Week 39: CONTRACTIONS!!!

contractions

is this for real?

What a week this turned out to be.  In 3 previous babies and birth stories, I had not experienced anything like this.  Turns out this baby really wanted to keep us on edge.

The week started out with Halloween Day.  As eager as I was to meet this baby, I was very thankful that first off, her birthday did not end up being Halloween, and second, that I was able to enjoy the day with the kids.  I would have been disappointed to miss out on their dressing up and enjoying the festivities.

Sophia was a doctor this year, Noah was a dinosaur, and Phoebe was a little piggy.  They were so sweet in their costumes, it wasn't hard to forget that I was very anxious for this baby to venture into the world.  We took them out to a Trunk or Treat event at their preschool, and then stopped to trick or treat down one street on our way home.  It was the first time that they did the traditional trick or treat experience, and they just kept saying, "I love Halloween.  It's all about CANDY!!"

It turned into a late night for us (big surprise), and so we put the kids to bed in a fog of exhaustion and collapse on the couch.  Not much later, we headed to bed.

Turns out, I didn't stay there long.  If I thought that night last week was a trick, this night was almost miserable.  The contractions started shortly after midnight, and weren't close, but fairly regular, about every twenty minutes.

I spent the first couple of hours trying to sleep in between.  After hours proved this was a futile effort, I got up to finish the last final things I wanted to have done if we would be leaving for the hospital before long.  I switched and folded some laundry, sent some directions to our kids caregivers, made a list of last minute things I would need to grab, threw a few final things into my suitcase.  And then sat on the couch and waited.  And waited.

For nothing.  Contractions slowed...and then stopped.  I crawled back into bed in a heap at about 5 am, for a very quick hour of sleep before it was time to get rolling for the day.

The rest of the week progressed in much the same way.  Contractions during the night, nothing but complete fatigue during the day.

I went in for my appointment that week to hear that I was about 1-2 centimeters dilated and about 50% effaced.  Not quite what I would have hoped for or expected, but progress none the less.

People kept asking me this week what the plan was for next week (meaning once I passed my due date without a baby).  I have yet to have made it to a 40 week appointment, and we hadn't talked about it at all, so I wasn't sure.  There really wasn't a plan.  I was thinking I probably should have asked, but I had just never had the need before.

And that was how week 39 went.  Until Friday.  But that's a story in itself!  :)