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| Nina Lynn |
Buckle in, this is going to be a long one.
The Thursday before my due date (8/4) I was having back pains and very mild contractions, mainly Braxton Hicks. So I texted my boss and told her I would work from home that day just in case. I had a really busy day at the office on Wednesday, so I was just attributing the pain to that, thinking I had overworked my body. Thursday passed and I felt fairly relaxed all day, even managing to watch my 5 month old nephew for an hour or so while his mom went to a doctor's appointment. By the end of the day, I was back on the birthing ball, hoping something would start!
Friday morning around 3:30am I woke up with contractions every 7-10 minutes. They were painful, but totally manageable and I breathed through them until about 6:30am when I finally got out of bed to go to the bathroom. I had been slowly losing my mucus plug for days and when I wiped, I saw bright blood. I may have jumped the gun a bit, but I was nervous, so I called the doctor and he asked me to come into the hospital to just get checked. Jesse had gone to work around 5:15am, but I asked him to keep his phone on him at all times just in case. When I called he kept saying, did your water break? But are you sure? I wasn't sure, but the doctor said to come in, and I wanted to be better safe than sorry. When we left for the hospital, the contractions were 6 minutes apart. By the time the doctor checked me, they were 10 minutes apart and I was still only 50% effaced and not dilated. And thus began my 3 day prodromal labor.
Prodromal labor is a labor with real contractions that can happen as close as 2 minutes apart, but the intensity of the contractions isn't enough to where your body can dilate quickly and on its own. Therefore, at one point I had contractions every 2 minutes, but was only 1.5 centimeters dilated with no end in sight.
They sent us home from the hospital and Jesse got me Dunkin' Donuts to cheer me up. The worst part was being sent home. I had called my mom and told her what happened, she had gotten excited, and I had to squash it. The rest of Friday I just tried to relax, but contractions would still happen every 7-10 minutes so it was almost impossible. Jesse and I laid around and took a long walk trying to start something, hoping my water would break. We went to bed around 11pm and I was thinking, this is my life now. Contractions every 10 minutes and nothing to show for it.
I woke up Saturday morning at 1:30am. The contractions were definitely stronger and were now 5 minutes apart. I waited it out. I did not want to be sent home again. Finally around 3:30 I called the hospital in massive pain. They were so strong and so close together, 4 and a half minutes. The doctor asked me to come in (a different doctor than the day before). I woke Jesse up, he loaded us in the car as he had done the day before, and we got to the hospital. By the time I undressed and they checked me, they had slowed way down. Maybe every 7 minutes. I was so disappointed. I had dilated to 1.5 centimeters though, but by this point I had been in labor for basically 24 hours, running on no sleep.
We hung out in a labor and delivery room until around 8am and the doctor gave me two options. Go home and try to rest or start pitocin and see if it works. I wanted to avoid pitocin like the plague, so we opted to go home.
Saturday we slept (me until around 12 and Jesse until about 2) and my mom brought us dinner. She knew how disappointed we were and how exhausting it had been. I was STILL having contractions. Every 5-7 minutes, but I did NOT want to go back to the hospital. Finally around 9:30pm, I had enough.The contractions were hitting 2-3 minutes apart. I was terrified. They were painful and my sister-in-law kept texting me to go to the hospital. I told her no, this isn't it. She insisted and I called the doctor. I remember telling the doctor though tears, I can't be discharged again. She assured me I wouldn't be.
We managed to make it to the hospital though I'm not sure how. I could barely walk and was in a lot of pain. They wheeled me to Triage and I remember the nurse saying, you won't be with me for long! You're going to have this baby soon! I told her no, it's prodromal labor. Don't get my hopes up.
Sure enough, I was still only 1.5 centimeters dilated. But they admitted me and gave me a super cool medication that allowed me to zonk out for around an hour and a half. My body was so tired. I had been contracting for 48 hours on almost no sleep. Around 5am the doctor flipped the lights on and told me her plan.
To be continued!
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