The midwife has come and gone. One of my favourite memories of this labour, if not this entire pregnancy, will likely be Tristan and Simon, clad in their pyjamas, creeping down the stairs to see what the midwife was doing, and having them and Beloved sitting on the floor together across the room, listening to Baby’s heartbeat on the doppler. You can’t buy memories like that!
Still not much in the way of contractions, but the Player to be Named Later and I continue to fare well. Assuming I don’t go into active labour some time overnight (which would hardly surprise me, given his to-date propensity for nighttime shenanigans), we’ll head out to the Montfort tomorrow morning between 8:30 and 9:00 for the induction. The midwife said I could actually continue to wait it out, as long as FOUR DAYS!!!! That is just not going to happen, if for no other reason than the leaking would in fact make me lose my mind. The midwife checked with the hospital on her way over, and though they have five people on a list for induction tomorrow, they will make room for me and my ruptured membranes.
So I guess I’ll watch LOST and then just go to bed. (On a really thick stack of towels and waterproof crib pads!) Seems ridiculously anticlimactic after this very strange day, but I don’t know what else to do! As if I’ll actually get a decent night’s sleep, but I’ll give it a good try anyway. Lying calmly in the darkness, being grateful for a bountiful life, is almost as good as eight hours of sleep, right?
This has been a blast today — thanks for coming along for the ride!!
Okay, seriously? This has to be one of the weirdest labours ever. I was just playing Wii Bowling with the boys, trying to stimulate some contractions (hey, it’s not in the literature as a contraction-inducer, but you never know!) when the student midwife called. My new primary midwife is on her way home from the clinic, and is going to stop by the house to check on me and the baby. I can’t imagine THAT ever happening with an OB!
Gotta run, I’m up….
Coming up on 4 pm, seven hours since my water started breaking (and breaking, and breaking). It was a nice, quiet afternoon but now everyone is home. Beloved and Tristan are playing The Incredibles on the computer, Simon is watching TVO Kids and I’m wondering exactly when the contractions will begin in earnest. There have been a few more recently, but still very mild and sporadic.
I’m kind of bummed about the midwife situation. My primary midwife goes off call at 5 pm, so she won’t be there for the birth, and the secondary (who I really, really like) is currently attending a long first birth with the student midwife I have also come to like very much. The student, Amanda, has promised to try to make an appearance at my labour, depending on how the other one goes.
The good news is, I think we’ve found a way for my mom to be there. If I go tonight, Papa Lou will stay with the boys until the nanny comes to take over for the morning, so we should be covered in any case. I’m so pleased that my mom will be able to be there!
And now you have to give kudos to Beloved, who not only went to the drugstore to restock my supply of feminine hygiene products, but did so without complaint. Does he rock or what?
And so we wait. And wait. And wait. Any thoughts on what I should make for dinner? I’m thinking anything heavy on garlic, onion or spices is probably not the best idea, but since the baby has dropped into my pelvis and given me a little bit more room near my stomach, I’m STARVING!
If only you could have seen me. I got annoyed at the lack of contractions (two between 11:30 and 12:00, then nothing) so I decided I was going to take the dog for a walk. But, I’m leaking like friggin’ Niagara Falls. So I took a page from Ingrid and Allison’s book and stuck a washcloth in my underwear along with the pad and pulled on my coat and boots. But as soon as I opened the door, I saw all that fluffy white snow that has been falling all morning, and knew that’s what I had to do.
Shovel the driveway.
And with each push of the shovel, more water leaked out. I shovelled the entire driveway, and soaked my pants to the knees.
And still nothing.
Gonna be a long day….
Okay, so my concentration is a little shot and I keep wandering back to the computer after every half task or so. I’m all by myself here, and not doing anything productive anyway — might as well keep y’all posted!
First, I forgot how much I hate the leaking. Hate. The. Leaking. I can’t concentrate on anything, can’t get anything done, because every time I move I can feel more leaking and it’s toying with the frazzled remnants of whatever sanity I have left at this point. (TMI alert, consider yourself warned! I’m on my second pair of underwear, something like my seventh pad, and I’ve abandoned my pants entirely. Send Depends!!)
Second, I just called Beloved to let him in on our little secret. (Hell, I could barely hold of on telling the Internets about the positive pregnancy test before I told him, so you got this scoop first.) He’s teaching this morning, and I thought I had waited long enough to catch him in between classes, but when he answered and I asked if I could talk, he said he just had to step out for a moment. There was a loud and raccous cheer from his students, who have been expecting my call right along with him for about the last, oh, four weeks or so. The cheer was so loud and heartfelt it actually brought tears to my eyes! (Heck, who am I kidding, they’re just happy because they’re getting out of class this afternoon!)
Third, I am LOVING your captchas!!! Remind me to send links to these posts to the guys who created that app after all this is done – I don’t think they ever expected anyone to get so much enjoyment out of them!!
STILL no contractions.
Ugh, the leaking… I can’t believe I was actually looking forward to this!!!
It’s 4:30 in the morning and the house is silent. Everyone is asleep except for me and the dog, who has followed me downstairs with faithful if not bleary curiousity.
I didn’t sleep more than 45 minutes last night. I suppose this means I am biologically unable to bring a child into the world without giving up an entire night of sleep. Sleep deprivation, my old friend…
My contractions started some time around 8 pm last night, but were the mild and sporadic Braxton Hicks type for most of the evening. By the time I turned off my bedside lamp around 9:30 or 10:00, they had a mild intensity but rather startling regularity. I tracked them in six to eight minute intervals throughout the night, and they crowded as close as just two or three minutes apart for long stretches.
I contemplated calling the midwife for a while around 11 pm, but was reluctant to wake everybody up for nothing. Even Beloved is still blissfully unaware of my long, quiet and watchful night. Sometime around 3 am I dozed for a while, and the contractions seemed to switch places with the annoying twitches of restless leg syndrome. For the last hour, the contractions have been mild but noticable, and part of the reason I came downstairs was to see if they were really contractions or just some strange nighttime hallucination. After eating a banana in the freezing cold and dark living room, I noticed the computer and thought I’d see if anyone else is awake this early in the morning. In the time it has taken to type this, I’ve had three or four more mild contractions.
Hmmm, at a glance only Sheila guessed January 25 as Baby’s arrival date — think she might be our big winner?
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Since this might be the last time I post for a while (cross your fingers for me!) — or not! — I’d be remiss if I didn’t poke you one last time to remind you to vote for me in the final round of the Canadian Blog Awards! Hey, if I can think if YOU at a time like this, the least you could do is throw me a vote!
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Ouch! Hey, that was a long and painful contraction… huh, maybe this is the real thing after all!
