The Post Due Date Pregnancy (part 1)

What does post due mean? Post due means the baby is past his or her due date. It is normal for a baby to be 2 or 2 and a half weeks past the due date. Typically, doctors will offer to induce labor if you go past your due date. Because I refused to be induced, my second baby came 24 days past her due date.

It just wouldn’t be right to go through this series on pregnancy without devoting a day to writing about post due date pregnancy, which was my second daughter. You may have already made the connection that this was the pregnancy I talked about in the post on miscarriage; I became pregnant with my second daughter just three months after I experienced a miscarriage.

I found out I was pregnant super early because I had an ear infection, and the doctor made me take a pregnancy test before he would prescribe antibiotics.

I was so depressed after the miscarriage that I was not tracking my periods at all. I had no idea when my last cycle had started. Then, because I was convinced I would miscarry again, and because I was throwing up all day and all night long, I didn’t go in for any routine visits for months.

This was the first factor in why I was so late to go into labor: I didn’t know when I got pregnant, so my due date was probably off by two weeks.

I went in to urgent care to get some anti-vomiting medicine. I couldn’t take care of my two-year-old while I was throwing up all day and night.

This might have been another reason why I had a post due pregnancy: I was taking anti-vomiting medication for 3 months of the pregnancy.

Going past the due date messes with your mind. You are so sure the baby is coming and then it doesn’t come. For another week. And another week.

I was due in August. It was one of the hottest summers in Southern California. I didn’t go into labor until after Labor Day–in September. I remember crying every morning for the last week. Another morning of waking up and not being in labor. My ankles were swollen. I was huge, having gained 75 pounds. (25 pounds is the ideal weight gain.)

By September I was trying all the midwives’ tricks for naturally inducing labor: taking raspberry tea, castor oil, etc. but nothing worked. The midwife gave me the best advice that helped me get through the last few days: “Trust your body. Trust your baby. Trust God.” 

My mom also had some words of wisdom that helped me so much: “We never had due dates! The day you are due is the day the baby comes.”

to be continued…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thank you for joining me for the 31 Days of writing about pregnancy. I am in the last 31 days of my 5th pregnancy right now–a perfect time to reflect and share, as well as take in great advice and encouragement from you. Thank you! If you’d like to catch up on the previous posts in this series, you can click on the links below:

Day 1: Motherhood has taught me how selfish I am

Day 2: Miscarriage

Day 3: A little bit of humor