It begins, but we’re not there yet

So I want to keep track of all of this in order to keep my foggy mind from losing the details as time goes by. Thursday night, Jarell and I had just gone to bed when I started having regular Braxton-Hicks type contractions. By regular, I mean they were coming every 7-8 minutes pretty steadily. Fast forward an hour and I checked in with my midwife who told me to take a warm bath, drink some water, and see what happened. Done and done, I finally got out of the tub because I was having some discomfort. Went to bed and tried to sleep, but the contractions went to bed and tried to sleep but the contractions went from feeling like Braxton-Hicks, to being a little painful, with particular discomfort in my lower back. Now I know the baby is not posterior- she was ROT at the time so why I was having back labor is beyond me, but fortunately my honey is a saint and he curled up with his skin against mine for warmth and rubbed my back every time a contraction hit. After an hour of this we gave up and I called my friend and doula to give her a heads up that something was going on. She lives about half an hour away so she decided to head our way after some indecision since things were not following normal proceedings. She’d had some labor experience like this herself however so she wanted to come out just in case. When she got here, the contractions pretty much quit except when we were walking (figures, right?) so after a couple hours we decided she should go on to work and I would call her if things changed. I rested for awhile but eventually I was feeling too nauseous to sit still and Jarell and I took a drive around to just get some air. After our drive we took a walk around our yard which brought on contractions that were almost back to back- 5 steps, pause for contraction, 5 steps, pause- you get the picture. We headed inside after a lap around the yard because they were getting to be really intense- not painful- just intense. Inside, I laid down, and had a bunch more contractions that I had to breath and moan my way through and they were stacked together in groups of 2 and 3, really close together and very erratic. Jarell decided a call to my midwife was in order so he checked in with her. She was a good ways away, but since I could still talk through them she wasn’t too worried. She headed back, cancelled appointments and I went back to trying to rest after calling my doula who also headed our direction again.

The crazy wacko contractions kept up until, you guessed it, people started arriving, at which point they tapered off again. My doula and I killed some time by watching an old Cary Grant movie (I was a Male War Bride) til my midwife arrived. When she got there, she wanted to do a cervical check, saying things just weren’t progressing like normal labor and I was all for finding out what the heck was going on since even a first time mom like myself could tell something was screwy here. Check done, we discovered I was only *maybe* 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced with the baby fully engaged- no baby coming anytime soon at that point. Since this was the case, we sent my midwife and doula on home and I was told to eat, drink plenty of fluids, and get some rest. Jarell and I went out for a nice meal and then came back home where we both passed out on the couches in our living room. I had a few more strong contractions when I awakened periodically, but beyond that I was dead to the world for about 12 hours. Today we took a short road trip to see some museums and enjoy a little time together as a couple which was a wonderful way to spend our day. I’ve had more contractions throughout the day and they are definitely not the usual Braxton-Hicks style contractions, but nothing steady or measurable. I’m sure they’re slowly doing their work, but for now labor isn’t exactly imminent. Hopefully little one decides to join us soon- Jarell doesn’t want me going anywhere alone- which leaves me a bit stuck, but grateful he’s so concerned.