contractions

Hello there -
Well, it is Tuesday and I am still pregnant. Last night, I was having regular contractions that were five minutes apart and about one minute in duration. Although the contractions were regular, they were painless! I had to touch my stomach to even know that I was having a contraction. Basically, my stomach becomes rock-hard on the outside and does not soften or have any "give" to the skin until the contraction is complete (now, only if I could have abs like that!) ....

Anyhow, around midnight, I called the labor and delivery triage nurse to find out what I should be feeling before making the trek to the hospital. All the books say that you should go to the hospital if your contractions are less than 15 minutes apart and are 60-90 seconds in duration. However, since I want to labor as long as I can at home, I thought it best to call the experts. I described what my current condition was and the triage nurse informed me that I should wait until my contractions were painful. She said that I am definitely on track with the timing of my current contractions, but that I should stay at home until I have to physically begin breathing through each contraction. She said they should be painful enough that I am unable to carry on a conversation through the actual contraction.

I woke up around 5:00am to start timing my contractions again - to see if they were at all regular like the ones I had the previous evening. Much to my disappointment, the contractions were very irregular both in interval and in length. Soooo, I told Tim that he was probably safe to head off to work and then I went back to bed. The nurse recommended that I sleep as much as I can (if I am still able to get comfortable) as I will need every ounce of energy in my pending labor.

On a good note, I asked the nurse if the L&D unit at Kaiser South was full - she said they were empty at that time. Although the loads could change any time, it was encouraging to hear there was room at the hospital! She said that August and September tend to be their busiest times because people don't have much else to do during the Holidays! LOL! I should have obtained her name and asked her to be my nurse - she was funny :)

Anyhow, I am headed off to hang out at my parent's house today. I am going to plop myself on the couch and watch some of the Women's World Cup soccer games that my dad has been recording. My momma (a.k.a. my blankie) is there and I will be glad to have company and not be alone in the coming hours!

Well, wish me luck. Hopefully (like I have mentioned the past two times) this will be my last post and the next time I post I will have a little Peanut!

Hugs,
Jenn