Yup. I completely understand your "pain." I had SIX weeks of prodromal labor with both of my pregnancies...it's just plain hell. I was exhausted, frustrated, impatient. In fact, when I realized that I'd hit 36 weeks w/ds, I marched down to the garage and announced that I WAS going to have that baby TODAY and that DH had better just bring himself upstairs and make himself available, because we were GOING to have sex, and right then. Of course, then I turned just a liiiitttle bit to my left and saw our next door neighbor sitting there. He'd been chatting w/dh and was sitting just out of my sight when I was standing in the doorway...but certainly close enough to hear our one sided conversation.
I said, "Hey, john. You heard that, huh?" "He just grinned and said, "I think you guys have some work to do...I'll uh, let you go at it!" and ambled off.
It didn't work. Nor did the Evening Primrose Oil, the walking, the nipple stimulation... not till the baby was ready. And instinctively, I knew this would be the case. I am actually just about as "anti-induction" as a person can get. Prodromal labor for weeks on end can change a person, though. I'm testament to that. With dear daughter, for the last three weeks of my pregnancy (starting at three weeks into the prodromal labor, which lasted most of the afternoon and allllllll night, and stopped at about seven in the morning, just in time for dh to leave for work and the sun to come up...), I WALKED the mall...I mean power walked...every night, for five or six miles a night. I figured I'd simply walk the kid out, or at least give it a lot of oxygen in the effort!
Really, get yourself to a massage therapist if you can, then a chiropractor, and then a CST...and relax if you can, and sleep WHENEVER you can (even in fifteen or twenty minute increments). I found that the absolute worst part about prodromal labor was that I was so exhausted AFTER I had the baby because I'd had no rest for so long before they were born. I DO know of Docs and Nurse midwives in the area who will prescribe sleep aids like ambien to women with prodromal labor, to help them get SOME rest. They don't work for me, usually have completely the opposite effect. Sooo, I found that the only place I could get rest was in a very deep, warm bath. I'd have my sister come and study in the bathroom to make sure I didn't drown, and I'd draw a bath and then go comatose for an hour or so, till the water got too cold for comfort. It was the best I could do, but it kept me functioning well enough to get through labor. And, yes, both times my active stages were VERY short...maybe four hours the first time and an hour and a half the second time.
Keep your chin up. DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE CLOCK!!! You'll know hormonally when labor starts. Keep busy. Clean your toilets, wash your floor and baseboards, drink your red raspberry leaf tea (helps to make your contractions more efficient and "in sync" when they start in earnest), do all the laundry you can get your hands on, or volunteer somewhere less physically stressful, whatever, just DO something to keep your mind off of the contractions. When you CAN'T DO LIFE anymore, then call the midwife. You'll do great!
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