I'm living in a waiting game.
Every woman who's nearing 39 weeks of pregnancy is.
I know I'm not experiencing anything unique of unlike all my other pregnant/mom friends, but I just can't help but feel SO out of the loop.
I don't know my body. I don't understand it, and I don't understand most of the advice I've been told. Something that would be good to realize sooner I agree, but something I couldn't comprehend until I was actually in the state I am now... ignorance.
Take contractions. On the movies the woman's screaming at the first sign of a contraction while she's still at the restaurant/school/public place-you-don't-want-to-go-into-labour-in... but everyone including my doctor has told me it's not like that. It's uncomfortable, it's a tightening of the whole baby bump (read: uterus), it almost feels like your baby is flexing and your whole belly becomes hard. Oh and not to go to the hospital until they last 60 seconds each, are every 5 minutes, and last for 1 hour. Fair enough.
OK. If that's true, I should have gone to the hospital about 12 hours ago. Last night around 12:30am I started getting regular "contractions". My whole stomach would go hard, I would feel the pressure and tightening and then after about 60 seconds it would relax, only to be repeated less than 5 minutes later... I would nod in and out of sleep but it was constant all night, and believe me I know, because I went to pee NINE TIMES. Yes, a new record for me.
But my intuition told me not to go to the hospital, that this wasn't the "big moment" and I was right... this morning I've had these so called contractions much less regularly. I'm glad I didn't rush off to the hospital because I would probably have just sat there for hours since I'm clearly not in labour... so I should be happy I didn't take the bait. But I'm just confused and frustrated.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Stupid Braxton-Hicks, you make me doubt my body and all the advice I've been given... and you may just be doing me a favour...
Every woman who's nearing 39 weeks of pregnancy is.
I know I'm not experiencing anything unique of unlike all my other pregnant/mom friends, but I just can't help but feel SO out of the loop.
I don't know my body. I don't understand it, and I don't understand most of the advice I've been told. Something that would be good to realize sooner I agree, but something I couldn't comprehend until I was actually in the state I am now... ignorance.
Take contractions. On the movies the woman's screaming at the first sign of a contraction while she's still at the restaurant/school/public place-you-don't-want-to-go-into-labour-in... but everyone including my doctor has told me it's not like that. It's uncomfortable, it's a tightening of the whole baby bump (read: uterus), it almost feels like your baby is flexing and your whole belly becomes hard. Oh and not to go to the hospital until they last 60 seconds each, are every 5 minutes, and last for 1 hour. Fair enough.
OK. If that's true, I should have gone to the hospital about 12 hours ago. Last night around 12:30am I started getting regular "contractions". My whole stomach would go hard, I would feel the pressure and tightening and then after about 60 seconds it would relax, only to be repeated less than 5 minutes later... I would nod in and out of sleep but it was constant all night, and believe me I know, because I went to pee NINE TIMES. Yes, a new record for me.
But my intuition told me not to go to the hospital, that this wasn't the "big moment" and I was right... this morning I've had these so called contractions much less regularly. I'm glad I didn't rush off to the hospital because I would probably have just sat there for hours since I'm clearly not in labour... so I should be happy I didn't take the bait. But I'm just confused and frustrated.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Stupid Braxton-Hicks, you make me doubt my body and all the advice I've been given... and you may just be doing me a favour...
Sounds like your body is getting ready! You may even be dilating right now so that you'll have less to go when things start going for good!
ReplyDeleteWith Jude I was having contractions like that the night before. Every 5-10 mins for a couple hours. It happened at 8-10pm the night before. Then 3:30-5am (and those were noticeably more painful as in I couldn't go to sleep between them) but then they stopped and then started again at around 8am and then things started moving again. He was born at 1:44pm when they broke my water at 1:40. I pushed for 4mins and wham bam thank you Ma'am he was out!
*crossing my fingers that you'll have such an easy birth too!*
Come on, MM!!!
my mom also had her water broken at the hospital so I'm not necessarily waiting for the water to break to know I'm in labour...maybe that's why I'm so confused, because I'm counting solely on the mysterious contractions to guide the way and let me know...
ReplyDeletePlus MM's big now so when she moves it kind of resembles the feeling of a contraction too...with her bum pushing against my bellybutton... so who really knows what I'm feeling?
Praying for a labour like that too!!!
braxton hicks suck. the last stage is frustrating. I feel for you sister. :(
ReplyDelete