Contractions but No Baby...

I wasn't sure if I wanted to blog about this because right now I'm very tired, frustrated, and anxious, and having another light contraction. But, I know it will be good for me to get it out.

Last night around 10:30 I started having very light contractions. I thought they were nothing at first, but then the longer that I had them the more regular they became, so I thought they could be the real thing. I waited for awhile and then decided to just go to bed around 12:30, thinking that the real thing will wake me up. Well, I was woken up around 2 to very strong contractions that I began timing. They were falling right at 3-4 minutes apart and were more and more uncomfortable. Of course, I have never had a baby before, so I didn't know if I should go in or not. Andy and I decided that it would be much better to go in and see then not.

We arrived at Baptist at 2:30 and I was hooked up to the contraction machine and the baby monitor. My contractions were still a steady 3-4 minutes apart on the machine, but when the nurse checked me, I was only 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. The on-call Doctor, Dr. Wyatt, made his way in and looked at the machine. He then gave me two options..."Well, I can break your water and you'll have this baby, or we can wait and see." I was pretty shocked. I had no idea he would even mention that breaking my water was an option. I turned to Andy and his immediate response was "We'll wait." (Score one for my husband for thinking clearly).

Dr. Wyatt then said he would go home and get some rest and maybe see me back in a little while. The nurse turned off our lights so we could both get some rest, which I was unable to do because of my increasing pain with the contractions. I had a lot of lower back pain and was just very tired and also very hungry since I hadn't eaten since 8:30 the night before (this was now around 3-4 a.m.). Andy fell asleep in the chair next to the bed. Finally, at 5 a.m., the nurse came in to check me again and I had not changed. She offered to let me walk around but I was just too exhausted to do much of anything. We discussed my options at that point and she said she thought I was probably in early labor and that I should probably wait for Dr. Wyatt to make his rounds in a few hours and then go from there, but she wasn't sure what time that would be since it was the weekend. She mentioned that if I had let him break my water, I would have had a baby in the next 18-24 hours, and my immediate thought was EIGHTEEN to TWENTY FOUR HOURS!? I don't want to be in labor for 18 to 24hours! So I say to the nurse, "I guess I'm just afraid I'll have to be induced."...at which point she responds, "If your cervix doesn't respond, they will start Pitocin and you'll have to be induced."

This is not in my plans at all. My doctor and I have talked about induction but only if I go over my due date, so Andy and I were again reassured that our decision to wait was best. The nurse left the room and I slept for awhile. When she came back in, I let her know that I was very hungry and feeling nauseated - by this time it had been about 10 hours since I had last eaten, which is not favorable for gestational diabetes. I was worried about my sugar as well as the baby's sugar. She checked my sugar which was getting low and said that they couldn't let me eat as long as I stayed there. She said she would check me again to see if I had made any progress and that would determine if I should stay or not.

This time, I had almost reached a 3. After she checked me, she said I had made progress and asked me what I wanted to do. I had no idea. I was so tired and uncomfortable, but I was starving and the thought of waiting for Dr. Wyatt to come back whenever he felt ready to was not very pleasing. Andy then said, "if we leave we can get you some food and you can rest at home in your bed." (Score two for my husband for being thoughtful and again, thinking clearly when I clearly was NOT). I looked at the nurse who FINALLY gave me a straight answer - "if I were your mom, I'd tell you to go home and get some rest." That was all I needed to hear from both of them to say I was ready to go home.

My last question for the nurse was "If I am already having contractions 3-4 minutes apart, how will I know when to come back?" She told me my contractions should get a lot more painful and to come when they got to that point. So, Andy and I left, went to McDonalds so I could get a sausage biscuit and some water, and then I returned home and slept from around 7 a.m. to about 1 p.m.

It was an exhausting night. As soon as we got in the car leaving the hospital I was overwhelmed with so many emotions and just burst into tears. It was probably from being overly tired, anxious, and hungry as well as a low blood sugar on top of everything, but I was just simply overwhelmed. Andy was so great at calming me down and again when I woke up around 1 p.m. and was upset again. He offered to take me to get some lunch and said we could go wherever I wanted to since I probably needed to walk some. Andy is not a big shopper, but went with me to walk around the entire Target store and then Kirklands, and then we went to Lowe's (his choice of course).

What a fabulous husband I have.

Anyway, to sum it all up, we have an appointment in the morning at 9:40 to see my Doctor, but I am so relieved that Andy helped me think clearly and make the decision not to have them break my water. Since I was only 2 cm at that point, it could have easily lead to an emergency c-section. Even though Andy and I had no idea what we were doing or why we were making that decision, I feel that God was leading us in the situation. We had no idea what breaking my water would mean at the time, but somehow something made Andy say no. Although you never know how a birth can turn out and there may eventually be some reason as to why I need a c-section at last minute, I am reassured that at least it will be for different reasons.

So today is week 39 and the day my mom picked for Emory's arrival. I guess she didn't get the date right, either. But I'm okay with that.

Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."