The "False Alarm"

Elise's birth story begins last Sunday night.

I started having contractions that were fairly regular and that I couldn't make go away. They were between 9 and 7 minutes apart. I was able to go to sleep that night, but the contractions never did stop. By lunchtime on Monday, they were about 5 minutes apart, but still not terribly strong. However, they were annoying and I was extremely tired and I was having more blood in my discharge, so I left work early. Husband came home, too, and worked from home in order to keep watch over me.

At home, Husband and I walked around the neighborhood, I took a hot bath, I layed down for a nap. Nothing was making them stop. In fact, they were getting closer together. They just weren't as strong as I thought they should be in order to count as actual labor. My OBGYN's office said that until they were so strong that I was having trouble talking through them, I didn't need to go to the hospital. I was no where near that level of pain.

By about 7:30, however, the contractions were 3 to 4 minutes apart. Husband called the lady who taught our childbirth preparation class to ask for advice. She told us that it doesn't cost anything at our hospital to have them check you out and so we might as well go and see if my labor had started.

We told Foster Son that I had to go to the doctor-- he had been to several of my OBGYN appointments, so that statement didn't alarm him and he's too young to realize that regular doctors don't usually make appointments for 8:00 at night. So we all got in the car and went to the hospital.

When they checked me out, I hadn't dialated or effaced any more at all since my last doctor's appointment. I was definitely having contractions, and we could watch them occuring via the monitor that they hooked around my belly. But they weren't effective enough to open up my cervix. I was so disappointed. A day and a half's worth of annoying contractions did NOTHING to my body?!? The hospital sent me home.

I was really sad about it. Mostly because I couldn't imagine having to go to work the next day and try to focus on my job while my belly was squeezing itself silly every few minutes. I had no idea when the contractions would stop.

Turns out I DIDN'T have to go to work the next day because my water broke in the middle of the night that same night...