My Thursday Adventure

This picture was taken on Wednesday night. I'm 38 weeks pregnant. Look at how much my stomach sticks out now...I had no idea, the mirror just doesn't do it justice, I guess.

Well, later on Wednesday night, I only got about 2 hours of sleep before I woke up with really bad contractions. These ones really hurt. They hurt my back, my neck, my arms and my legs. I tried to ignore them for a bit - I did the dishes, watched some TV, and then I decided to break out all the information that my doctor had given to me about labor and that I got from the hospital birthing class. Everything said that I should call the doctor and head to the hospital when my contractions were 4 to 5 minutes apart, lasting at least 60 seconds, increasing in intensity, and all going on for at least an hour. So, I timed them from about 4:15 AM until 4:45 AM, and it seemed to fit the bill. But I was getting lonely, tired and cranky, so I went and woke Kevin up. He calmed me down a bit, and I laid in bed until about 5:30, when we decided it was time to get up and get going.

I tried to eat some chicken soup, and even though I kept it down, it was a challenge. We showered, packed and headed north to my parents house, which is closer to the hospital that I wanted to go to. I waited until 8:00 AM to call the doctor, because I knew that it wasn't an emergency. The nurse talked to the doctor, and told me to go to the hospital. So, in I went. They took me back to a room right away and hooked me up to the monitors, and then the contractions stopped. They just STOPPED.

So, after 20 minutes and a quick exam, they decided I was in false labor, and sent me home. The nurse said that the contractions WERE doing something to prepare for the baby to come out, just nothing measurable. Then, she said that the 4 to 5 minute rule for calling the doctor was "one size fits all," and that I might want to wait next time until I couldn't WALK, TALK or BREATHE to head to the hospital.

The worst part about it all is I feel like I got my parents' hopes up for nothing and inconvienced Kevin and the doctor and the hospital. But I was just doing what they told me to do. Everyone tells me that those feelings are nonesense, and that I wouldn't think that way if I wasn't hormonal and pregnant, so I'm trying not to be disappointed and feel bad about it. I know I'm not the first one to go to the hopsital with false labor, and I won't be the last, and better safe than sorry.

Anyway, now I'm ignoring the contractions, and I finally got some much needed rest after being up all night. I guess when I can't ignore the contractions anymore, we will re-evaluate the plan.