Prodromal Labor

I was officially diagnosed yesterday at my dr.'s appt with Prodromal labor. What kind of sick person has prodromal labor preterm? It's messed up. Tuesday night the Terbutaline was out of my system and the contractions started up 3 minutes apart again. That was around 3:00. They did progressively get a little bit more painful, but mostly I just got tired, really tired. At 7:45 I was at Young Women's and I was so tired I slipped out and came home. I called L&D, and they told me they didn't want me unless the contractions painful. If they're not painful, it's not "active" labor. I wanted her to try them out and tell me if they were "active" or not. So I stayed home. Around 10:00 I just wanted to fall asleep, but those darn contractions were still 3 minutes apart. Finally at 11:30 I took a sleeping pill, and fell asleep even with those strong contractions.

I was awake by 2:30 from the contractions, and tried to sleep some more through them. It didn't work. They did space out, and most weren't as strong as before, but I didn't fall asleep until 7:00 am and woke up at 8:00 am.

My cute husband was right by my side through the whole process. Asking how I was feeling and what he could do for me. He is such a stud! He even googled "How to break your water" and came back rubbing my ankles really hard to try to break my water. It doesn't work, but if you can convince your husband to do something like that, why not? He said, and I think this is so true, "Is it kind of like doing sit ups for 8 hours?" And I said, "YES!" I'm thinking after 16+ hours of contractions super close together this week, I'm probably fully trained for a marathon. But right now, I'm just tired.

I woke up yesterday a complete disaster. I cried a lot, took the best nap I could (I'm a very bad napper), and other than that did nothing else besides take care of my children's basic needs. My dr appt was at 4:15 and shortly before that the contractions started 3 minutes apart again. My poor dr had to see me cry for the first time (Which is pretty good considering it's my 5th pregnancy. I didn't even cry to him when I had a miscarriage) It was cute, he handed me a box of tissues. I told him I really, truly couldn't do another night of this. Not that I'm so anxious to have a baby, I'd love to wait another week or two, but I can't handle laboring every night for another week or two. I offered him $200 to call me 6 cm (the magic number for them to break my water while preterm) or $100 to just hit me over the head with a baseball bat. I told him those were his only choices.

He checked me and I was back to 5 cm, and had progressed to 90% effaced. I wanted to use some bad words to express my disgust in 8 hours of contractions, 3 minutes apart and only 10% more effacement from all of that!!!!!! He asked if I still wanted to go natural. "NO!" I screamed. I need an epidural now! I am way too tired to have any more labor without drugs! Maybe after I get some sleep my outlook will change, but I feel like a total of 16+ hours of labor in a week counts for natural childbirth! Although I still REALLY hate that position they make you lay in when you're on the bed. They kept trying to make me lay like that on Sunday, and I kept rebelling. I do like moving around.

Anyway, he told me he thought it was coming any day, which he usually doesn't make promises like that. But he promised that if I was pregnant next week, he would break my water. SOOOOOO, we know we have no longer than a week.

He also gave me Ambien CR which is supposed to help you stay asleep all night. I actually did. I slept through the night for the first time in months. It was fantastic.

Last night I was able to get the contractions to slow down in the evening. I don't know how I did it, maybe sheer willpower. I had no desire to have the baby in that exhausted state. But now I wait to see if some contractions pick up, or if my membranes of steel which have withstood so much this week finally give in.

I'm still a time bomb. Just waiting to go off. After all this labor and all my crying, I really just want to hold and kiss little G. Jesse, wrap him up in a blanket, nurse him, take a billion pictures of him, and dress him in the world's most fantastic premature boy wardrobe that I just so happen to own after collecting it with the last 2 premature boys I had. That's my reward for the most miserable pregnancy I've ever had.