Week 38 appointment

The waiting continues. This week my mom decided to stay a few days longer. I had to work, but it was nice to come home for lunch and just hang out. She got to experience first hand the waiting game. It goes a little something like this.

Good contraction. Wait 10 minutes. Good Contraction. Wait 10 minutes. Good Contraction.

This continues for up to 2 hours every day, since December 27th. The time between contractions varies from 15 minutes down to 6 minutes. When they get below 10 minutes I start to get excited and go collect our things. And every time they stop shortly after that. When they start I will walk around the house, try to clean something, or be active because I read and have been told that if they stop when you get up and move, they are false contractions. Well they continue each time like I said for up to 2 hours.

My appointment on Tuesday was interesting. I am definitely tired from lack of sleep these days. Usually sleep a solid 3 hours as soon as my head hits the pillow, then the remainder of the night is spent on trips to the bathroom and tossing and turning. So my emotions already running high from the hormones, are now on overdrive with the lack of sleep. So my doctor comes into the room and in her very upbeat voice asks "How are we doing?". I couldn't even muster a single word... I just started crying. Totally taking her and Jim by surprise! And there I sat crying and trying to explain that I am just "done". My doctor was extremely understanding and was able to list off all the reasons it is normal for me to be feeling this way. Showing progress in labor for my measurements, good contractions each day that get closer together, the false alarm on Sunday morning (trip to hospital thinking my water may have broke), fat ankles, swollen hands, and my lower back constantly throbbing. Yes I love being pregnant! ha ha!

After she confirmed that I was 3 cm dialated, 50-60% effaced, and -1 station... she said she believes the the nurse on Sunday was crazy for saying that I only dialated to a 1. She can only assume I was in the middle of a contraction when she checked. She listened to baby's heartbeat and said it was very strong at 140bpm. She believes baby may have turned, which could explain the change in lower back pain and wanted to be sure that the head was still engaged, so we literally ran to the ultrasound room to check. Baby's head was just very far down. Which is just fine... She ended by offering to schedule me to be induced on Wed Jan 13th if baby doesn't come on its own before that. She said baby was doing very well and is definitely ready. So we went ahead and booked it. YAY! I left still very pregnant, but breathing a little easier and some anxiety lifted. Of course, baby may come on its own before that, but I won't mind!

But the fun continues. On Wednesday at work I had contractions 7 minutes apart during a 1pm meeting. I got up and stood in the back of the room as they continued. They continued. After the meeting I walked out to the farthest production line with our co-op student and went up and down the line showing him where all the log settings were on the machine. Contractions continued. So I called Jim and said, be ready if I call and then ended with, this phone call will likely make them stop so that is why I gave a warning. Jim just laughed. By 3:30pm they were the same. So I decided to head home and see what would happen. At some point on the walk from my office or on the drive home they stopped. Awesome! So this has been the fun for the last 2 weeks.

I have heard from a few moms that they experienced this same thing and they immediately tell me how frustrating it is, which does make me feel SO much better. Sometimes I feel like I am going crazy! I know it will happen when it is supposed to, but it is just a little more stressful this time around since we have to figure out who can be responsible for Josh when it all happens. We have 3 different options that change as the days pass and are dependant on who is available, so we will be covered, we just need to take it one day at a time.