Labor and Delivery - Part 3

Joseph is being a little bugger again today! It all started yesterday with a whole lot of pressure whoa momma. The nesting was in full force - the house is CLEAN -the car is CLEAN - groceries are stocked...then at about 9:00 last night I started - um - cleaning myself out. So I had about an hour devoted to the bathroom and finally got to sleep around midnight.

I woke up at 2:30 AM with AWFUL contractions. I started timing them and they got to about 5 minutes apart, went down and took a shower, came back up and they stepped up to 3-4 minutes apart and lasting 30-50 seconds even after sucking down two 32 oz jugs of water so I called the on call OB at around 4:30 and she told me to come in. So I called my mom - woke up Jackson and packed a bag for him and headed in. This time I got to skip the triage unit and went straight to a delivery room. Where they showed my contractions spiking - and Joe's heartrate would jump along with them. The problem was - no dilation...the first nurse checked and said that I was still too posterior and she couldn't reach with her little fingers. I was able to get up and walk around which was lovely and contractions were still coming regularly (and painfully I might add).

They had a nursing change at 7:00 AM so we did another exam - and she said that, despite the painful contractions, I was still only at 2 centimeters and - for some reason - they have my due date down as the 16th not the 12th so I was only 37.5 weeks according to their charts even though I was 38 on Saturday and wouldn't do anything but send me home and hope I dilate on my own. The worst is that the nurses kept reiterating that I wasn't supposed to go in unless the contractions were getting more and more intense (um - HELLO - they were - that's why I came in!!!) I was crying at that point knowing there was nothing I could do about the pain but that Joe was just being stubborn.

Mom took us home and Jackson wanted to stay with me instead of going home with Nana. Stopping to say that he was a complete angel the entire time at the hospital, he played quietly with his toys and rubbed my back - even wished on a star before we left the house that he would see his baby brother today. I am so incredibly blessed to have such a sweet little boy. He didn't even complain that I woke him up at 5:00 AM. By the time we got home it was nearly 9:00 and I was exhausted emotionally and physically so Jack and I laid down and napped for a couple of hours.

I'm sitting here now drinking some Red Raspberry tea - had some lunch and Jack and I are going to spend the rest of the day walking to all the parks in town and trying to get Joe to move himself down. I'm still having contractions...this stinks. I know he will come on his own time but man, he's giving us a run for our money at this point. Ugh. Prayers that he either starts cooperating or at least calms down enough to let me rest and go about my day would be nice.

Thanks for all of the well wishes. It feels so good to know that Joe's arrival is being prayed over by so many people. Let's just hope he comes soon and lets us love on him for real. Thank you friends!