Photo from Mount Royal, Frisco, Colorado.

"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

Sunday 17 July 2011

Trip to the hospital #1

Excuse me for the foggy brain. The last 24 hours have been odd. Or maybe just not something I expected.

Actually I woke up yesterday feeling fairly normal, despite not having slept well, for uncertain reasons. I went to spinning, yoga and then on a run with SR. I had contractions on the run, as usual, but this time, over the course of the afternoon, they just didn't go away. They weren't really regular, though, or painful, but they seemed to also come on at rest, which was completely new. When they occurred more regularly: 10-12 minutes apart, SR called his mom saying what was going on. She decided to drive to Næstved from Copenhagen, thinking someone may need to watch The Lorax overnight. In the meantime, I fell asleep with The Lorax at 11pm, only to wake up one our later with more painful contractions every 7-8 minutes. I woke SR up and we sat out on the couch, timing the contractions, which suddenly came every 3 minutes on the button. I was not in any pain to speak of, but my midwife had said I shouldn't wait until I had contractions every 4 minutes, because things could happen really fast in second birth and she might not have time to get there. So I called. The 1:30 am call no midwife is extremely excited about, I imagine. She asked me "kan du godt snakke imens?" "can you talk through them [the contractions]?", I said, oh, yes, so she said I should call when they got more painful. This was okay, but I didn't really think I could sleep at this point. I sat there on the sofa with SR, his mom and The Lorax (The Lorax was now beside himself with fear of what was going on and cried if I stopped touching him). 10 minutes later, the midwife called back and told me she was scared I would surprise her and deliver quickly and that we should meet her at the hospital in a half an hour. After we made this decision, my contractions got stronger, but further apart.

We met at the hospital at 1:50. She was super nice and chipper. She did an exam and said I was only 1cm dilated and that we should go back home and try to sleep and call if/when things progressed and I couldn't stand the pain. We walked home, feeling uncertain of what was going on, and then I fell asleep for 4 hours without contractions. And now, I basically feel fine, other than the fact that I am tired. Oh, and every time I move, I get a contraction, but not a rest.

This is proof that, at least for me, a birth can be very different the second time. With The Lorax, there was simply no doubt. Now I'm sitting here wondering: will it be today or a week from now? When in doubt, go for a run. A tired run in the rain. Exactly what the midwife told me not to do: just don't go run a marathon, now, SLG. But can you blame me for feeling I want to get this over with?

12 comments:

Diana said...

I've been wondering about you this week. Sounds like your body is gearing up to have a baby.

Did your midwife tell you not to go for a run or not to run a marathon? Good for you for running in the rain. I didn't want to have anything to do with the crappy, rainy weather we've been having.

Hope you're able to get some rest!

Anonymous said...

All the best of luck from me. I will be looking forward to the next blogpost.
Hugs Helle

heather said...

Wow! This is exciting :) I'll keep my fingers crossed that you don't have to wait too much longer, and that everything goes well!

sea legs girl said...

Oh, thanks so much for the comments, Diana, Helle & Heather! Just thought I'd make the update that once I started having contractions again I made the easy decision to nap rather than run.

sea legs girl said...

Though the nap didn't last long... (I'm between contractions now, as you can see)

cherelli said...

Hey SLG, I'm excited for you - best wishes for a continuing relatively painless birth :) But I hope you get a littttle bit of sleep beforehand!

Olga said...

Hope it all goes well, and we hear from you soon!

Carrie said...

Ugh - this is what happened to me with my 2nd child. I think he was born on hospital trip #8. No joke. It was just really different the 2nd time.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

SLG,
Hope things move along nicely and quickly.
Chris

mmmonyka said...

Wow, this is exciting! Good luck.

Jacqueline said...

Good things could be happening! With my son, even though I ended up with an induction, I did have contractions like you describe for a few weeks, they would get bad, then peter out, but they were causing change. So, hopefully things will move along for you!
And I'm very interested in how your second labor goes. Mine (and most of my friend's) the second time around was like half the time of the first! It was CRAZY fast.
Good luck, and take care of yourself!

Jrahn said...

With my second baby, the same thing happened to me that happened to Jacqueline. After weeks of these types of contractions, I was induced, only to have my son deliver himself as I was taking a catnap. No lie.