Thirty-Three Weeks

In the middle of the night on Monday, I woke up with the menstrual-cramping-throbbing pain (which I think are contractions) again. They started around 1-2 AM and progressed throughout the night until 4-5 AM. I dozed on/off and refused to get up and call the dr. I just really needed sleep as I’ve been so tired lately. Also, I thought if I was going through pre-term labor, I wasn’t ready for the baby yet and was trying to will him back. I did get up a couple of times to check if there was any fluid dripping, but there wasn’t — so I figured it wasn’t an emergency. I told myself if it was still going on in the morning, I’d call the dr.

When I got up, the throbbing had subsided and was intermittent. I felt the belly and it seemed hard. We had learned in childbirth class that if the belly was as hard as your forehead, chances are, it’s labor. I decided to get ready for work and by the time we left the house, the throbbing had stopped. When I got to work, I called the dr’s office and spoke to the nurse who said they can’t assess anything unless I call while it’s happening. She asked if I was dehydrated, and I told her I didn’t think so because I was going to pee every hour and the urine was clear. She told me to just make sure I drink plenty of water.

Last night, I didn’t get to drink a lot of water when I got home from work because we ran errands and got home late. When we did, I promptly lay down and drank three glasses of water. But then my belly got hard and tight. It wasn’t the menstrual throbbing, just a lot of tightening, which are Braxton Hicks. It just felt very uncomfortable like my belly was going to burst. I couldn’t tell if it was from being dehydrated or drinking too much too fast?

Otherwise, I think I’m a little more tired than last week, which is probably a combo of the pregnancy and allergies. I’ve started going through nesting stages, such as washing a bunch of baby onesies and putting them away in the baby’s room. I started to take out my post-pregnancy clothes and putting them in a pile in my room. I have noted all the projects I had planned to finish before the baby arrives, like knitting him some socks, and have come to accept that maybe it won’t happen.

I feel like the baby is progressing nicely. He moves a whole lot, especially at night. I recently read that if he’s active in the evening, he may be like that when he’s out and then about after a month, we’ll have to teach him to understand the difference between day and night.

In my previous post, I mentioned the childbirth class we attended. My friend who’s three-four weeks ahead of me also attended with her hub. We both think the class was more helpful for our hubs — kind of like a “reality check.” (Or maybe more aptly — sh*t is gonna hit the fan, so be ready!) Most of the couples in our class were in our age range except for one much older couple — probably mid-40s? and looking quite haggard, I might add — that acted like know-it-alls. I don’t even understand why they took the class. Every time the instructor said something, that couple had a comment or required further clarification.

The instructor, who was a nurse, explained to us how long it can take to dilate to 8-10 cm when the we’re ready to go into the hospital (10-20 hours!!!). She broke the class down into three stages: 1st: at home, 2nd: at the hospital, and 3rd: pushing. While discussing water breaking, she passed around a crochet-type looking needle that the dr may use to do the breaking. Not pleasant. She also discussed the use of forceps and vacuum. Thank goodness she only passed around a vacuum and not the forceps (although we later saw that being used in the movie and again — not pleasant).

At one point, she let the hubs (“coaches”) practice scenarios with us. Because we couldn’t experience what a contraction felt like (which can last several minutes), she gave each of the women some ice cubes to hold. I noticed that the wife of the older couple had her eyes closed and doing breathing exercises. I told myself I’d hold on to the ice as long as she did. I told the hub, “Ain’t no way they’re coming out best!”

During this exercise, the instructor also told us how to breathe during contractions, and asked the hubs to help by starting with “hee hee hee whoo” and going down to two hee hees then down to one and repeat. She suggested that the hubs use their fingers as cues when counting down. The hub and I couldn’t do this without cracking up. Don’t know if that’s how it’ll end up for real.

My friend told me that after class, she went home and took a long nap. When she woke up, her hips really hurt. Her hub came over and tried the “hee hee hee whoo” exercise and she promptly snapped, “Get your f-in’ fingers out of my face!” A precursor to the labor? I think so.