Off again. On again? Off again. On again?

The last 24 hours have gone something like this:

6 am Tuesday: been awake for two hours. Waiting for hospital to call with time for induction.

7 am: Midwife calls. Induction is canceled.

9 am: Send boys to nanny’s house. Spend large part of the morning sulking, then decide to shake it off. Haul out sewing machine to finish receiving blankets. Watch episode of House on DVD. Read book. Try to nap, but startled awake after 10 minutes by sound of cat falling into the toilet.

2:30 pm: Call midwife to enquire about afternoon appointment for stretch and sweep and possibility of ultrasound this week. Told to come in for 3:30 pm.

3:30 pm: Midwife gives me appointment slip for ultrasound at 6 pm. Does stretch and sweep – I am now 3 cm+ dilated. Tells me the hospital is so overbooked that three priority inductions have been bounced until tomorrow. My induction is rescheduled for NEXT TUESDAY!!! We discuss various options, but decide to await ultrasound results. If baby is fine, no reason not to just continue waiting it out. We joke about how ridiculously healthy I am — blood pressure is low and steady, urine test is clean, there is nothing we can manufacture to elevate me on the priority list. There remains the possibility that I get bumped next Tuesday as well. This may well turn out to be a Valentine’s Baby after all.

4:00 pm: During the half-hour drive home, I go from being comepletely demoralized at the idea of having to wait for another week to cheerful and relaxed again, thinking that if more waiting is the worst news of the day, I can handle that.

6:00 pm: Ultrasound shows baby is perfectly healthy. Lots of fluid, placenta looks strong. Tech measures baby’s femur and takes a long look at Beloved and I and asks how tall we are. She says this will be an exceptionally long (but likely skinny) baby. Still in the 9 to 10 lbs range, in her estimation, but tending toward long and lean (like Tristan) rather than round (like Simon). I feel very much reassured and settle in to wait it out.

10:00 pm: I go to bed, read for a few minutes, and fall asleep.

1:15 am Wednesday: Wake up with hips locked (as usual), needing to pee desperately (as usual). As I turn over, there is a gush of — something. I get up to pee, but can’t tell if it has been a urine leak or my water breaking. I go back to bed, thinking if it really is my water breaking, it will make itself known soon enough. Suddenly, I am having very strong, very real contractions, and have about five of them over the next hour. Before they fade away to nothing.

2:00 am to 6:00 am: Try desperately to go back to sleep. Use relaxation techniques, visualization, deep breathing, walking around the house, but nothing works. No more significant contractions, but baby is hyperactive all night. I vacillate all night between “that was my water breaking” and “go back to sleep, it was nothing.” Each time I start to fall asleep, restless legs twitch me awake again. It’s hard to believe that I will be *more* sleep deprived than this after the baby finally arrives.

6:15 am: Simon arrives and crawls into bed with me. I give up on sleeping. Will call midwife after 7 am to check with her. Mild, sporadic contractions continue.

Edited to add: Another appointment this afternoon after 3 pm to check the nature of the fluid. Will just hold out and hang around to see what the day brings, I guess!

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

33 thoughts on “Off again. On again? Off again. On again?”

  1. I hope it was your water breaking–that will move you to the top of the priority list!

    Keep us posted!

  2. Wow, the suspense is killing me. More exciting than a Democratic primary.

    Hope there is movement and this doesn’t go to a brokered convention.

    (I don’t know. It is early.)

    Good luck today.

  3. I am so glad you mentioned that someone checked your placenta! I went to 42 weeks my first time, and one of the main things they were worried about (besides the possibility that he was NEVER coming out and was going to live like a lamprey in me) was my placenta aging. These things apparently have some sort of sell-by date.

    You realize that if you don’t have him until February 14th, you’ll HAVE to name him Captcha, right?

    (Captchas: either ors – looks like the Captcha Oracle is back to work!)

  4. My prescription – eat and drink anything but those clear liquids the hospital insists on, start a good book (does anything make your kids more interested in you than you having a good book?) and rub your belly. Too soon it won’t have that taut baby in there feel and you will miss it, eh? The CAPTCHA oracle is playing with us – Freeman (oh yes, free him) Na- (oh you tease!)

  5. I hope today’s the day, but if not–I hope your philosophical acceptance holds.

    And maybe the payoff of all this on again off again will be that you’re so dilated when labor finally kicks in that it will be short and sweet!

  6. I’m hoping the captcha is an oracle: to-night his

    As in tonight is his birthday. Checking in compulsively all day. Alison.

  7. This could be it Dani, it’s exactly what happened to me, but I was so convinced it couldn’t be my water (it was a slow leak), that I argued with my OB about going in and getting it checked. I finally went in (mild cont. that I thought were BH), they did an internal, my water popped and Sawyer was born an hour later. It turns out it was likely a leak in my fluid, from the top of the sac that was leaking down.

    I’m optimistic!

  8. If Murphy’s Law of Pregnancy applies, this baby will be born right as Survivor is starting tomorrow night.

    Good luck, and continuous updates, ok?

  9. I have confidence in you that you did not pee your pants, so, the water breakage it is.

    Bring.

    It.

    On!

    captcha: hold outline

    Oh brother.

  10. ooh, that baby sure is keeping things interesting! going into labour when the babe is ready is way better than an induction if you can avoid it. Hang in there – eventually your baby WILL be born!

  11. Labor! Labor! Labor! Labor!!!

    Captcha = and ingly. Which makes no sense whatsoever to me, but perhaps is significant to you?

  12. Good thing I am on mat leave so that I can check every few hours to see what is going on. This is so suspenseful for us, I can’t imagine what you are going through!

    Captcha: accept sights

    take it as you will…

  13. I think he’s coming this evening. Around 6 p.m.

    Stay strong! You’re holding up better than I ever would, both mentally and physically.

    My captcha…”is performer” — I seriously think the Player to be Named Later IS a performer…look at the audience he is commanding as we await his arrival!!

  14. I keep coming back for updates. So much suspense! Come on, little guy!

    Captcha: Broadway view… I think Annika might be right! He’s a natural “born” performer!

  15. Checking to see if the player has arrived … Go Sens Go, I mean, Go Little Guy Go!

    ps. perhaps I have totally missed something, but I don’t get this whole captcha thing …. help?

  16. Checking in- Thinking of you Dani!

    captcha: predicted at – Had I got in on the due date/time/weight guessing game, perhaps this would have told me I would win. Not so much. I’m guessing that it means: As “predicted at” the onset, PTBNL will arrive during the Survivor debut!

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