Well, we spent about 3 hours in the labor/delivery ward on Friday night! The evening started out innocently with a trip to Hy-vee for a quick salad and grocery shopping. As we perused the aisles, I started having braxton hicks contractions and somewhat brushed them off because i've been having them so often lately. We made it to the cereal aisle (about 5 aisles in) when I started to notice a lot of pressure in my lower back and hips and I was having a hard time standing up straight. Since I was having a hard time deciding on what kind of cereal I wanted (craving cinnamon toast crunch but knowing I should really choose a less sugary one) I used this time to lean on the cart and let the contractions pass. Strangely though, these seemed to last longer and intensify unlike the ones I had been feeling before. My stomach felt like a basketball and something just felt different this time. There was no gush of water (remember we're rookies at this) so we continued our shopping. I practiced my lamaze breathing as we checked off items on the grocery list and we made our way home. About an hour had passed at this point and things weren't letting up, even though I had changed positions multiple times and drank 2 huge glasses of water.
Deb thought it was time to call the Dr. so I did and they instructed us to head to the emergency room to get checked into labor and delivery. We corraled the dogs in the basement and headed to the hospital (Deb looking incredibly excited and me feeling very uncertain about this actually happening tonight). Deb dropped me off at the entrance of the emergency room and I informed the receptionist of who I was and why I was there. She took me to get admitted and kept informing the woman working that I was here to deliver. I corrected her each time saying that I was not here to DELIVER, but rather to just be checked because of these silly braxton hicks contractions. In no time, we were wheeled up to the 5th floor and I was strapped to a monitor.
All the while I must mention that Deb's face is like a kid on christmas morning and I'm silent wondering how this really could be happening now and not as a result of next Friday's appointment when they were planning on getting things started. I was clearly not ready or at least my brain wasn't.
We stayed on the monitor for about 2 hours with braxton hicks contractions as well as some real ones. Each time the nurse would say oh these just look like warm-ups, another stronger and longer one would come on and she would say, oh I think we'll keep watching these. At one point the little monitor jumped up high in numbers and Deb was excitedly reading these aloud to me so I would know when the contraction would start fizzeling out. As it got higher and higher, I very nonchalantly commented that "Don't you think that's kind of a problem" and we both cracked up laughing. I learned a valuable lesson here......laughing is not a good idea while contracting.
During the time we were on the monitor the baby's heart beat was lower than what the nurse wanted so I was given apple juice to get the little critter moving about. She thought the baby might have been sleeping which is amazing to me because it feel like someone was snapping a large rubber band on my stomach and how anyone could sleep through that is amazing. The apple juice worked about 30 minutes later and the little one was rolling side to side and throwing punchs left and right.
After a 2nd check in a certain region with no major progress and contractions that were slowing down and much smaller, we were able to go home. We did find out though that we had made progress from our last Dr's appt where there was nothing happening in that region and on this night we were 50% effaced and my cervix is thinning out. Wahoo!!
So, this experience was definitely a little eye opening for us. I think we were under the impression that the baby was just going to come on our due date or as a result of something the Dr. would do. What we learned is that there is no set time and whether we are ready or not, it might just come!! We returned home that night (the braxton hicks contractions stopped around 2:30am) and made sure the dishes were done, including a few bottles and on Saturday we did loads of laundry, vaccumed and made sure the dogs were stocked up on food and treats. :-)
All we can say at this point is....................bring on the baby!!
Cheers,
Mic
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