Taking a Breather

While I’m in great anticipation of our daughter to make her debut, these past two days have been nice. I officially started my maternity leave Monday, October 20. I’ve been able to sleep in, make breakfast, finish my thank you cards, and go to the grocery store without the mad rushing crowd of five o’clock. I also watched some favorite movies of mine and finished laundry.

I’m trying to keep myself busy to keep my mind off the reason why I’m not working in the first place. Since last Wednesday, Sheldon and I have been sittin’ on go. Wait…I didn’t post about last Wednesday. Let’s wind back the clock a little.

Wednesday, October 15
I woke up with some back pain and by 7:30 a.m., I was having contractions. Or at least what I thought were contractions. According to the book descriptions, that’s what I was having. We began timing them and they were about 10 minutes apart, but not really consistent yet. I also thought my water could possibly have sprung a leak. It wasn’t a steady flow, but I thought it was dripping.

So we call the doc. He says to come on in. We get there and all the normal pregnancy appointment procedures are done. Then the doc does a more “aggressive” check of my cervix to see how far up the baby is positioned, if my water did in fact break, and how dilated I was. Ouch! I know it had to be done, but ouch.

Once that was over, Dr. B said the baby was still quite high, my water hadn’t broken, and I was dilated to between a 2 and 3. He decided to put me on the contraction monitor to see if I was in fact having regular contractions.

The nurse concluded that Sophie was salsa dancing in my belly because once she got Sophie’s heart rate Sophie would do a little jig and escape from the monitor. It took about twenty minutes and three different positions to catch her.

The heart rate and contraction monitors were strapped to my belly for about thirty minutes. It did prove that I was having contractions, but they weren’t really strong and they were still about eight minutes apart.

Dr. B wanted to do an ultrasound to get an estimate of Sophie’s weight and measurements. I was excited to get to see her again even if it was in 2D. The ultrasound estimated that she was about 6 lbs. 11 oz., but the doc thought it may be underestimating a little. That’s still do-able for me! As long as she’s not on the brink of nine or ten pounds, I’m good.

So after all that, Dr. B told us to wait until the contractions were about four to five minutes apart and to make our way back to the hospital. He said to go eat some lunch, take a walk around town and he’d possibly see us that night.

That’s what we did. Sheldon wanted our little girl here so bad he had me eating spicy food and walking around Waco until about 7 p.m. that night. The contractions never increased in intensity and they stayed at about 7 to 8 minutes apart. When we got home that night, they abruptly stopped. Sigh…

The next day, Thursday, was our regular appointment. The doc checked my progress again, but this time not as aggressively (thank goodness). I had made progress. He said the contractions had caused me to dilate to a full 3 and I was 50% effaced. He last words were, “If I were a bettin’ man, I’d say she’ll be born before I see you again.”

Fast forward to today. It’s Tuesday, October 21, no baby. Dr. B has two more days to be right, otherwise, it’s a good thing he’s not a bettin’ man. I know Sophie will come when she’s meant to come, but I’m just so stinkin’ anxious after last week’s ordeal.

Sophie’s room is finished. All her newborn and 0-3 month clothes are washed. Blankets, burp cloths, receiving blankets, and sheets are washed. All furniture is together and in place. The guest room is ready for guests. Our dog Jack even got a new dog house so he doesn’t feel left out. We’re just waiting on our much anticipated new arrival.

I started having contractions again this afternoon. They’re about 10-15 minutes apart. We’ll see if they lead to anything or if I’m writing again tomorrow telling everyone my story about false labor and how much it stinks. Fingers crossed that it’s real!