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@agold: it depends on how "through" the sweep is. I never really bled after mine. And yes you can have sex until your water breaks!

@MrsKerch: oh man! I hope you can get some rest to make up for it!

I still laugh at the karma that when you're hugely pregnant and can't bend to pick anything up, of course that's when you get butter fingers and drop everything!

@OldpuebloJenn: sounds tricky but glad you have the help you need to have a safe delivery - way to go with the flow!! So happy your baby is almost here. What a great day for a birthday - it's mine too!

@agold: to do a sweep you have to be dialated a little, maybe at least a 1, otherwise they can't really get in there to do the sweep. depending on where your cervix is facing, back middle forward, it can be painful as the further back the farther they have to put their hand in. it's uncomfortable but labor is 50x worse. i was 1.5cm dialated with a back facing cervix and afterwards I was just crampy, it took exactly 48 hours to get labor going, and i didn't start to get icky down there until after the contractions became consistent. i would recommend trying it over getting induced any day though, the induction drugs, oh my, they can make contractions so so much worse (with my first I had stacked contractions every three minutes and the epidural couldn't come fast enough).

@OldpuebloJenn: oh man that sounds totally crazy but so glad you are in safe hands. I know you really wanted the birth center. Hopefully you're ok with going with the flow recommended by hospital and will have baby safely in your arms soon if not already!

@OldpuebloJenn: sorry to hear it isn't quite how you hoped, but also glad things got going for you! good luck, I'll be thinking about you

@MrsKerch: ahh, skunked = the worst. the aftermath sounds like it would have been the perrrrrfect job for your husband

@agold: wow, it is incredible that you're not uncomfortable and that you actually are enjoying sex! you're blessed, lady. we are twinsies, I have my 40w appointment tomorrow morning and am going to ask for a membrane sweep-- @Silva: and @MrsBeluga: and my SIL are giving me hope. as of last week I was 2cm dilated, but I suppose there's no guarantee my OB will think it's a good idea or will agree to it. going to try, though. then tomorrow afternoon I also have a brazilian scheduled; I hate hate hate feeling unkempt. I've spotted after every pelvic exam, but it hasn't been period-level bleeding or anything even close, so I'm not worried about the wax.

@LCTBQE: good luck! Just tell your ob that you want the sweep to try to avoid an induction. It's not guaranteed to start labor but it has a decent success rate. After it was done I was sore from having my obs hand way up there, then I was crampy on and off for two days, and just when I hit the 48 hour mark and was giving up hope labor started:) I was in early labor for a good 12 hours, and in active labor for 5.

@LCTBQE: I had a sweep the day before going into labor this time, too. Actually I started spotting after the sweep and it never stopped - turned into globs of bloody mucus and then went into full blown labor.

@coopsmama: wheeeee okay, I'm a believer. is your opinion (and the consensus) that it's reasonable to ask for one at 40w?

@LCTBQE: so funny that you also have a Brazilian scheduled for after your exam! Twins!! So I was worried about the sweep for nothing. Doctor couldn't even do it since I'm not even barely one centemeter dilated. I'm still 70% effaced and thin, she said. She said she felt baby's head and it doesn't seem like she has a lot of hair. For some reason, not a lot of hair plus no progress dilating was enough for me to have full melt down driving home. She also brought up again the fact that I had a cryo type procedure done like 13 years ago after a bad Pap smear - she said maybe that is causing scar tissue on the cervix and preventing the cervix from opening. this all sounds horrible to me.

I'm supposed to get a call tomorrow morning before 10 to schedule being induced on the 31. After crying in the car on the way home, I decided to call back the office and ask if I can have one more appointment on Monday to check again and see if membrane sweeping is possible. I'm waiting for a return call.

I think being induced, only to then have a c section, sounds like the worst thing in the world.

And now i have post nasal drip crap and a sore throat. My husband is leaving for work in a few and I'm going to go get ice cream and cry on my couch for a couple of hours before I meet up with my friend at 7. Sucks for her. I'm going to be shitty company!

@agold: also many women are induced and it doesn't turn into a c section. Know your options. Do you have a doula? If you're really fearing this, I think having someone there to offer support and suggestions to help progress may be really worth it.

@LCTBQE: Yes. I think it won't work if your body is not ready to go into labor and so it's a good alternative to induction too early. I had the sweep at 40+6 and she arrived at 41 weeks exactly!

@OldpuebloJenn: Congratulations! Glad to know baby is here and that you are both doing well. I wish you a smooth, speedy recovery.

@agold: I'm sorry you are feeling overwhelmed. I think it would be a good idea to talk to your providers about your fears and concerns. There is a lot of research showing that the most important factor in feeling positive about your birth experience is feeling like you have a sense of agency, regardless of the way the actual L&d goes down. After two births going very differently than I anticipated, and one birth being pretty scary at times, I still feel really positively toward both experiences. I credit my care providers with that- they always made me feel included in the process, validated my fears, supported me- even when things were dicey and they had to move quickly they always explained what they were doing and why.
Anyway, all of that is to say: birth is a wild, powerful physical act. And it rarely goes how we imagine it will. I think ive shared this but my yoga teacher told me "you meet yourself in labor" and for me, with my first, that meant knowing when to let my ego go and make the best choices I could to get my daughter here safely. This time it meant trusting in the people I'd chosen as my providers, and coming face to face with really scary possibilities. The beauty on the other side of those scary possibilities became even greater than I imagined, not despite a scary L&d but because of it.
I hope you get the birth of your dreams, but if not I hope your providers help you to feel empowered and supported in the whole process.
And for what it's worth, with my first I wasn't at all dilated and barely 50% effaced 4 days before I went into spontaneous labor.

Lots of rambling, sorry!!!

@agold: I hope I didn't sound preachy! I just think it's easy, at least for me, to get caught up in a single narrative. Like, what it means to have a "good birth." And that really, it's just an experience like any other, and if we can be open to different ways of looking at it there is an opportunity for greater meaning. ....I'm a therapist, and I guess this is just kind of how my brain works. But take, as an example, someone who always thinks of himself as "victim." It's hard to become something else if that's the only story you know about yourself. Doesn't mean he has been a victim. Or that bad things haven't happened. But that story line doesn't help him a whole lot.
It sucks that you don't care for your provider. I hope you get good nurses! I had great ones both times and they were a hugely important part of my "team." My husband was, too. So maybe you can talk to your husband about ways he can support you, no matter how it goes down. Like what you think you need to hear. More than anything I needed my husband to keep his cool and try his best to communicate to me what was going on. I have clear memories from both labors of just being able to make eye contact with him and feeling like he was my rock in this crazy storm.
I really think that even if your doctor sucks, and even if things don't go down the way you want them to, you can have a meaningful born experience that you remember fondly as the incredible journey of bringing your baby into the world.

@Silva: you being a therapist makes sense!! Send me bill. You are amazing. Yes, my husband is great and I'm going to talk with him tomorrow at being positive for me. And I think the nurses at the hospital will be great. I've been going there twice a week for the last month and I love them. So I'm going to focus on all of that! Phew. Now if only I could have a glass of wine!

@T.H.O.U.: I have no idea how the OB would know she said she could just barely feel with her finger. So I asked her if that meant I was dilated. She said something about making a note about her finger tip blah blah. So I was like " am I dilated at least to a one?" She was like " barely". Anyways. Amidst all that, she said she didn't feel a lot of hair on the baby's head. Does that not sound right???

@agold: Tbh, my induction wasn't ideal. But. Knowing what I know now (post c-section for this baby), I appreciate even more how hard my OB worked for me to deliver vaginally.

@agold: and PS don't kill you're self trying to dilate. In my experience, nothing really will change that. If you're having contractions then sex or walking can help keep them going but it's not going to magically kick start something that's not ready to happen