I miss being with family this Christmas, but it's a very good thing we stayed home. And I'm glad I got to be at home for Christmas and not in the hospital.
On Monday, the weather was so nice, I took John outside for some fresh air. While we were playing outside, I started noticing I was having contractions. I figured they were just Braxton Hicks because they were pretty mild. But then they started coming at regular intervals, so I started timing them. They were coming every 5 to 7 minutes so I got nervous and took John home. I tried everything the nurses had told me to do to stop contractions if they started: pee, drink water, put your feet up, eat something, relax. It wasn't working and they were getting stronger so I called my OB to see what they wanted me to do.
They worked me into their schedule with the on call Physician's Assistant. She said I was dilated to a 1 and 25% effaced. Next, they hooked me up for an NST to make sure Baby Brandon was doing ok and to see how often I was contracting. After about 20 minutes or so I was still having contractions every 3 to 7 minutes but Brandon wasn't under any stress so they admitted me to Labor and Delivery for observation.
Since I'm only a little over 35 weeks pregnant, the nurse had to get special permission to check my cervix again. If I was progressing, they would decide if I needed medical intervention to stop the contractions or if Brandon would have to be born early, so I just hung out for another hour or so. The contractions had started around 11 and by now it was 4 in the afternoon. The nurse came back around 4:30 to check me and since I was still at a 1, they sent me home with instructions to come back if things got worse.
So I went home and laid down and luckily, around 6:30, the contractions finally stopped. Whew. I've had some more contractions since, but they've been irregular so I'm trying to just take it easy and keep the contractions at bay. I'm so glad they sent me home so I didn't have to spend Christmas in the hospital, or worse, in the NICU.
On a side note, it's interesting how different these contractions feel than when I was in labor with John. With John, my water broke but I wasn't having contractions so they started me on Pitocin. Those contractions felt like an electric shock to my belly. The contractions on Monday were totally different. I could feel my belly get hard as a rock and physically move down. Then there would be a ton on pressure on my hips and pubic bone and cervix. And (probably TMI) at the end of the contraction, it felt like I really had to go #2. I never had any of those sensations with John, which may be why I never progressed and dilated. So this night and day difference gives me hope that maybe my body will do what it's supposed to do this time and I might be able to do a VBAC.
