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?