Holy Week Hospital Adventure

On Thursday morning, I started to notice my stomach tightening.  The tightening was not painful, or even uncomfortable at first, just something I could tell was happening.  I went to work as planned on Thursday and started talking to people about it.  I began to get advice that was all over the place.  Most people wanted to tell me about what it was like when they had their babies.  Which, aside from taking forever, was not necessarily helpful.  Especially since no two stories are alike, and many of them had experiences where they didn't know they were in labor because they were not in pain.  So, I started to get a little nervous and excited.  Maybe this baby was going to be coming soon!  I started timing the contractions when I would feel them and on Thursday night, they seemed to be coming around every 25-30 minutes.  Still no pain or discomfort. 

Friday morning, I wake up from a very restless sleep and I am feeling a little more crampy and uncomfortable.  The contractions seem to be coming closer together than the night before, ever 10-15 minutes or so.  And I am convinced that today will be the day.  We are going to have a Good Friday baby, we can (on the advice of a friend) decorate the nursery with stations of the cross and we'll be able to go home on Easter in plenty of time to get good deals on Easter candy.  I call into work and let them know I'm not going in.  I continue to time the contractions throughout the morning, but they don't seem to be getting any closer.  However, I decide that we are going to the hospital in the afternoon to get checked out as long as they keep coming.  I wanted to go for a few reasons: 1. I wasn't sure whether or not the feelings I had were actual contractions or not; 2. I got totally freaked out by people telling me they didn't make it to the hospital in time since their contractions didn't hurt; and 3. I figured that the worst that could happen would be that they sent me home and Matt and I could get a good dinner afterwards (since we go to the doctor in a neighboring town known for good restaurants). 

So, my mind being made up, we get everything ready to go.  We load up the car and take Wilbur over to a friend's house.  I get our friend to take a photo of us as a family since it could potentially be the last one we had without the new addition. 

Don't we look happy and excited?  I know I do.  Matt is more just going along with me at this point.  He was convinced it was too early to go to the hospital.  But, he wasn't going to talk me out of it.

We arrive to the hospital and go to the maternity floor.  I refuse to bring in our bag in case it's a false alarm.  A very nice nurse gets me all hooked up to monitors and does some paperwork with me.  While I'm on the monitors, we can see when I'm having contractions (they were real!) and we laughed at how much the baby kept kicking and moving.  He would manage to kick right on the monitor (clearly he already has more coordination than me) and send the readings off the chart.  Therefore, my first concern is taken care of.  I am having real contractions, not just imagining them. 

They check me and I am... only 1.5cm.  Which is exactly what I've been for the past week and a half.  So, the nurse calls the on-call midwife, who suggests I walk around for one hour and then they re-check and see if any progress has been made.  This may surprise you, but I didn't exactly bring sneakers to the hospital expecting to be walking that much.  So, in my flip flops, I get to walking.  I met lots of nice nurses along the way.  But, because I'm in flip flops, my feet are killing me by the end of the hour.  I'm also super crampy and convinced that some progress will have occurred.  I get checked again and... "close to 2cm" the nurse says.  I am watching her as she documents, however, and she writes down 1.5cm.  At this point, I'm a little devastated.  I was so ready.  But, alas, my body wasn't. 

We get discharged, though with a perk:  a sleeping pill, and some advice.  The nurse tells me that because I'm small-framed that I'm feeling pre-labor more than most people do.  She says that I'd need to wait until the contractions were so intense I couldn't talk through them to come to the hospital.  That sounds discouraging, but I took it as good advice.  Then, Matt and I go have a good dinner and then head home.  When we get home, my parents have almost made it into town.  They were coming Friday anyways, so they hadn't come for no reason, thank goodness.  I took my sleeping pill and slept from about 10:30 to 7:00am straight.  No waking up from being uncomfortable, no waking up even to go to the restroom.  It was literally the best night of sleep I've had in months. 

I woke up Saturday feeling very refreshed.  And, I've decided that I'm going to just ignore any feelings I have until they cannot be ignored.  While I'm glad to know that I'm not totally crazy, I cannot go to the hospital and get turned away again.  It's too embarassing. 

The good news is that my parents are here and we will be able to have Easter together at home.  I'm pretty excited about Easter candy and relaxing as much as possible.