On Wednesday afternoon I started to get regular contractions coming 4-6 minutes apart. Some oh them were pretty strong, while others were more of a “medium”. The ladies at work found out and began pressuring me to go to the hospital. I was resistant, because I’d been through this before – regular, though reasonably mild contractions for an hour and then they stopped dead. But since the midwife had mentioned that she didn’t think I’d make it through the week at Monday’s appointment and I was feeling so crummy, around 3:00 I caved to peer-pressure and called my doctor’s office. My favorite midwife was in the office and suggested I come in to get checked by her before going to the hospital. I left my own office practically with fanfare – nearly everybody currently in the office showed up in the hallway to see me off. Considering at this point, I was nearly expecting to be sent home, I was completely embarrassed.
At her office, they were so sweet, squeezing me in quickly while my friend, Fran, from the office waited in the inner waiting room. Mr. Fuss started the trek southward from his job. (We work on opposite ends of the county and the doctor and hospital are down south by my office.) The midwife checked me and announced no change from my Monday 3cm, 80% effaced, but she felt one of my harder contractions and suggested that I go on to the hospital to get on the monitors for awhile and see what happens. She sounded promising, though saying that if I could hold off until 8am to deliver, she was on call then and she’d be my “catcher”.
To summarize, I spent about 2 hours on the monitors, but didn’t progress as far as dilation goes. However, I must insist that during my time there, I actually began to feel as if I were, in fact, in labor. The pain got pretty intense. My whole body started to react and I could barely move without wincing in pain. The baby was holding up beautifully. I had an impressive 7 minute contraction (the nurses were amazed and equally surprised that that alone didn’t move me along) and did the breathing through it, but was really much more ready to start crying. The frequency of the contractions went more sporadic on me, however, and regardless of the discomfort I was in, they sent me home.
By this time, my mother had shown up and we ended up catching my step-father as he commuted home past my office city and we all went to dinner. (I had only felt up for a very light lunch and was pretty hungry by this time.) I continued to have intense contractions while at the restaurant, though they were sporadic (10 minutes, 3 minutes, 8 minutes, 12 minutes).
I was told at the hospital that I needed more fluids and some rest to relax. Both my mom and Mr. Fuss suggested that I take the next 2 days off of work, even though I had originally planned to work until Friday and only take Monday before the induction. My supervisors at work were very understanding and so, here I am at home. Thursday I felt crummy, somewhat drained and not interested the least bit in food. I got out of the house with my friend K and her 2 boys to walk the mall and by the end of the day (around 4) I was having contractions every 20 minutes for hours. I went to bed at 11, wondering if this meant imminent labor through the night, but alas, they seemed to have stopped or faded. I woke up to 3-5 contractions 5 minutes apart, but they, too seemed to stop pretty quickly. After a morning of feeling blah, I took a nap around 10:20, to be awakened by the phone less than an hour later. However, suddenly I was feeling pretty good and was able to make plans to meet K at Babies R Us for a quick shopping spurt using some coupons that would soon expire. Then I met Mr. Fuss for a mid-afternoon coffee break and headed home. It was a very successful day.
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