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Belly Painting, Warming Up, & Under Pressure
Oh my. What a week! Let me start with Saturday. David finished painting the final wall of the baby's room (the term "baby's room" is kind of a misnomer...the room belongs to our 4 yr old, but we needed someplace to store the baby's clothes, blankets, and other accoutrement's--we are planning on sleep-sharing with the use of a co-sleeper, Amby hammock or bassinet-- basically, we wanted an excuse to decorate. We meaning me, of course. So anyway, the final wall is completed at around 3 pm Saturday. Add i feel a great lightness...an unburdening, if you will. The last big project is now off the list. We have the room done, the birthing pool is good to go, we have just about everything we wanted/felt we needed to be prepared for our birth. So now, just wait for baby, right? On our midwives advice, I hang affirmations of my trust in the birthing process and my body up around the house. Lovely little reminders about how perfectly designed my body is for birth--reminders to breathe and relax. Seeing them makes me...well, happy. So I feel happy on this Saturday afternoon. Happy, fulfilled, relaxed, prepared.
3:30 pm I am noticing some pretty strong "tightening" sensations in the ol' uterus. I start to pay a bit of attention. Wow, 10 minutes on the nose. They don't hurt, they pull and are difficult to ignore completely, but totally do-able. We decide to go to dinner with our friends. 6:00 pm Hmmm, still ten minutes apart. We have dinner, have a great evening out without our other kids. 9:00 pm Still ten minutes apart. Interesting. Regular contractions? Could this "be IT?" 10:00pm A bit of pinkish bloody show! Wow. This really could be IT. I tell my husband and our friends that "perhaps it is time for us to go." We all excitedly talk about how we are really NOT prepared for this so soon (well, i kinda felt prepared until i really thought about going through labor and birth for real) 11:00pm We get home and clean up the house, bustle about. David runs to the grocery to get my list of labor stuff (Chocolate soy milk, orange juice, lemon flavored Italian ice...you know, the basics) Midnight Still not in any kind of discomfort...just regular, tight contractions. Geez, maybe hypnobirthing really does work this well? Could i be in full blown labor and not even be experiencing any pain! This is awesome and I am now the world's biggest fan of hypnobirthing. I have heard of virtually painless births...I even know someone who had one. But I have also known people who have flat tummies, perfect teeth, and kids who sleep through the night. 1:00am Huh. Still regular. Not getting closer though. I tell David to get some sleep and if something happens, I will wake him right away. Almost before i have completed this thought, David is sound asleep. I decide that sleep would be the best thing for me, as well. I brew a cup of chamomile tea and by 2am, I am asleep. 7:00am Still having them--have them all day Sunday. Email the midwives to let them know what is going on, but also that it is no big deal yet and not to come over or anything. 6:00pm Decide to let the girls paint my belly. Just a warning, in case you have similar ambitions. Although the paint is completely non-toxic and washable, it itches really, really badly as it dries. My poor belly was all red and irritated after the photo shoot. And I was pretty cranky by that point. Monday Have them most of the day. Tuesday Still having them although I am getting super cranky at this point and my back hurts. By Tuesday night they are sometimes 3 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes apart. So at this point, I rule out labor and decide to go back to a life where I get to gestate in peace. Now, here it is Wednesday and I have some serious pressure issues going on. If I waddled before, then I looked like a super model sauntering down a catwalk compared to the penguin shuffle i am doing now. Holy low baby. I hope her head is okay. So i guess all of those regular tightenings were just helping her get those few extra inches lower. I am glad that i know what i know, and have the support i need (husband, friends, family and mostly my midwives!) If i were seeing an OB, i know that i would have gone the hospital, just to get checked. they would have hooked me up to the monitor and did an exam and proclaimed that i was not progressing quickly enough and might have started pushing for an induction. In that world, I might be holding our baby already, but at what cost? At 37.5 weeks I would have been considered full term...but perhaps our baby isn't quite ready yet and would have ended up being life-flighted to a NICU somewhere far away. As anxious as I am to meet her...I need to remember to be patient and accept that she will arrive at the perfect time. And she will decide when that is. |
Pregnancy Journals 