D-Day
Today is my due date! Only about 2% of babies are actually born on their due date. Having set an induction date may have prompted this one to get moving… or maybe I should have gone for a 4-hour walk a week ago.
I got home yesterday around 3:00 and by 5:00 was having some pretty painful contractions about 10-12 minutes apart. I’ve been miserable since then. They wouldn’t be so bad if they’d stay in my stomach but most of them start in my back and are excruciating. It feels like when I pulled a muscle and was having lower back spasms early on in the pregnancy. I was able to sleep for a few hours but now the contractions are about 5-6 minutes apart and lying down isn’t helping anymore.
I was hoping to get through this without an epidural but after 12 hours of painful contractions, I’m not so sure. I see now why chicks with long labors get the medication. It’s sucking my will to live! If my back didn’t hurt so much I’d be fine. I guess I have a lower pain threshold there. Putting an ice pack on it seems to help though. Breathing and scented oils (jasmine and citrus) are getting me through the rest of the pain. All those yoga classes are sure paying off now!
I don’t know yet when we’ll go to the hospital. I’m thinking we’ll wait until the sun comes up and see if we can avoid having to go through the ER to get to triage. I’d prefer to wait until my doctor’s office opens so I can go there and have them check to see how far along I am. As miserable as I’ve been the past 12 hours, it’d be so much worse going through this at the hospital so I’m trying to stay home as long as possible.
Well, so much for my hopes of a quick and relatively painless labor. I knew this kid hated me. At least he/she seems to want to come out on his/her own though. I’ll try to update later whether we go to the hospital and are admitted but I may be a bit busy. Brian will have a laptop and the hospital has wifi so we’ll update at the first good opportunity. It just might not be until after the baby is born. Grandparents, don’t worry - you’ll get a phone call as soon as I’m admitted.