baby's head was in the way, pushing down on the vaginal walls. I was 1-2 last time for weeks, and don't think it's any kind of reliable indicator of much, so would discount any information I got from it, anyway.

I am getting progressively stronger BH, though, and baby is clearly growing well.

[sistermama]

Originally Posted by plantmommy

I was 1-2 last time for weeks, and don't think it's any kind of reliable indicator of much, so would discount any information I got from it, anyway.

I know, I know... I just like pretending is all....

[plantmommy]

No harm in that! ; )

[Mom2baldie]

Well Sarah, I got curious today and decided to check and see what, if anything, is going on with my cervix.

I still dont know though because it was so high I couldnt reach it! Ive never not been able to find my cervix before!

I am only 32 weeks so Im taking this as a good sign!

[sistermama]

Mine's really high too, Lynsey. One of the reasons i'm glad my midwife won't check unless I want her too. Too uncomfortable when someone else does it!!!

[Mom2baldie]

Originally Posted by sistermama

Mine's really high too, Lynsey. One of the reasons i'm glad my midwife won't check unless I want her too. Too uncomfortable when someone else does it!!!

Yeah, I was kindof thinking about that this morning. I squated (sorry if TMI) and still couldnt reach it, so what happens if you are having an internal exam by a midwife/OB and laying down on a table (instead of squating or some position that makes it easier to reach)? Do they just keep on reaching even if its hurting you?

[sistermama]

I have to squat, too. The couple times I had my midwife check me last time, she just kept reaaaching - not very pleasant....

[HeatherB]

Glad I'm not the only one crazy enough to check! :LOL I've only checked once, but had the feeling all the EPO is working at getting things nice and soft already. Also maybe a fingertip dilation, but though I didn't deliver DS vaginally, I did dilate fully, so that might be normal at this point.

I'm also definitely not counting on going early, but I am excited at the thought that all the trouble of drinking RRLT and taking EPO might help make it shorter! (Last time was 36 hours of hard labor! Eek!)

I think I'll wait a while before I check again.. Don't want to get too caught up in it at this point (only 35wks!).

[plantmommy]

I know it's meaningless, but I still think it's fun to check, as much as I can reach at this point.

I definitely think I'm effacing and dilating a bit, since it's harder to reach the os and things are softer, and the os does seem more open then it was a few weeks ago. Although, I can't reach well enough to be able to guess at dilation.

I'm 36 weeks tomorrow, and hoping baby will come soon after the 22nd (dd's bday), so the family has time to get to know eachother and settle in a bit before my older two kids start school on the 31st. For some reason the 28th keeps popping into my head.

[QuietTempest]

Umm.. please don't think me completely ignorant or rude. This is my first and I didn't know you could 'self-check' for dilation?

Without trying to be overly graphic, can someone enlighten me on how this is done? I mean, how do you know if you're effacing? and how do you know if you're dilating?

[cottonwood]

Well, ideally you would know what your cervix felt like before third trimester, because you could be effacing but not know because you don't have anything to compare it with. Different women have different cervixes, so it's not like you can just say, "oh, it's so many millimeters deep therefore I am such-and-such percent effaced." It's relative. But anyway, the way it works is that the cervix starts out a certain thickness and as it thins, that's called "effacement". Dilation is the radial opening of the cervix, just like when the iris of the eye dilates. You can measure it by feeling how many fingers you can get into the opening -- 1 fingertip is generally regarded as 1 cm., though obviously if your fingers are smaller or bigger you'll want to adjust.

Of course all that is moot if you can't reach far enough past your tummy to find it. :LOL Or if, like me, you have no use for the information.

[plantmommy]

Certainly not rude, or ignorant! I didn't even try to check until late in my last pregnancy, when my midwife said the head could be felt through the vaginal wall. That was inspiration to me; I wanted to see if I could feel it, too!

Basically, in a comfortable position, (at this point that's either squatting or sitting on the toilet) you reach inside the vagina with a few fingers. The cervix is at the back (or top, depending on how you're picturing it, and if you're upright or not). This being your first, you may or may not be able to reach it. In multips (women who've had a pregnancy or several before) the cervix is typically down lower, and easier to reach.

I couldn't reach my cervix when I did try to check during my last pregnancy, but I was standing, leg up, and I think that's a tougher position to feel it in, anyway.

Anyway, with a first pregnancy, it'll feel kinda nose-consistancy, as far as firmness goes, or so i've read, with a bit of a dimple in the middle. Effacing is when the cervix starts to soften and pull up, which, again, makes it harder to reach.

If you can reach it, the size of the opening, or os, is how far dilated you are. A fingertip, slightly more than a fingertip is one cm, if you can insert two fingers into the opening, it's about 2 cm, etc.

I've checked several times with this pregnancy, first to get a baseline of what it normally feels like (in a multip the consistancy or hardness is described like the hardness of your lip, as opposed to your nose tip), and recently to note any changes. Since it's harder to reach recently, and softer, I'd say I'm effacing, and from what I can tell from the harder to reach os, I seem to be dilating a bit.

The fact of the matter is that, especially in multips, early effacement and dilation doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot, since a woman can walk around, say, 50% effaced and dilated to 3 cms for weeks before labor. However, I do know that in previous pregnancies, I didn't dilate or efface much until real labor actually kicked in, so I'm hoping that the changes I'm noting now, mean that labor will be shorter and/or easier this time around!