Annnnnd it happened anyways...

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I had posted about possibly getting pregnant a little while ago, and asked whether I should wait until school was over or not. With the help of the insightful comments here, my husband and I ultimately decided to completely wait until school was done. I was really happy with that decision...but I just found out I'm pregnant! Of course that's how it would happen. :roflmao: I had a miscarriage last year that I thought was horrible, but it ended up being what was 'right' at that time, so I'm just going with the assumption that the universe knows what it's doing, and things are happening this way for a reason.

In our original plan, we would have our baby over summer, but with this little surprise, I am due March 1st, smack dab in the middle of the semester. Not ideal, but we'll see how things go! Fortunately Spring Break is in the middle of March. By the end of next semester I'll be about 7 months pregnant, so hopefully I'll know how things are progressing in my pregnancy and if I want to have my baby mid semester, or take a semester off. At the moment my plan is to have the baby mid semester because I have a GREAT support system, I'm incredibly smart (I say this in the most humble way, but it's the internet and will probably get construed differently!), and determined, but obviously that all depends on the health of me and my baby. I am a very healthy person (live the paleo lifestyle, mountain bike, lift weights, don't have a lot of stress, etc) so I'm hoping that will help!

So if there are any other pregnant ladies out there (or men with pregnant ladies), chime in so we can support each other! Of course, any advice from those who have gone through this is welcome.

Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

Be careful with your imduction plans. After 40 weeks is the only true "right time". This is for proper lung and brain development and the baby being truly ready to come out. Also, natural inductions almost never actually work unless the baby is ready and woukd have come on its own soon anyway. If you medically induce, labor will be harder on you and baby, and recovery coh ld tske longer. That and induction increases the risk for emergency c-section which would definitley increase recovery time.

Now that being said, CONGRATS! Enjoy it while you can. Just keep yoyr eye on the prizes- a brand new baby AND graduation. You can do this!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.
Be careful with your imduction plans. After 40 weeks is the only true "right time". This is for proper lung and brain development and the baby being truly ready to come out. Also, natural inductions almost never actually work unless the baby is ready and woukd have come on its own soon anyway. If you medically induce, labor will be harder on you and baby, and recovery coh ld tske longer. That and induction increases the risk for emergency c-section which would definitley increase recovery time.

Now that being said, CONGRATS! Enjoy it while you can. Just keep yoyr eye on the prizes- a brand new baby AND graduation. You can do this!

I was induced at 39 weeks with my 2nd child. (cervidil no pitocin) There were no complications, I had the baby without pain meds in less than 5 minutes of pushing.

Sounds like she wouldn't want a medical induction anyway but I just wanted to say not all go bad or are more difficult.

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You are correct GabbyRN, I would never choose to have a medical induction unless necessary! I'm glad to hear yours went so well, though, it gives me hope in case I have to have one.

mrsboots87, I definitely don't plan to naturally induce earlier than that, and again, it would only be with the blessing of my doctor. I'm well versed in how babies develop so I know it should still in as long as possible! :) And as you said, if they aren't ready it probably wouldn't work anyways, so no harm done.

Thank you, everyone!

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

It's a shame you can't count your stay in L&D and your first wk or two with the new babe as partial OB/peds clinical experience. I'm sure you are going to learn more through making this new life than I did in many of my clinical rotations. I wouldn't count on the school letting this count as clinical time, but I must say my weakest area in NCLEX was L&D/Perinatal. I bet these will be a breeze for you.

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Be careful with your imduction plans. After 40 weeks is the only true "right time". This is for proper lung and brain development and the baby being truly ready to come out. Also, natural inductions almost never actually work unless the baby is ready and woukd have come on its own soon anyway. If you medically induce, labor will be harder on you and baby, and recovery coh ld tske longer. That and induction increases the risk for emergency c-section which would definitley increase recovery time.

Now that being said, CONGRATS! Enjoy it while you can. Just keep yoyr eye on the prizes- a brand new baby AND graduation. You can do this!

Not sure if this is applicable for everyone. My doctor always induces at 39 weeks because he says an induced labor is much easier, maybe longer but not always harder. He says the baby is technically ready at 39 weeks and why wait an extra week for something to go wrong. I was induced at 39 weeks at 5am and gave birth at 4:35pm. Nothing too hard or out of the norm. Healthy baby boy! Good luck, a baby regardless when how or why is always a blessing.

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If it worked that way, suanna, I would be SO happy! ;)

futurenurse1211, I'm happy to hear about another good induction story! That's a pretty short labor as it is, especially if it was your first. My doctor doesn't induce until after 40 weeks, and even then I can go up to 42 weeks if I want to. (Which honestly, I probably would go to 42 if it were an option so that I could be closer to spring break! I'm sure I'll be taking that back later when I'm huge…)

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You guys are seriously so awesome!

zoubisoubisou: My school is not as lenient as a lot of other schools I read about on AN! My cohort is only 30 people, with our clinicals split up into three groups of 10. Because the maximum is 10 students/teacher, I cannot make up any clinical time at all because there is always 10 people in each group. This past semester we had some make-up days at the end of the semester so that students who wanted to take the CNA test would have enough hours (we only had 36 clinical hours for first semester, and you needed 40 for the CNA exam), but I don't expect it happening in the future! I plan on talking to my teachers about it as it gets closer to the start of the semester so I'll know if I have any more options. Hopefully they'll let me front-load some clinicals, but I can't see that happening. The school has to offer 'reasonable accommodations' to me, so we'll see what those are. If I were to take too much time off clinical or take medical leave, I'd be dropped from the program and I'd have to reapply. Because there is a max of 30 students, I'd have to hope that someone in the previous cohort had dropped out so that there would be a spot for me to start in the appropriate semester. (So I wouldn't have to start the whole program over, just the semester I dropped out of.) It seems pretty common for a cohort to lose 1 or 2 people, but I'd hate to have it be full and not get in again! Keep in mind that I am in the traditional program…I can't say I know anyone who has had a baby in the accelerated program, and I'm not sure if it would be possible at my school because it's 5 days/week and you definitely can't miss more than a day.

My goal is to make it to full term, then when it feels right and with the approval from my doctor, pick a week to essentially induce myself using things like herbs, essential oils, pressure points, walking, etc. Then I can 'plan' it so that I go into labor after my last class of the week so I'll have some time before my first class the next week. (We only have class/clinical three days a week.) Obviously we live in the real world and it may not happen, but I can have my hopes up for it!

LoveNeverDies: Hopefully I'll be like the first girl! ;) I agree with you, if I feel like it might be too much in any way, I'll definitely take the semester off! And yes, I'm excited to dig into some paleo pregnancy books! I've already read a couple and look forward to more.

yea IDK how that could be possible in an ABSN so...guess I better not get pregnant! haha

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Hey IffyInklings! I stumbled upon this article while following one of my favorite nurse mentors: Nurse Nacole, and I thought about you. You should check it out, It has great advice coming from someone in a NP program and pregnant all at the same time :)

Nursing Perspectives | Expecting While in Nursing School

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​As an update, since I'm sure other students will search this topic eventually -

Shortly after posting here I got way sick with hyperemesis gravidarum (look it up, nurses! It's so misunderstood!) and lost 30 pounds and got a Zofran pump (like an insulin pump into my leg). I still managed to start my second semester of school in August after a few weeks on the pump to help! I woke up once a week at 2:30am to travel 2 hours to my clinical site, worked a 10 hour clinical, then drove home, in addition to going to class which I didn't travel for. I had my Zofran pump until half way through the semester until I was 22 weeks along. I just wore it under my scrubs and all was well. Other than that, no complications with my pregnancy and I felt fantastic.

I went into labor naturally the middle of my third semester (critical care) in February and had a beautiful 6lb 9oz girl at 38 weeks after 35 hours of unmedicated labor. I took a week off of school, and then fortunately we had a huge snow storm and I got another week off of school. I had my cardiac exam the day I came back and squeaked by with an A when the average was a low B. :) I healed quickly and completed the rest of the semester no problem, and was able to pump in a pumping specific room at school and my hospital. Aside from one clinical instructor that did not understand my need (he was a male) and having to pump in an unlocked room in a drug and alcohol recovery center, all went well! She is now 16 months old and still nursing strong, so being away from her didn't have too much of an effect. Cosleeping and babywearing were my lifesaver!

To the mamas thinking about getting pregnant in nursing school - it IS doable, but only in the right circumstances. My husband stayed home with our daughter the days I was in school, but there is no way I would have put her in daycare or had someone else watch her. I would not have been focused enough in school because I would have been too worried. My clinical and lecture instructors were great and gave me ample time to pump - another deal breaker for me. No pumping would mean no school for me. I did not get leniency though on anything, not that I expected that. I turned my assignment in on time (they did open up some quizzes so I could take them early before I went into labor) and I did make up work for the clinical I missed. I luckily didn't have any complications except in the beginning over summer, but one of my classmates did have to drop out of school because she had complications with her pregnancy. It IS a reality to consider - if you had to drop out of school, would you be devastated? If so, don't get pregnant. There's no way to know what will happen!

ETA - I have now graduated, passed the NCLEX (75 questions in 40 minutes, huzzah!) and am starting a new grad program next week.

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