So it's the 1 year anniversary of part of when I realized that I was actually going to have a baby soon... It sounds odd, but the whole experience was, in fact, very odd to me. Nothing was as I'd expected, although it's not surprising as I doubt birth really ever is, particularly your first.
Sorry for it being so long, it turned out to be a 3.5 day labor so there are lots of details.
I now have a love/hate relationship with the concept of prodromal labors...
It all started Friday night (the 12th) after the midwife appointment where she checked my cervix and I was 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced, but DD was really low, at 0 station. So I was a little disappointed, as I’d been having so many pretty uncomfortable BH contractions that I’d hoped that maybe I’d be a little further along.
Anyway, that night around 9pm I started having more intense contractions every hour, on the hour all night, enough to keep me awake during them. So that, needless to say, ended up making for a very long night. The contractions fizzled Saturday morning, so DH and I went and ran some errands and continued life as we knew it.
Then Saturday night at around 8pm, I started having those same darn contractions every 15 minutes until around 7am… These were uncomfortable enough that I ended up bouncing on an exercise ball for some of the night to make them feel better and trying to get back into bed and sleep in between… That didn’t work well, and I basically only dozed all night, never really sleeping for the second night in a row. At this point I was getting soooo tired and a bit frustrated that I couldn’t call the midwives and just get this baby out!!!
So on to Sunday… The contractions slowed and got less intense during the day, but I was getting so tired that they just made me frustrated and got harder to deal with because of that. Nothing happened again, until later that evening.
Then the contractions started up at 15 minutes apart again, like my body just started up again where it left off the night before
, and gradually got a tiny bit more fequent over the night. I ended up spending the entire night sitting on an exercise ball next to our bed, and in between contractions I’d lay the top half of me over the bed and doze off until the next one came. I just covered up with a blanket, and spent the night on the ball!!
Anyway, they finally got to about 5 minutes apart, but only for maybe 45 minutes or so, and then spread out again and around 8am basically were random again and not so intense. I was so disappointed b/c I wasn’t supposed to call the midwives until they were 5 minutes apart for at least 1 hour, then they’d “evaluate” me over the phone for whether I should go to the hospital or not.
Monday (the 15th) we had a 430pm midwife appt to get a non-stress test for the baby (my due date was May 6th!!!). We got through the non-stress test and she did fine, and then the midwife came in. I had previously only had one cervical check that previous Friday and was all about minimizing the number I got, but I was so tired and discouraged that I basically begged her to do one.
So she did...
She just looked at us and told us I was 5cm dialated, 80% effaced and the baby was at +1 station… She told us that we need to get to the hospital as soon as possible if we wanted to have the baby there instead of in the car!!! (I would have loved to go home, but it wasn't possible in our current situation).
DH said we’d stop on the way and pick up some clothes for the stay and she was all concerned that if we took too long, we wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time.
So on to the hospital!!! I called the grandparents and our friends (to take care of the pets) to tell them that we were going to the hospital while DH drove, which was a little odd and not what I'd pictured. I had to leave a goofy message on the grandparent's answering machine, to the effect of, “Hi, I’m in labor and just wanted to tell you that we’re going to the hospital. La-dee-da.”
We get up to triage in the hospital, and at this point I’m not even having contractions at all regularly, if at all, so I just stroll on into triage and tell the nurses that the midwives told me to come to the hospital, that I was in labor….… They thought we were nuts.
We sat there for two hours waiting to get into a birthing suite, mainly because the triage nurses didn’t want to admit us b/c they didn’t believe I was actually in labor. Finally the midwife took them aside and informed them that it wasn’t necessary to check my cervix again (they were giving us the "hospital policy" crap about how I MUST get a cervical check prior ot being admitted... The midwife was AWESOME!!), and that I was in fact in labor and that we were having this baby tonight.
So 730pm, we finally get into a room, and start the process!
My contractions were starting again for the night, but weren’t regular at all, or very close, so we had the midwife rupture my membranes to try to get things moving (keep in mind I hadn't slept in 3 days). DD was so low though that I wasn’t even leaking amniotic fluid at all, she was down in my pelvis like a cork.
I got in the tub while we waited for things to pick up, and eventually they did, and the contractions EVENTUALLY got to about 5 minutes apart maybe around 1030pm. I was fearing that I was starting on the beginning of an incredibly long labor since the contractions were just like the ones I'd been having the three nights previous, and they weren't very frequent. But luckily, things went relatively fast, and by around 130ish I was pushing, even though the contractions had only gotten to at most 3 minutes apart, and I was still carrying on bits of conversation in between. I think I only had about a half an hour worth of contractions at 3 minutes apart... Apparently that was transition for me...
had my last of 3 cervical checks and I was in fact complete, so the midwife just said, whenever you feel the urge to push, go for it!
My contractions slowed waaaaay down when it came time to push, so during the hour I was “pushing,” I only had around 6 contractions. I have to admit the pushing and delivery was the only part I was afraid of, so those first first pushes during the first 3-4 contractions were sort of half-hearted, b/c although I wanted it over with, I was really afraid of actually doing this part.
Around the 4th contraction she’d gotten low enough and I was soooo tired that finally I just pushed and tried not to think about what I was doing. I think it was then that I finally felt that urge to push, not just a mental decision to push, IYKWIM. So basically two contractions worth of pushes and DD was born at 220am, Tuesday May 16th, 10 days past her due date.
It was dark in the room and all we had was music we'd brought from home, and some white Christmas lights the midwife brought and the mood was soooo awesome. oh, except for during one of my contractions that I pushed during, that remix of the Elvis song, "A Little Less Conversation (a little more action)" came on... We didn't even know we had that song... Anyway, it was pretty funny, and so I started busting out laughing as I'm trying to birth a baby.
Right before she was born the midwife asked DH if he wanted to catch her, which he thought about, but didn’t want to leave me, which I REALLY appreciated, b/c I couldn’t have gotten through it without him next to me. He did cut the cord though, and then DD was on my chest right away. I was stunned really and so glad it was over and she was out and healthy. She had the cutest little cry, that was so nice to hear. She nursed within about a half hour which was super cool.
Everything else was sort of not super interesting… placentas are kind of interesting, smaller than I’d thought it’d be considering it fed a baby for 9+ months. Had a 2nd degree tear down yonder so that got stitched up real quick and then we were off on the baby trip!!
I was amazed at how baby-friendly the hospital here could be with the midwives there helping buffer you from the "policy". After the birth one of us had her the whole time, we co-slept and left early, although one nurse wasn't too happy to see us leave after 36 hours! I didn't want to be there anymore since I wasn't sick, and it didn't make any sense to be in a hospital if you're not sick, YKWIM?
Anyway, I'm not sure if next time I'll have so much prodromal labor, but I sort of hope that I do, as it was a very pleasant and low-key labor since it lasted so long. However, DH and I realized that we probably should educate ourselves on homebirthing b/c if we hadn't scheduled the appt with the midwives that particular day, I never would have known that I was so dialated (next baby I'll just learn to check myself), and I would never have called the midwives b/c my contractions never fit the "rule" even in transition!!! I would have had her at home, which wouldn't be bad, except we would have been completely unprepared. The thought of how close we were to an unplanned homebirth makes me nervous. Neither of us would have known what to do!!! Education is key here, and next time we will be much better informed.
Thanks for reading along!!!! Sorry it was so long!!!
Sorry for it being so long, it turned out to be a 3.5 day labor so there are lots of details.
I now have a love/hate relationship with the concept of prodromal labors...It all started Friday night (the 12th) after the midwife appointment where she checked my cervix and I was 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced, but DD was really low, at 0 station. So I was a little disappointed, as I’d been having so many pretty uncomfortable BH contractions that I’d hoped that maybe I’d be a little further along.
Anyway, that night around 9pm I started having more intense contractions every hour, on the hour all night, enough to keep me awake during them. So that, needless to say, ended up making for a very long night. The contractions fizzled Saturday morning, so DH and I went and ran some errands and continued life as we knew it.
Then Saturday night at around 8pm, I started having those same darn contractions every 15 minutes until around 7am… These were uncomfortable enough that I ended up bouncing on an exercise ball for some of the night to make them feel better and trying to get back into bed and sleep in between… That didn’t work well, and I basically only dozed all night, never really sleeping for the second night in a row. At this point I was getting soooo tired and a bit frustrated that I couldn’t call the midwives and just get this baby out!!!
So on to Sunday… The contractions slowed and got less intense during the day, but I was getting so tired that they just made me frustrated and got harder to deal with because of that. Nothing happened again, until later that evening.
Then the contractions started up at 15 minutes apart again, like my body just started up again where it left off the night before
, and gradually got a tiny bit more fequent over the night. I ended up spending the entire night sitting on an exercise ball next to our bed, and in between contractions I’d lay the top half of me over the bed and doze off until the next one came. I just covered up with a blanket, and spent the night on the ball!! Anyway, they finally got to about 5 minutes apart, but only for maybe 45 minutes or so, and then spread out again and around 8am basically were random again and not so intense. I was so disappointed b/c I wasn’t supposed to call the midwives until they were 5 minutes apart for at least 1 hour, then they’d “evaluate” me over the phone for whether I should go to the hospital or not.
Monday (the 15th) we had a 430pm midwife appt to get a non-stress test for the baby (my due date was May 6th!!!). We got through the non-stress test and she did fine, and then the midwife came in. I had previously only had one cervical check that previous Friday and was all about minimizing the number I got, but I was so tired and discouraged that I basically begged her to do one.
So she did...
She just looked at us and told us I was 5cm dialated, 80% effaced and the baby was at +1 station… She told us that we need to get to the hospital as soon as possible if we wanted to have the baby there instead of in the car!!! (I would have loved to go home, but it wasn't possible in our current situation).
DH said we’d stop on the way and pick up some clothes for the stay and she was all concerned that if we took too long, we wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time.
So on to the hospital!!! I called the grandparents and our friends (to take care of the pets) to tell them that we were going to the hospital while DH drove, which was a little odd and not what I'd pictured. I had to leave a goofy message on the grandparent's answering machine, to the effect of, “Hi, I’m in labor and just wanted to tell you that we’re going to the hospital. La-dee-da.”
We get up to triage in the hospital, and at this point I’m not even having contractions at all regularly, if at all, so I just stroll on into triage and tell the nurses that the midwives told me to come to the hospital, that I was in labor….
… They thought we were nuts. We sat there for two hours waiting to get into a birthing suite, mainly because the triage nurses didn’t want to admit us b/c they didn’t believe I was actually in labor. Finally the midwife took them aside and informed them that it wasn’t necessary to check my cervix again (they were giving us the "hospital policy" crap about how I MUST get a cervical check prior ot being admitted... The midwife was AWESOME!!), and that I was in fact in labor and that we were having this baby tonight.
So 730pm, we finally get into a room, and start the process!My contractions were starting again for the night, but weren’t regular at all, or very close, so we had the midwife rupture my membranes to try to get things moving (keep in mind I hadn't slept in 3 days). DD was so low though that I wasn’t even leaking amniotic fluid at all, she was down in my pelvis like a cork.
I got in the tub while we waited for things to pick up, and eventually they did, and the contractions EVENTUALLY got to about 5 minutes apart maybe around 1030pm. I was fearing that I was starting on the beginning of an incredibly long labor since the contractions were just like the ones I'd been having the three nights previous, and they weren't very frequent. But luckily, things went relatively fast, and by around 130ish I was pushing, even though the contractions had only gotten to at most 3 minutes apart, and I was still carrying on bits of conversation in between. I think I only had about a half an hour worth of contractions at 3 minutes apart... Apparently that was transition for me...
had my last of 3 cervical checks and I was in fact complete, so the midwife just said, whenever you feel the urge to push, go for it!My contractions slowed waaaaay down when it came time to push, so during the hour I was “pushing,” I only had around 6 contractions. I have to admit the pushing and delivery was the only part I was afraid of, so those first first pushes during the first 3-4 contractions were sort of half-hearted, b/c although I wanted it over with, I was really afraid of actually doing this part.
Around the 4th contraction she’d gotten low enough and I was soooo tired that finally I just pushed and tried not to think about what I was doing. I think it was then that I finally felt that urge to push, not just a mental decision to push, IYKWIM. So basically two contractions worth of pushes and DD was born at 220am, Tuesday May 16th, 10 days past her due date.
It was dark in the room and all we had was music we'd brought from home, and some white Christmas lights the midwife brought and the mood was soooo awesome. oh, except for during one of my contractions that I pushed during, that remix of the Elvis song, "A Little Less Conversation (a little more action)" came on... We didn't even know we had that song... Anyway, it was pretty funny, and so I started busting out laughing as I'm trying to birth a baby.
Right before she was born the midwife asked DH if he wanted to catch her, which he thought about, but didn’t want to leave me, which I REALLY appreciated, b/c I couldn’t have gotten through it without him next to me. He did cut the cord though, and then DD was on my chest right away. I was stunned really and so glad it was over and she was out and healthy. She had the cutest little cry, that was so nice to hear. She nursed within about a half hour which was super cool.
Everything else was sort of not super interesting… placentas are kind of interesting, smaller than I’d thought it’d be considering it fed a baby for 9+ months. Had a 2nd degree tear down yonder so that got stitched up real quick and then we were off on the baby trip!!
I was amazed at how baby-friendly the hospital here could be with the midwives there helping buffer you from the "policy". After the birth one of us had her the whole time, we co-slept and left early, although one nurse wasn't too happy to see us leave after 36 hours! I didn't want to be there anymore since I wasn't sick, and it didn't make any sense to be in a hospital if you're not sick, YKWIM?
Anyway, I'm not sure if next time I'll have so much prodromal labor, but I sort of hope that I do, as it was a very pleasant and low-key labor since it lasted so long. However, DH and I realized that we probably should educate ourselves on homebirthing b/c if we hadn't scheduled the appt with the midwives that particular day, I never would have known that I was so dialated (next baby I'll just learn to check myself), and I would never have called the midwives b/c my contractions never fit the "rule" even in transition!!! I would have had her at home, which wouldn't be bad, except we would have been completely unprepared. The thought of how close we were to an unplanned homebirth makes me nervous. Neither of us would have known what to do!!! Education is key here, and next time we will be much better informed.
Thanks for reading along!!!! Sorry it was so long!!!
: I had the prodromal labor too, but it petered around for weeks. Fun, fun. I'll take it though I guess because it's the way my body labors and I can't complain about a 2 hour active labor. 
:
I would guess that I would have experienced some prodromal labor if the pg had gone to my due date though because I was already 3cm and 80%.
If I have to take the extremely annoying prodromal labor to get labors that are quick once active labor kicks in, I'll take it. 
