Yesterday, day past due date, I started having strong, frequent contrx at about 9:00 am. They grew to be about a minute long, about 3 minutes apart by 12:30/1:00 in the afternoon. Thought for sure it was it. This is my third birth, and babies before were, 5 cm and zero station prior to labor and 4-5 cm with a bulging bag one full week before labor. I thought we had it piece of cake this time. However, we've sporadically been doing self-checks at home, and while my cervix seemed nice and thin, dilation only seemed 2 cm or so, maybe even less. I was hoping we were doing the checks wrong. 
So about 2:00 or so yesterday, we decided to have midwife stop by (having a homebirth) to listen to hearttones since baby (understandably) isn't moving at all. Asked her to check (his heartbeat was fine), and I was about 75% effaced and only 2-3 cm. 
Contractions, while she was here for 1/2 hour or so, fizzled out a lot. Got to only once every 1/2 hour to hour by like 4:00 pm or so. By night, they picked back up again, especially since midnight. Now they are more like every 5-6 minutes apart. I was trying to sleep, but lying flat was hell. I was half asleep moaning and clutching the wall behind me trying to rest. Of course, my husband and kids are sleeping through all this. 
Lucky them. Before bed, maybe 10/10:30 last night, my husband checked me while I was in the tub, and he said he couldn't find the back of the cervix anymore, so maybe I was up to about 4 or so. Cervix still facing posterior though. Just. So. Tired. And stuck.
I didn't expect this one to take so long. My first labor was 32 hours, but I wasn't fully in active labor when the hospital moved things along and broke my water. My second labor was 3 hours. No joke. At home, water broke (like I said, a week prior I was 4-5 cm with a bulging bag), and half hour later contrx started about 2-3 minutes apart. Hit transition within an hour. He was 11.2 pounds, and 23.25 inches. This one won't be far behind.
These contractions are exhausting. There is only "off" and "on." I am either fully relaxed or they turn on like a light switch. They flip on and feel like someone is taking a blow torch to my pelvis. There's not much upward slide, feels like right on to the pain immediately. I like the slow progressing ones, the ones where you feel like you're riding a roller coaster up, up, up to the pain. This is just ON. Grrrrrr..... If I have to do this for days.....
And to add to the stress, I called in family, particularly my mom, who is single and has mortgage and bills. She had to call into work (she's a nurse). She has personal days, but not a lot of them. They gave her the weekend off so she could enjoy the baby, but I feel like I've let them down. She would never say so, but I know she's bummed. My sister came in from out of town with her baby, and my other sister called into work. But alas no baby. And my husband, who was strectching it taking time off work anyways, ended up staying home because we thought it was it. Now we have nothing to show and a burned up day. And I am just so tired and feel so defeated. This isn't the first time my cervix opened for a baby. Why won't it just get the job done already?
So about 2:00 or so yesterday, we decided to have midwife stop by (having a homebirth) to listen to hearttones since baby (understandably) isn't moving at all. Asked her to check (his heartbeat was fine), and I was about 75% effaced and only 2-3 cm. Contractions, while she was here for 1/2 hour or so, fizzled out a lot. Got to only once every 1/2 hour to hour by like 4:00 pm or so. By night, they picked back up again, especially since midnight. Now they are more like every 5-6 minutes apart. I was trying to sleep, but lying flat was hell. I was half asleep moaning and clutching the wall behind me trying to rest. Of course, my husband and kids are sleeping through all this. Lucky them. Before bed, maybe 10/10:30 last night, my husband checked me while I was in the tub, and he said he couldn't find the back of the cervix anymore, so maybe I was up to about 4 or so. Cervix still facing posterior though. Just. So. Tired. And stuck.I didn't expect this one to take so long. My first labor was 32 hours, but I wasn't fully in active labor when the hospital moved things along and broke my water. My second labor was 3 hours. No joke. At home, water broke (like I said, a week prior I was 4-5 cm with a bulging bag), and half hour later contrx started about 2-3 minutes apart. Hit transition within an hour. He was 11.2 pounds, and 23.25 inches. This one won't be far behind.
These contractions are exhausting. There is only "off" and "on." I am either fully relaxed or they turn on like a light switch. They flip on and feel like someone is taking a blow torch to my pelvis. There's not much upward slide, feels like right on to the pain immediately. I like the slow progressing ones, the ones where you feel like you're riding a roller coaster up, up, up to the pain. This is just ON. Grrrrrr..... If I have to do this for days.....
And to add to the stress, I called in family, particularly my mom, who is single and has mortgage and bills. She had to call into work (she's a nurse). She has personal days, but not a lot of them. They gave her the weekend off so she could enjoy the baby, but I feel like I've let them down. She would never say so, but I know she's bummed. My sister came in from out of town with her baby, and my other sister called into work. But alas no baby. And my husband, who was strectching it taking time off work anyways, ended up staying home because we thought it was it. Now we have nothing to show and a burned up day. And I am just so tired and feel so defeated. This isn't the first time my cervix opened for a baby. Why won't it just get the job done already?
