SO CLOSE!!!!

I know it's not Friday but I wanted to post this before I forgot the details (can't imagine I would but my mom tells me it will fade with time:-). I want to make sure that little baby knows what his/her momma went through!!! :-)

It was about 1 am on Sunday night/Monday morning and I just couldn't get comfortable in bed so I went to go sleep on the couch. My back had been bothering me throughout the day in spurts, but only the left side....very strange. I tried to get comfortable but all I could really do was sit up with pillows propped around me. I slept for about an hour and a half and then I was woken up but contractions and severe back pain (again only on the left side). Finally, I knew what real contractions felt like. I had to breathe through these suckers, big time!! For me they were a mixture of extreme gas pain and horrible menstrual cramps and of course excruciating back pain!! They were coming every ten minutes or so but seemed to be lasting more than the standard 30 - 90 seconds. I started timing them and they were lasting up to 7 minutes!!!

After an hour of dealing with this I yelled up for Matt. He came down a little disoriented but made the call to the doctor. They said to come in....even though the contractions were not 5 minutes apart yet. So, we grabbed our stuff and headed in around 4 am. First thing that the nurses said, "geez you sure are all baby....this one is gonna weigh over 8 lbs for sure!!" I hope Dr. Hamilton is right about my pelvis....this baby has gotta fit!!!! They put me on the monitor right away and noticed that I was having several contractions in a row (that's why they felt like they lasted a lifetime!!!). One big one, then a small one right after, followed by two medium ones, then another small one....then a tiny break then another big one. And, little did I know....the baby was moving during some of the contractions making them more painful than they had to be!!! I just assumed that the baby couldn't move while they were happening....wrong! LOTS OF FUN!!!

So, there we sat and waited. The contractions (the big ones) were about 5 minutes apart and consistently strong but not increasing at this point. They checked my cervix....still 2 cm and 50% effaced and the baby hadn't dropped at all. All this for nothing!!! So, I walked the halls a bit hoping to get something going....Matt was a trooper and joined me for most of the walking. There was another little baby boy in the nursery named Caleb....I thought for sure it was a sign, guess not:-(

After about an hour of walking they put me back on the monitor to see how things were going. Same as before...contractions were 5 minutes apart....less of the little guys in between thanks to the 10+ cups of water they had me drink. At this point I didn't feel like things were going to be happening quickly so Matt spoke with the nurse to see if I could go home. They checked my cervix one last time.....nothing had changed. Since I was having regular contractions I had to sign a form in order to leave. They told me to come back when the pain got worse and the contractions got closer together OR when I felt like I needed something to take the edge off.

Home we went. I spent most of the morning on all 4's with an ice pack on the left side of my back. We practiced a little of the tennis ball technique on my back that we had learned in labor and delivery - it does work well. In between the ice pack/tennis ball sessions I got about 10 - 15 minutes of sleep at a time. I was seriously thinking that there was no way that I was going to make it through this. At this point (God knew I was starting to fall apart) the contractions seemed to slow down and decrease in intensity. They were happening about every 15 minutes and weren't nearly as strong as they had been. By 4 pm they were gone....along with all the back pain I was having.

There you have it - False Labor! What I want to know is how they can call it "false" if it hurts like the real thing???!! Now that I have gotten a taste of what I can expect I am making a list of medications that I would like to try throughout the process:-) You know, getting referrals from others that have been there, done that.

Hopefully, the next post you will be reading will be written by Matt and will include pictures of our little one!!!!