Friday, April 29, 2011

early labour

on april 20th i had my 37 week appointment. i told my dr. that i had been experiencing some contraction-like cramping on and off for a few days. after we chatted about what exactly i was feeling she told me that i am in early labour. YAHOO, i thought. at the end of my appointment she said "well, i wouldn't be surprised if you don't make it to next week's appointment. so maybe i will be seeing you before then at the hospital". wow. that was exciting for me. i left there wondering if i should be going out to abbotsford like i had planned. i started to have more and more contractions that day but they were all over the place. sometimes around 5 mins apart, sometimes an hour apart. so i continued with my day like nothing was happening. i FULLY expected that within that week i would be having this baby. well....the contractions basically stopped. dang. but i still kind of thought that this might happen soon. i know that i can go overdue by 10 days before being induced so technically i might not have this baby until may 21st-ish. but i was telling myself that it won't be that long. i have become increasingly more uncomfortable. my back aches a lot along with some other annoying symptoms. BUT on with life we go. had my 38 weeks appointment 2 days ago and i am 2cm dilated. she didn't say anything about me having this baby before my next appointment so i started to realize that she isn't thinking that i am going to be early. but again, i am still telling myself that this is going to happen soon. people keep telling me that i "look ready". the doctor said that the baby is very low. i feel cramping on and off each day. these all sound like things that indicate real active labour starting soon....but what is "soon". i read in my "what to expect when you're expecting" book last night that early labour can go on for "hours, days or week"....WEEKS. it's been 2 weeks already since i started getting this cramping. PLEASE OH PLEASE BABY come SOONER rather than later. like....anytime in the next week. i really don't know how much more of this discomfort and lack of sleep i can take. i am up every 1-2 hours in the night. my hips KILL when i lie on them. my back hurts basically all the time. i am exhausted from only sleeping around 4 hours each night. i need at least some of these things to let off. i don't mind the lack of sleep on its on own. but the combination of a lot of pain at night and then the pain not really subsiding much during the day is frustrating. this could be a long month.

p.s. i KNOW that i won't be getting much sleep once the baby comes, so there is no need to make any comments about how the sleeping thing won't change once the baby is here. i have had sleeping problems for years. i know what it is like to not sleep much and i can cope with it just fine when i am not in this kind of pain. thx. :P

4 comments:

  1. wow....i sound pretty grumpy. sorry.

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  2. Hi Lael. from what you're saying, and from a friend's experience recently (she definitely had HARD contractions for 2 days and her body was so exhausted/not sleeping that her uterus started to quit when the hard labour got going)...i would like to suggest that you talk to your doc/midwife again about possibly taking pain meds or adavan (sorry, dont know the spelling, but its a sleeping pill so that you can rest even tho your body is going thru this). labouring is hard, and if you cant rest now, it might be harder for you. if REAL labour starts, you wont be able to stop it, but being rested up til then, as much as possible, might help you get thru it with a stronger mind/body.
    i hope that doesnt sound scary, i just hope you'll have a great, natural experience when it kicks into high gear!

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  3. Thanks Amanda. That's a great idea. I hadn't thought about getting meds for sleep, but that sounds pretty great right about now!

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  4. the cool thing about the body is that these last few weeks prepare you for having a newborn in the way that you keep waking up every few hours. you'll end up thinking that you're getting way more sleep then you'd thought you would once the baby comes. it's perfect.

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