Birth Story Part 1

All of my other hospital admissions are well documented throughout the blog, so I figured that I should probably start at the beginning and tell you all about my "false labor" experience before you get to hear about the real deal.

On Friday, October 10th, I went to my scheduled appt with Dr L at 11:15am. As always, she did an ultrasound to check the babies' heartbeats and their position. And like they had been for several weeks, both remained head down. She then checked to see how dilated I was and I had progressed from 2cm a few days earlier to a good 3cm.

After the appt, Nate and I went to the mall to do a bit of walking. I decided that I wanted a smoothie from Orange Julius because nothing else seemed remotely good. I was actually kind of sick to my stomach. As we were there waiting in line, my back started aching pretty badly, which seemed to only intensify my upset stomach. I asked Nate if he would wait in line while I made the slow walk to the car. By the time I got to the car (at the opposite end of the mall), Nate had caught up to me!! Yeah, I really didn't and couldn't walk all that fast.

Anyway, we went home and I put a heating pad on my back. By about 5pm I decided to take a nice long soak in the bath tub to relieve some of the pressure in my lower back and hips. I think I must've sat in there for at least a couple hours. By 8pm, I was really wondering if we should be going in or not. After somewhat of a lengthy discussion, we decided to head to the hospital. We got there around 9:30pm Friday night.

Upon arrival, they hooked me up to the monitors and I was contracting very regularly at 3 minutes apart. But just like during most of my pregnancy, some I felt quite strongly and some I didn't...or at least they weren't terribly painful. I guess I was experiencing so much constant pressure in my back that it was hard to really tell that there were rhythmic contractions happening! They had also checked me right when we arrived and I was still 3cm. Ugh. So we sat in the room and watched some TV for the next two hours and I was still contracting every 3 minutes. After those two hours passed they checked me again. Still 3cm. Grr.

The nurses suggested that I walk for a couple of hours to see if the contractions would pick up and become stronger. Do you know how hard it is for someone who is heavily pregnant and just got off 2 1/2 months of bedrest to walk for two hours?! But we did. I figured if all else fails, I'm going to try to jiggle them loose!! When my two hours were up (by now it was 1:30am the morning of Oct 11), Dr L had just arrived on the floor to do a delivery. So the nurses had her come in to check me. And you know what? Still 3cm.

My first thought was "you've got to be kidding me!!" I'm not sure how, but somehow I was able to laugh and I asked Dr L what time I should be checking in for my induction on Oct 18th. Because at that point I was fully convinced that these babies, who wanted to make an entrance far too soon, were not going to come out without a little medical intervention.

Since I was still contracting every 3 minutes, they gave us the option to stay for a while too see what would happen or to go home. Nate and I opted to go home. The hospital beds were too dang uncomfortable for me to stay there any longer than I needed to. I preferred the comfort of my nice soft couch....