Continuing? Nope…

Today ended up being disappointing and making me very sad. But then Amber and I had a nice dinner out and some good play time outside, so I’m okay. I love my girl.

Recap:
1:11am – woken up by period type and strength cramping.
~1:35 am – pain mostly subsides
by 2:40am – woken again as cramping shifts to mild contraction!

somewhere in there I was so hot I was sweating. I went to turn on the air conditioning, and the thermostat said it was only 73 degrees. What?! Confused, I went back to bed and simply ditched my blanket.

Woken 3 more times between 2:40 and 5:30 am for contractions. Also had pain in my arms from my elbows to my wrists for a while, my hand tingling a couple times, hunger once, and just general uncomfortableness in my neck which prevented returning to sleep 3 of those 4 times. Finally doubling my pillow over and a little water, and I was able to get back to sleep comfortably enough. Woke again in 6-o-clock hour and my stomach was SO hungry and loudly rumbling I finally decided to go eat breakfast instead of trying for more sleep.

I prep a text to Elizabeth, my birth coach, saying “4 contractions from 2:40 to 5:30 am. Today’s the day we go to the hospital!”, and finish packing both my and Amber’s over night bags while I wait until I’m sure she’s awake to send it. I end up laying down, feeling a little tired again, and end up falling asleep shortly before 7. I wake up just before 8am. I calculate about 6 hours of total sleep for the night.

Excited, I prep Amber for the day’s unknowns and get Amber ready for daycare, get us packed into the car, make a dr’s appoint for Amber for the stomach pains she’s been complaining about for the last 4 or 5 days (no other symptoms, she says it gets better after eating), after dropping her off I make a few just-in-case-it’s-today/tonight phone calls to make sure tentative plans are in place, then head to work. Amongst all that I notice the contractions are weaker and not very common. I think there were 2 or 3 in 15 minutes somewhere about 9:20 am.

I get into work to wrap up the last of the loose ends (I started yesterday near the end of the day given the odd sensations and then intensity of pain I was feeling) and warn people that if they need anything from me to ask TODAY as I’m having contractions. I have two more over the 1.5 hours I’m there, including another bout of hot flash and sweats.

Then I head out to take Amber to the dr. Thankfully no UTI. No other source of pain found, but the dr said it’s possibly the GI bug she had 3 weeks ago has left inflammation settled low in her intestine and that acid from her stomach is irritating it. Back to daycare with Amber.

Tired, I decided to go home for a nap before heading back to work. It’s about 5 min to 1pm. I note I haven’t had any contractions since at work. Sleep for about 15 min, then another 45. Still no more contractions. Wake up, head back to work.

No more contractions or symptoms the rest of the day. I’m sad that progress towards labor stopped. I focus on work instead. On the way to get Amber I call off the contingency plans, then cry. :( I REALLY wanted to be going into labor.

I was so excited for it to be starting. I tried to not plan too much knowing that sporadic contractions are not the onset of labor, and I kept my verbal interactions mostly along those lines. But I was so looking forward – despite the pain – to this experience. And I am SO over the painful jabs, kicks, and headbutts. This whole pregnancy Aurora has been stronger than Amber was, and much more all over my abdomen. For months Aurora would even “kick” out both the left and right side at the same time! I assume she was stretching lengthwise.

I’m ready for my baby to be outside. Amber’s started asking too when Aurora is going to be born. Since the baby dropped, I’ve thankfully not had to deal with the amazingly painful punches to what I finally realized is my left round ligament (or ovary) and not kidney. And she don’t cause that hard to describe as-if-it-was-rubbed-raw feeling at the base of my rib case (which the OBGYN said was due to my sternum bending to make room!). But instead now I get the occasional sharp “YOU HAVE TO PEE NOW” pain when my bladder is head-butted then immediately stops, or occasionally another pain that’s hard to describe and always starts out feeling reminiscent of a contraction but never spreads and ends in like 3 seconds so I quickly realize is the baby’s head rooting around in my pelvis. UGH. Get this kid out of me!

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