Sun & Shower

9cm, 100%, -2. We’re almost there!

After 35 hours of contractions the pain got unbearable, so we headed to triage at 2:30am. I was admitted, given an epidural around 4am, and pitocin around 5:30am. I’ve never been hooked up to so many machines and had so many tubes going in and out of me.

Now we’re just waiting, but at least I’m not going out of my mind in pain. My doctor will be here soon to check progress. Good thing, because the resident that has been checking on me looks like my friend, Ben, and that’s just creepy.

Both grandmas are here and excited for things to get moving!

I confirmed with my doctor this afternoon that I’ll be induced at 7 AM tomorrow.  Thank goodness! 

Still having a lot of back pain so counting down the hours until I get the drugs.  Can’t come soon enough.

Contractions got under 5 minutes apart for an hour so we went to triage about 6:30 this morning.  After all those hours of tolerating the pain, I had only gained a centimeter.  Are you kidding me?  I need to get to 10 before I can even think about pushing this bowling ball out!  How can I only be at 2?  Well, I am.  The contractions are doing something though – I’m at 90% effaced and the baby’s head is at -1 (GOOGLE IT OPIEZ).

The doctor had me walk around the maternity floor for two hours to try to get things moving.  It didn’t help.  There was no change.  I was just more tired than I already was from waking up at 3am and not being able to sleep.  They gave me the option to stay and get an epidural and wait it out but seemed to think I’d be better off at home.  They prescribed Tylenol and a heating pad for the pain. 

The contractions are tolerable when they’re only in my stomach but the majority are also in my lower back and I do not tolerate lower back pain well.  If you’ve ever seen me with a lower back injury, this is no surprise.  So it’s looking like an epidural for me, especially if I’m not going in until tomorrow morning.  That’ll be over 36 hours of consistent, painful contractions and that’s before the fun starts.

I’m going back to bed.  With the Tylenol and heating pad, I’m actually able to sleep for about an hour at a time and this will be my last chance to get some rest for months.  We could still wind up back at triage tonight but only if my water breaks – it’s the only sign of labor left.  More likely, we’ll go tomorrow and my doctor will induce me.

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.

Saw the doctor this morning and I’ve made no progress since last week.  I’m still having contractions, as confirmed by the nonstress test, but they’re apparently doing nothing to get this kid out any time soon.  My doctor wants to induce Thursday because she’s concerned about my incredibly mild asthma.  I really don’t understand her concern with it.  I’ve had no asthma problems during the pregnancy. 

At 34 weeks, the baby was already measuring 2 weeks big so my concern with waiting another week to induce is the size of the baby.  Part of my weekly nonstress test is doing an ultrasound to make sure there’s enough amniotic fluid, so as long as the technician was looking, I asked her to estimate the size of the baby.  She’s not supposed to do it without an order from the doctor but said she would give me a very rough, unofficial estimate to help me decide whether to induce this week or next week.  She says the baby is currently 10 pounds! (+/- 2 pounds)  YIKES!  No wonder this kid doesn’t want to come out – it’s being fed too well! 

Given the size of the baby, we’ve decided to induce on Thursday if the baby doesn’t come out on its own before then.  Now I’m just waiting to hear back from the doctor’s office with the details.  As much as I wanted to avoid inducing, I’m relieved there’s an end date and I can start making plans.  We can let the grandparents know ahead of time when to head into the city.  We can make plans for Guinness and not have to leave him home alone in the middle of the night.  I don’t have to worry about missing any Illini games!

Knowing that I’m not likely to go into labor any time soon, I spent the day walking around near the doctor’s office.  The great thing about the city is that I was able to walk just a block to get a much-needed pedicure, walk another half mile to Borders for an iced decaf caramel latte (YUM!) and get some light reading for the hospital, walk another half mile to the bank and another block to run an errand before the baby comes.  I thought about walking to Clarke’s for some french toast too but my back was starting to hurt from carrying around this bowling ball in my stomach.  It was nice to get out and not spend yet another day on the couch.

Not that anyone is able to predict when natural labor will begin but like every other woman before me, I’m looking for any indication I can find.  Reading through my pregnancy books, I have all of the labor signs except the big two – painful contractions and water breaking.  The most recent sign came today and from what I’ve read, it happens the day before labor.  I’ll leave the details out because like most of this pregnancy/labor stuff, it’s kinda gross.

Another sign pointing to Tuesday is the weather.  We’re expecting a storm to come through sometime tomorrow.  The barometric pressure drop supposedly inspires labor in those who are ready to go and I’m pretty sure my body is ready at this point.  I’d be really surprised if I’m not more dilated now than I was a week ago.

And the final sign pointing to Tuesday is that I see my doctor for my weekly checkup first thing in the morning.  There are things she can do to help speed up the process if necessary.  We’ll see how the checkup goes and whether I need to start talking about what day to induce.  I’d like to avoid inducing labor if possible but this kid is expected to be huge as it is.  I don’t want to go too far past my due date… which is Wednesday, by the way. 

I’m trying to not get my hopes up but it’s really hard.  I’m anxious!  I’ve been in early labor for a week now!  I’ve had enough of this sitting on the couch being bored thing.  I didn’t even watch much TV today.  I’m that bored.  Of course, every time I try to do something productive, I get wiped out and need a nap.  So I’m stuck here waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

This kid better not be late.

I woke up this morning thinking today is the day.  Now that the Illini game is over though, I’m thinking maybe not.  I’m surprised that second half didn’t send me into labor.  Geesh!  Anyway, the baby feels like it’s too high up to do anything today.  It’s weird – sometimes the baby is down in my pelvis, other times it’s up in my ribs.  Right now its butt is in my ribs and it’s quite painful. 

With the Illini game over and no indication of going into labor any time soon, I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.  I’m still bored with sitting on the couch.  I could use some obsessive-compulsive nesting instinct right about now. 

After two days of rest, I spent today cleaning and taking care of things on my To Do List.  I don’t know if the burst of energy and motivation is the fabled nesting that comes shortly before labor or if I just got bored with sitting on the couch watching TV.  I didn’t do anything crazy like scrubbing floors.  It was really just a typical Saturday doing laundry, clipping coupons and watering the plants while watching college basketball.  I guess we’ll see if I go into labor soon. 

I’m still feeling contractions here and there but nothing with a pattern.  I thought maybe the snow coming through last night would trigger something but no such luck.  Or maybe I was lucky – chances are slim now that I’ll have a Valentine baby.  Phew!  I’ve never really had much luck with this holiday so I’m happy my kid won’t have it for a birthday. 

My original guess months ago was that I would have the baby during the Illinois-Indiana game on February 15th.  So my next guess for an inconvenient time to go into labor would be sometime around 11:00 tomorrow morning.  Go Illini!

Nothing new to report.  I have signs that it’s coming soon but soon could be considered weeks in labor terms.  I’m hoping soon means just a couple more days.  There’s snow coming after midnight tonight and tomorrow is Valentine’s Day - the one day I don’t want to have the baby – so we’ll see if weather and Murphy’s Law have an effect on childbirth.