So, on Saturday afternoon around 2:30 I started to notice contractions. They weren’t debilitating necessarily, but they started coming about every 5 minutes for almost 2 hours, despite my efforts to drink more water than I thought possible in 1 hour and lay down, as suggested by the doctor and midwife. Also, I was suddenly freezing while laying down, a feeling foreign to me of the last 9 months, and my ear cleared up, which I haven’t noticed in a good month at least. So, I decided, with contractions still coming like clockwork, that it was time to call the doctor. He said to head on over to the hospital to get checked, and we did.
The nurse checked me when we first got there, and again after about 2 hours, and I hadn’t changed at all, not since the last doctor appointment actually. So, we were sent home. By the time I went to bed Saturday night I noticed the contractions lessen and by Sunday hardly noticed any at all.
Between having my cervix checked and laying on that hideous hospital bed for 2 hours, my back was killing me! So we went to the pool on Sunday but it just wasn’t the same as a few days before when the weightlessness left me temporarily painless as well. It did feel better, but it just wasn’t the same!
Monday was a horrible day! I hadn’t gotten much sleep Sunday night and I was just miserable all day, the pain was so severe, and it led to me crying damn near all day. The way I felt I kept thinking “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.” It was better on Tuesday and today, holding myself together better.
So today I had my 39 week appointment. I got checked and have progressed a little farther, now about 1.5 cm dilated still 70% effaced. We had some further questions about inducing, basically saying we’re still undecided what we want to do, but maybe if there are some other natural methods besides what we’ve already tried. So, doc offered to have the midwife strip my membranes. We asked about the effectiveness, and I just love how honest they are at this office! They said it’s not a guarantee, sometimes it has no effect at all, but that when it does work it’s within about 3 days. Sometimes when they strip the membranes they can break the water, in which case we’d be headed straight to the hospital. Water didn’t break on the table!
We went to dinner and then to the mall to walk around some, since that’s helpful not just for progressing towards labor, but also to relieve my arthritis pain. I’ve been noticing that things are just feeling “different.” That’s about the best I can describe it right now. My contractions seem to be reaching all the way down to my cervix, which I don’t usually feel. Usually I just feel the contractions up high in my uterus. I was having some stronger menstrual cramps, but nothing to cause “concern.” Sometimes when I feel him move now it sends strange feelings through my cervical area. I guess everything just feels disrupted. Not necessarily moving forward, but like my body’s just saying “woah, what’s going on here??”
Even sitting here now typing this, things are a little “different” but not necessarily my body doing what I hope it’s doing.
Yeah, I kinda hoped my water would break at the doctor’s office. And when not there, at dinner. And when not there, at the mall. And some of the movements make me wonder if Casey’s not trying to break the water with his teeny tiny hands.
So, a tiny little procedure that can sometimes help speed things along, we are sitting back waiting to see if it will work for me. We don’t want to go start on medication to induce labor just yet, we want to stick as close as possible to letting him come when he’s ready. Ultimately, aside from heading to the hospital for medical induction, any “natural” method, including the “Old Wive’s Tales” may not necessarily work if baby’s not ready.
I hope that any minute now I will just “know…” that it’s time to go to the hospital… I don’t even care if I lose sleep tonight now, it’d be worth it! Alas, it could take a few days to really know if it worked, and it may not work, so we do still have an appointment for a 40 week checkup next week. Towards the end of the week they will want to do an ultrasound and get ready for medical induction at 41 weeks.
Sorry if any of this seemed “all over the place.” It’s hard to get my thoughts in order when 1) I’m tired and 2) my bipolar is making my thoughts race. It’s like NASCAR up in my head, each thought it’s own “car” racing around the “racetrack” that is my mind. Haha, I like that analogy. (c)
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