gahhhh

I thought I’d write a blog post about what’s going on, and dispel the rumors that are probably floating around.  This post will be full of Too Much Information and details about my bodily functions.

Yesterday I felt really good, very nesty, I did lots of cleaning and things.  I’d been having occasional contractions that felt like menstrual cramps for the past several days.

Around 5 or so the contractions started getting regular, about 10 minutes apart, lasting one minute, and they hurt quite a bit more.  This stayed consistent for a few hours.  Then the contractions started coming a bit faster, about 6-7 minutes apart.  The evening was getting more unpleasant (but exciting at the same time).  At some point I took a bath, but that didn’t help at all.  We went through our bedtime routine, and I was tired.  I tried to sleep but every 5 minutes or so I would have a contraction and it felt really painful to lie in bed.  Well actually it felt painful no matter what I did.  After an hour or so of this it was 11:00 I wanted to get up and we put in a movie.  I timed contractions and they were 4-5 minutes apart, lasting a minute each.  These kept coming and got a little closer together and a little longer.

All this time I was wondering what I should do.  Surely this was not labor!  It hurt a lot, but not as much as I was expecting.  It was more just annoying because I couldn’t sleep or really do anything that felt comfortable.  My instructions from the birth center were to call if contractions were four minutes apart, one minute long, for one hour.  By 1:00 this had been happening for a couple hours.  So I decided to call them.  Then I threw up several times, and I thought, “yeah this must be labor!”

Emily, the midwife on call, talked to me about what had been going on and said we should come in and see what happened.  So we did.  When we got there the contractions had slowed and were 7 minutes apart.  She checked me and I was only two centimeters dialated, but almost completely effaced.  So the contractions were doing something, but I was not in active labor yet -just early labor.  I got in the tub to see if anything would change.  The contractions stayed about the same but I felt much more relaxed.  At about 4:00 I was really, really tired and decided to see if I could sleep.  I was able to sleep between contractions, which, by 7:00 had slowed to ten minutes apart.  I was pretty sure things weren’t going anywhere very fast so I talked to the midwife, and she checked me, and indeed nothing had changed with my cervix.  So I decided to go back home and try to sleep some more, in my own bed.

We got home about 9:00 and slept until lunchtime (in ten-fifteen minute spurts).  Then we got up and made lunch.  I wasn’t hungry but knew I should eat something, since I’d thrown up my dinner the night before and hadn’t eaten much since.   So I ate lunch, then Samuel went to work for the afternoon.  Now I am writing this blog post, having contractions, and I just threw up my lunch.

On the bright side, it looks like this baby isn’t going to be overdue.  It will probably come in the next few days, I guess.  I just hope I can eat and sleep enough to make it through.

Wish me luck, pray for me, etc.!