1st Time Pregnancy - Baby come early or late??

lilchino4af

My first came just shy of 42 weeks. I was told by my midwife that it's not uncommon for first time moms to go almost 42 weeks with their first, especially since the calculations are based off the start of your last menstrual cycle, and typically conceive 2 weeks after that. I went in for a 41-week stress test which is standard for anyone still pregnant after 40 weeks, and afterwards they checked me and I was admitted that afternoon at 7cm! I'd felt contractions but they were still irregular and didn't hurt at all - I could talk/walk/do errands with no interruptions from them. I didn't hit 10cm until midday the next day and she didn't come until almost 6pm (42 hours after the contractions started!). I had planned to labor at home as long as possible but obviously that didn't work and because of the "liquid diet" they put you on in the hospitals I was so tired and weak that the pain was so much worse when it got to that point I finally caved and got an epidural. The bright side was that it let me sleep for 2 hours while my body finished doing its thing and she was born shortly after. I will definitely be trying to labor at home this go around, provided I don't have a repeat of a latecomer!