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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

False alarm...aaarrgh!

Monday night we had a bit of a false alarm...frustrating! I woke up at 1:45 AM with a big contraction. Not that unusual, it happens from time to time. I settled back in to try to sleep, when I got another one. "Hmm," I thought, "that was odd. I don't usually get them so close together." Then, another one. "Maybe I should check the clock?"

Another one, 5 minutes later.

Another one, 5 minutes later.

Now I'm wide awake.

They went on like this for 2-1/2 hours, going from 5 minutes apart (Holy crap, is this IT?) to 8 minutes apart (wait, maybe it's not) to 6 minutes apart (wait, maybe it IS). G was a champ, getting out the kitchen timer for more accurate recording of each contraction time and duration, finding "The Birth Partner," our favorite book for how to get through labor and childbirth, and finally, insisting that we take the book's suggestion to only time & record 6 contractions, then wait for a while and start again when the mother notices a change in the contractions.

All I can say is, thank dog for Tivo, because we definitely needed something to take our minds off of what was happening. We watched "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and by the time that was over, the contractions had slowed down and lessened in intensity.

Final verdict: not IT.

Time awake: 1:45 AM to 4:30 AM.

Emotional state: Exhausted, frustrated, disappointed, and afraid that it will go on like this for weeks.

The good news is two-fold though. 1) While this episode did not result in the birth of our baby, I know that my body is working up towards the main event, and hopefully my next doc appointment tomorrow will confirm that more progress has been made. 2) I got a good 9 hours of sleep last night, interrupted only very briefly by my three bathroom trips, after which I fell asleep promptly each time. So I'm feeling refreshed and also remembering that no matter how frustrating it is to think you're in labor and then turn out not to be, it WILL happen in a matter of hours, days or weeks. Which in the grand scheme of things is barely a blink of an eye.

2 comments:

Furrow said...

Wow! It's amazing how our bodies do this practice stuff. I've had nothing like what you experienced, but it can't be far off. I guess you can expect more of these episodes, unless the next one is IT! How exciting! And exhausting....

Furrow said...

You are tooooooo quiet! Did something happen? I hope you're well.