It’s not quite 2am on Saturday 14 January, and I don’t think I’ll be sleeping tonight (but I’ll dutifully try a few more times).
At 11am yesterday morning, I noticed a “pink show” happening (if you don’t know what that is, you probably don’t want to – fundamentally, it means the cervix is dilating). According to the books, labour “usually” begins within 24 hours after the pink show begins. . . or it could be weeks. But I was very much encouraged, especially after such a stupid night.
It’s fifteen hours later, and my usual evening of contractions hasn’t faded as it usually does. The contractions are more painful than they’ve been at any time in the last ten days of pre-labour (enough that they alter my breathing), and they’re roughly ten minutes apart. Louisette is moving extremely vigorously until a contraction prevents her, and I’m having a lot of those burps that are the body’s way of saying, “I haven’t forgotten how to throw up, you know” – especially when I lie down.
If the contractions get to five minutes apart, lasting a minute each, and a little more painful (and that pattern is consistent or increasing for an hour), I’ll wake CJ. At that point I’d be pretty darn sure that tonight really was the night Louisette was on her way to meet us.
If I have three or four properly painful contractions every ten minutes for at least an hour, I’ll call the midwife – but probably still stay home for a while.
I’m still more scared of another day of pregnancy than I am of labour. The thought of a C-section is truly awful, however. CJ really can’t afford six weeks of leave – and the recovery could be especially nasty, since coughing or sneezing can break the stitches – and I’ve had a cough since first trimester (I’ve been taking heaps of durotuss, which keeps it under control but doesn’t fix it completely – my body is too screwed up to heal itself).
I’ll blog again sometime between now and noon to say whether I’m off to the hospital, still not sure, or going to bed after another false alarm.
It’s Saturday, so although I doubt I’ll be linking you to an article today, here’s the traditional picture of a cat:
Oh gosh – I hope everything goes well for y’all! I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed.
Jaqbuncad: Thank you 🙂 At the moment I’m having contractions 10 minutes apart again, so hopefully tonight’s the night (unlike last night’s 10-minute contractions).