Prodromal

It's been a while. We've been in a whirlwind of baby prep. We got all new furniture for our living room and had to move hubs out of his office and turn it into a suitable nursery. Our parents were amazing, helping us set things, move things out, paint, and buy furniture. I never imagined we would have such a wonderful setup to bring our little fella home to!

In addition to all the moving and setting up, I have been working and trying to get ready for the holidays, which has been hard to focus on with my one track mind lately. This past weekend, we were finally completely set up minus the car seat which my parents decided to take care of. My dad took it upon himself as "grandpa" to research and pick out the car seat in a very serious manner; something we just put in his hands.

I've been having a lot of braxton hicks contractions. They were rarely painful, just annoying mostly, but they were almost daily. My doctor assured me that even in regular intervals, they were normal and not to worry. Monday I had a regular appointment after work and I had scheduled an appointment for my grandmother that day too to save an extra trip. My mom came with me to help get us both where we needed to be on time.

Monday morning I felt bad and left work half an hour after I got there. I was having contractions, but they were intense and I had a hard time standing through them. I waited for my appointment, but on the half hour drive there the contractions got much worse. I managed to make it to the office in tears and lots of pain. My doc checked me quickly, announced I was only a fingertip dilated, but extremely soft and obviously having regular contractions. He sent me to be monitored at L&D with a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions since I was only 35 weeks. They stopped by the time hubs got to the hospital and we decided to take advantage of the lull on the way home to grab some last minute things at the store.

On the way home the contractions hit me like a truck once again and became very strong and regular at three minutes apart and lasting a minute. We waited three hours with lots of water and rest, but ice was moving in and we decided it would be safer to head on back to the hospital. Again I was hooked up to monitors and given terbutaline to stop the contractions, but this time it didn't work. I was given a second dose, but my heart rate wouldn't regulate enough for a third dose. They decided to try fluids and pain meds instead, which finally lowered the intensity although they were coming every minute or so and lasting 40 seconds. They decided since I wasn't dilated, that I could go on home and just wait it out. I was warned that the contractions probably would not stop until delivery, but that until I reached 37 weeks, there was nothing anyone would do anymore to stop or speed them up.

I have been at home since. I am on my fourth day of prodromal labor, although my contractions are not the typical type with irregular patterns. I go through bouts of 5-8 hours with extremely intense and painful contractions that always last two to three minutes apart and a minute long. I rest or sleep in the few hours without contractions, but my body is very sore and tired already and I almost always wake up from a new stretch of contractions starting. Last night things changed. The baby is very very low now and there is tons of pressure and pain in my back and pelvis. The contractions feel different now too. There is a lot more pain with them, but they feel like they are actually doing something. I haven't had any timeable contractions today though. I feel like once they start up in a regular pattern again, we will have a baby. I don't want to wish him here too early, but the pain and stress on my body is really starting to take its toll. It's worth every single moment though. For now, we just wait and pray.