False Labor – Take 2!

First of all I want to thank all of you who have been so supportive in your comments and posts wherever they were. I am truly Blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Around 1:30pm yesterday I started having what I thought were the same old Braxton-Hicks that 36 weekers usually get. At 10pm, after almost 9 hours of them getting a bit closer together I decided to call the Doctor and hear his recommendations. Of course that was, “I can’t tell you anything over the phone, your best bet is to go to the Hospital to be monitored to see if anything is really happening.” I knew he was going to say that.

So we packed up all our gear, all Ariella’s gear and headed to my Gramma’s house where my Mom is “babysitting” while my Uncle is in Tahiti. Yes, Tahiti – believe me, he deserves a break! I figured that if we took our time getting ready and dropping her off the contractions might stop by then and we could avoid the whole Hospital thing. I was wrong, they just kept on coming!

At 12:02am we walked into the L&D ward at Mercy and were brought into a labor room. They got me set up with a beautiful gown and checked me. I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. That kinda surprised me, but didn’t. I hadn’t been dilated at all at my last appointment Thursday, but I figured the contractions had done something to help it along. That information plus the contractions coming pretty regularly at 7 minutes plus the pain factor which was now in the equation as well made the Nurse Midwife on duty scratch her head at me and not give me food or water. Both of which I wanted.

My Nurse was given the instruction that if the contractions continued the way they were for a certain amount of time I was to get an IV at that point, as signs would be pointing more towards ‘GO’ than false labor. After an hour or so, I got an IV and immediately began to freak out. I guess I am not as prepared or ready for the C-Section as I had thought. I also almost passed out. Needles are not always my favorite things and I was running on a huge lack of sleep.Then the Nurse says to me, “This is going to feel cold” and hooks up a baggie of something to the IV. I think I was shaking for the next 30 minutes before getting myself under control. Derek stood next to me and rubbed my hand to try and warm me up, it was a miracle I didn’t shake the IV out of my arm! Or myself out of the bed!

Derek kept falling asleep in his chair and I couldn’t sleep at all. It was early in the morning, no one was awake to chat with on-line and I was contracting like crazy! Also thinking that this might be the day we have our new baby! However, when I asked if I could lay on my side, I finally got comfortable enough to be fast asleep in seconds. Next thing I knew, they were back in the room to check me again. Nothing had changed at that point and the contractions were lessening and spreading apart. Thankfully, even at 3am, we were sent home.

The end of this pregnancy is turning out to be quite the adventure! My thought is the 3rd time is the charm, so if Cambree decides to go at it again, they’ll probably take her. I was given strict orders for a few things – 1. Don’t wait so long to come into the Hospital if I have contractions again. Because I am a repeat section, they want me in and being monitored if I think something is happening again. They also told me not to bother calling my Dr either, to just go right in. 2. Don’t eat if I start having contractions. I ate a huge dinner, because I was starving, but because of the section, they want my belly empty. 3. Get help with the Toddler for the next 3 weeks so I can rest as much as possible to give Cambree some more time to cook.

Not sure what the next 3 weeks is going to bring, but I am desperately trying to get all my action plans in order with people and have them ‘on call’ for us if need be. Hopefully, the need will not be there again until Feb 10th!!!