Leading to Labor

Sunday July 7 - Thursday July 11, 2013

After coming home on Saturday, Gus and I had some time to relax and take in all of the information about the waiting game. I was scheduled to come in for a non-stress test on Tuesday and to do a quick check of my progress. So we were just going to go with the flow for the week. My mom and sister would be coming in on Monday night just before midnight and staying until the 13th. Since Gus and I would be having visitors with us soon, we needed to prepare the house. Lauren and Mom got in at 1:00am and we all went to sleep shortly after we got back in. My mom and dad went to my appointment with me that Tuesday. All was well with the baby, except that there was no progress with me since Saturday. Oh well, so the waiting game was going to continue. 

On Wednesday morning, I woke up and I thought my waters had ruptured (but not fully broken because there wasn't a lot of fluid). I didn't know what to look for or how much indicated what, but they said if this happened to go in. So off Gus and I went to the hospital... as it turns out very few women actually have their water break before labor, and in retrospect there is no way that could have been my water rupturing. It turns out, I had started losing my plug. Another unpleasant thing that you "lose" before you go into labor. My only concern was that I had a lower volume of amniotic fluid (6cc's less than I had on Saturday based on the ultrasound I was given), but apparently that wasn't something to worry about either. Later that day we were sent home. I felt slightly stupid, and I apologized to the nurses profusely for taking up their time. They said it happens all the time with first time moms (and even with moms that have had a baby before). It was slightly reassuring! Gus ended up going into work late and staying until midnight while my mom, sister, dad and I went to the farmer's market in town, rented movies and picked up some pizza. I had light cramps all Wednesday (but didn't tell anyone so there wouldn't be any false alarms) and continued losing my plug for the rest of the day into Thursday. 

Since Wednesday was slightly draining, we all decided low-key was the best thing for Thursday. So my mom, sister and I went for a good walk with the dogs in the morning. I did some back squats in the garage in the afternoon and showed my mom a new lifting routine she could start doing. My mom rubbed my feet (to help "stimulate" labor), my dad came over, we all watched movies, my mom made dinner, and we went for another walk. My cramps were getting a bit stronger by this point but I still wasn't sure so I kept ignoring them. By the time Gus got home and we had been watching TV for awhile and I was sure they were more consistent. So Gus and I timed them discreetly for a little while before my dad left (but they were inconsistent still so we stopped). Everyone went to bed and Gus and I went to our room, it was 10pm. 

The cramps were strong and consistent by this point and I was now sure that, "this was it." Gus started timing them... we knew we weren't going to leave until at least two hours had gone by of consistent contractions. The only problem was that they were only 2 minutes apart... I kept thinking, "There's something wrong. Everything we read said it was supposed to be 5 minutes apart or 4 minutes apart to start. Why are they so close together?!" Gus encouraged me the whole time. I was kneeling on the floor grabbing a hold of the bed while the contractions were hitting. Midnight had rolled around and we were out the door. I whispered to my sister and my mom, reminding them that this thing could take a really long time. Wait until after noon I suggested, and then we were off (on the cliched drive to the hospital).