frustration

so, last night was had our pain management class at the hospital. i had also been there earlier for a doctor appointment and i kept telling monkey that hey, we were there, it was a good time! of course, to no avail.

the class went until after 9pm so when we got home i was pretty tired. alex went downstairs to watch the pistons/bulls game on the tivo and i got into bed and started watching some tv myself. i started to drift off, as usual around 10 or so.

then i was woken up by a contraction. i thought it was weird, but didn't think much of it, until i drifted off and it happened again. and again. and again. and i realized that these were different contractions, and clearly stronger as they were waking me up. i started paying attention to the timing and realized they were about 8 minutes or so apart. this went on until well after midnight when alex came to bed. surprised to find me awake, i let him know what was going on. the poor guy was so exhausted he was like, "ok, well let me get some sleep and we'll see what happens" which isn't exactly the reaction i expected. i realized they were coming much more frequently at this point and told him so and said, hey maybe we should be paying more attention to this... and then we realized they were 3 minutes apart. and they stayed that way for at least another half and hour. that's when he went into panic mode and i went into denial!

he called the ob's office and found out the one on call is the ONE we hadn't met yet (of course!) and that she'd call us back. 40 minutes later we were antsy. had the rest of the "last minute items" packed in the bag and were wondering what we should do. she finally called back, well after 1am (she had been in surgery -- whatever!) and told us to head on in.

the 10 minute drive to the hospital was so surreal. it seemed to take forever. and as much as i had been wanting to baby to come and come NOW i was freaking out a little bit, i'll admit.

we got into triage and they hooked me all up to everything and we realized the contractions were now less than two minutes apart. the doctor said i was 4cm, 80% effaced and -1 station. she asked if i would mind if she broke my water. i honestly wasn't sure what to say to that, but she said that they'd admit me, they'd monitor me for about another 20 minutes then we'd decide. at this point, it all seemed to be happening so fast! i felt horrible for alex who was clearly so exhausted/excited at this point. i was so sidetracked by the contractions i forgot how tired i was. we were even discussing epidurals at this point.

they moved us into a labor and delivery room. and i got all hooked up again and we waited. things were staying the same. she checked me about 2:30 and i was still the same stats. that's when she started backing off of the breaking of the water. i am 36w5d and since i wasn't a full 37 weeks they determined that they wouldn't stop me, but wouldn't help me along either.

at this point they decided i should try to get some rest. alex pulled out his little bed and i laid in the dark, breathing through the contractions that were still quite painful and regular. i considered asking about an epidural again when the doctor came back in.

well, as i got more fluids in me, the contractions started to die down somewhat. it was about 6am and they wanted me to get up and walk around to get things moving again. for 2 hours. we lapped the floor, looked at the babies in the nursery. talked to the nurses who were encouraging me on. i even started doing walking lunges down the deserted hallway, no joke.

the shift change came at 8am. the new doctor examined me. and my stats were still all the same. and then? they decided to send me home. the deemed the whole thing false labor.

i did not imagine once admitted that i'd be leaving that hospital with monkey still inside me. we got home around 9:30am disappointed, frustrated and tired.

and my contractions have basically stopped.

and the best part? we had called my mother around 5am to let her know what was happening. when i was discharged i called her to tell he and she told me she moved up her flight. she'll be here in the morning.

and that's that.