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False Labor
Sep. 11th, 2003 03:29 pmSo.... Last night, I started having occasional painful contractions at about 11:30 p.m. Real contractions, rather than Braxton-Hicks (painless) contractions. Not regular ones, though, so I decided that rather than telling Ed and getting him all excited, I'd just go to bed and wake him up when and if I needed to. Went to bed, couldn't sleep. Got up at midnight and surfed the web for a while; went back to bed at 1 a.m., thinking that I wished I'd been able to fall asleep at 11:30.
Woke up at 2 a.m. to pee. And at 3 a.m. to pee. It took me a while to fall back asleep both times, because I was still having at least occasional contractions.
Woke up at 4 a.m. and wound up lying awake until 5 because I was having serious, painful contractions about five minutes apart, and I was pretty sure that this was it. I couldn't sleep because they hurt, first of all, but also because I was making all sorts of mental calculations: should I wake up Ed? How fast would this labor go -- would I be able to wait until a halfway decent hour to call my mother to come over and take care of Molly? I had a midwife appointment at 10 a.m., should I go in, or cancel it? Also, I'd discovered when I went downstairs for a midnight snack that we were out of milk, and I spent a good part of that hour obsessing over the fact that I was hungry and would need to eat something, but I really didn't feel like eggs.
(Adding to my anxiety, I should note, was the speed of my labor with Molly. When I had Molly, I first noticed some menstrual-cramp-like contractions at about 6:30 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., I knew for sure that I was in labor. We went to the hospital when I decided that if we waited any longer I wouldn't want to get into a car, and checked in just past midnight. Molly was born at 3:51 a.m. So I could potentially be working on a tight schedule, especially considering that my mother needs to drive over from St. Paul. I'd really rather deliver at the hospital, rather than pulled over to the side of Hiawatha Avenue.)
At 5 a.m. the contractions petered out and I fell asleep.
At 6 a.m. Molly got up to pee and woke up both me and Ed because she wanted to be escorted. Ed did the honors. When he came back to bed I told him not to leave for work without checking with me.
At 7 a.m. Ed got up, which woke me again. At 8:30 a.m. he came up to see if I was okay or if I needed him to stick around. I was quite sure that contractions had stopped and told him to go ahead to work. Molly got up while I was in the bathroom, so that was it, I was up for the day. The midwife appointment was at 10 a.m. anyway.
I was, of course, totally exhausted. Thank God I never had false labor when I was pregnant with Molly; between the hives that would go away only after delivery, and the fact that I was already horribly sleep-deprived, I think having my hopes raised and then crushed by false labor would have sent me completely over the edge.
The midwife listened sympathetically to my tale of woe and then checked my cervix, which is now 2 cm dilated (it was 1 cm last week) and 50% effaced (thinned out). I'd have viewed this as much better news if I hadn't spent most of the night thinking I was going into labor for REAL.
Fortunately, my mother was able to come back over for a while this afternoon; she took Molly to the park, and I took a nap.
At this point, I'm hoping that I will NOT go into labor tonight, because I'm already exhausted. I'd really rather wait until Friday night or maybe Saturday. Especially since there's this great rummage sale held at a private school in my neighborhood, tomorrow and Saturday; last year I bought Molly a complete winter wardrobe for about $12 and I was really hoping to be able to do that this year as well.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Ed ran out to the convenience store before leaving for work and bought two gallons of milk, so I did get cereal for breakfast (and coffee!) after all. I love him. (Oh, and because of this, he forgot his briefcase -- which meant that for the first time in two months, he DIDN'T have his umbrella with him! Poor guy...)
Edited AGAIN to add to THAT: This was a bummer, because it rained here today. For the first time since early July.
Woke up at 2 a.m. to pee. And at 3 a.m. to pee. It took me a while to fall back asleep both times, because I was still having at least occasional contractions.
Woke up at 4 a.m. and wound up lying awake until 5 because I was having serious, painful contractions about five minutes apart, and I was pretty sure that this was it. I couldn't sleep because they hurt, first of all, but also because I was making all sorts of mental calculations: should I wake up Ed? How fast would this labor go -- would I be able to wait until a halfway decent hour to call my mother to come over and take care of Molly? I had a midwife appointment at 10 a.m., should I go in, or cancel it? Also, I'd discovered when I went downstairs for a midnight snack that we were out of milk, and I spent a good part of that hour obsessing over the fact that I was hungry and would need to eat something, but I really didn't feel like eggs.
(Adding to my anxiety, I should note, was the speed of my labor with Molly. When I had Molly, I first noticed some menstrual-cramp-like contractions at about 6:30 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., I knew for sure that I was in labor. We went to the hospital when I decided that if we waited any longer I wouldn't want to get into a car, and checked in just past midnight. Molly was born at 3:51 a.m. So I could potentially be working on a tight schedule, especially considering that my mother needs to drive over from St. Paul. I'd really rather deliver at the hospital, rather than pulled over to the side of Hiawatha Avenue.)
At 5 a.m. the contractions petered out and I fell asleep.
At 6 a.m. Molly got up to pee and woke up both me and Ed because she wanted to be escorted. Ed did the honors. When he came back to bed I told him not to leave for work without checking with me.
At 7 a.m. Ed got up, which woke me again. At 8:30 a.m. he came up to see if I was okay or if I needed him to stick around. I was quite sure that contractions had stopped and told him to go ahead to work. Molly got up while I was in the bathroom, so that was it, I was up for the day. The midwife appointment was at 10 a.m. anyway.
I was, of course, totally exhausted. Thank God I never had false labor when I was pregnant with Molly; between the hives that would go away only after delivery, and the fact that I was already horribly sleep-deprived, I think having my hopes raised and then crushed by false labor would have sent me completely over the edge.
The midwife listened sympathetically to my tale of woe and then checked my cervix, which is now 2 cm dilated (it was 1 cm last week) and 50% effaced (thinned out). I'd have viewed this as much better news if I hadn't spent most of the night thinking I was going into labor for REAL.
Fortunately, my mother was able to come back over for a while this afternoon; she took Molly to the park, and I took a nap.
At this point, I'm hoping that I will NOT go into labor tonight, because I'm already exhausted. I'd really rather wait until Friday night or maybe Saturday. Especially since there's this great rummage sale held at a private school in my neighborhood, tomorrow and Saturday; last year I bought Molly a complete winter wardrobe for about $12 and I was really hoping to be able to do that this year as well.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Ed ran out to the convenience store before leaving for work and bought two gallons of milk, so I did get cereal for breakfast (and coffee!) after all. I love him. (Oh, and because of this, he forgot his briefcase -- which meant that for the first time in two months, he DIDN'T have his umbrella with him! Poor guy...)
Edited AGAIN to add to THAT: This was a bummer, because it rained here today. For the first time since early July.
