The Epic Labor Saga Continues. . .

I feel like a walking time bomb. This morning, I started having contractions again. They were about 15 minutes apart and were much more intense than most of yesterday's, although nothing near as intense as the ones I experienced for a few hours last night. My doctor's office opens at 9, so at 9 I called and left a message explaining what had gone on last night and saying that the on-call doctor last night had said that I needed to come in this morning for a checkup. About two hours later, my favorite nurse (Diabetes Lady) calls back and gives me the standard lecture that I need to wait until my contractions are 5-7 minutes apart for an hour before I come in. Blah blah blah. I'm like, Yes, I know that, that is not why I'm calling. I explain the whole thing again and finally she's like, Oh yes, you need to come in right now.

So I take a shower and we haul it to the doctor's office. Even though we were just there yesterday. My contractions continue every 15 mins. or so. We get to the doctor's office and they hook me up to a monitor. At which point my contractions of course stop. At which point I get extremely frustrated because this happened when I was 36 weeks and they didn't believe I was having contractions (although when they checked my cervix, I was 1.5 cm dilated). In my head, I thought I must be hallucinating the contractions.

Even though they weren't recording any contractions, the doctor came to check my cervix again. I was expecting nothing, since the contractions appeared to be imaginary. So I about fell on the floor when she said I was about 5 cm. Apparently I have been in labor for the past 3 days. It just keeps kind of slowing down for long periods of time. Fun. At this point, I was expecting her to just send me on to the hospital, because when I came in, they told me that if I was 4 or more, I would be automatically sent over.

Well, not so easy in my case. Since my contractions had mysteriously vanished, she said I had 3 options. Option #1: I could go on to the hospital and they could give me some medication (I'm assuming Pitocin) to "augment" my labor and get things going again. Option #2: She gave me some sleeping pills, told me to go home and get some good sleep (since I haven't slept in 2 nights due to contractions) and then they could induce first thing tomorrow morning. Option #3: I go home and just see what happens. Right now, I am sticking with #3 as I would really like to not be induced, but I'm freaking out a bit about being at 5 cm. As much as I don't want to be that woman who is in labor forever, I also don't want to be that woman who shows up at the hospital with a baby already coming out (or doesn't even make it to the hospital - yikes!!!) at which point it is too late for anything to numb the pain. . .so for now it is still up in the air. Option #2 is looking more and more appealing the more freaked out I get.

I did feel slightly better about my own ability to judge what is going on when I had a contraction about a minute after they unhooked me from the stupid machine. Just to verify that I was not crazy, I told the doctor I thought I was having one and she felt my stomach and said I definitely was. Of course I would immediately after they took me off the monitor. . .

Anyway. . .we are asking everyone to please pray that this little girl just comes on her own very soon! We are really hoping the contractions will just start back on their own sometime today. The doctor did say that if they get to be 6-8 mins. apart again for a while, I definitely need to come on in this time. Apparently I should have gone in last night. Oh well.