Tuesday, 21 May 2013
I’ve decided that I must be good at waiting, as it’s all I seem to have done today.
- 10:50am…walk to bus stop
- 10:57am…wait for bus
- 11:08am…get on bus and travel to hospital (about 5 mins away)
- 11:35am…get called in to see midwife for 11:30am appointment
- 12:06pm…wait in line at pathology to hand in another urine sample
- 1:00pm…finally get seen at pathology. I have missed the 12:55pm bus, so I decide to get some lunch to fill in the time to wait for the next one.
- 1:20pm…eat lunch
- 1:40pm…wait at bus stop for bus home
- 2:25pm…get on bus and travel home (about 10 mins away this time)
So, onto my midwife appointment. My blood pressure is normal (125/75), my feet are swollen (and not to be worried about), and there was +1 protein in my urine (hence the trip to pathology). The baby is measuring at 41cm (not unexpected as I’m expecting a long baby), 140bpm, is 1/5 engaged in my pelvis, and don’t my hips know all about it. My next appointment is Friday next week (40+3) and we’ll be discussing induction. I’m hoping that I don’t make it to that appointment.
Sunday, 26 May 2013 (Day 5)
On Friday night, I went to bed with what I thought was bad gas pains in my left side. Throughout the night, I produced the various gas and bowel movements to back up this train of thought, however, the pain didn’t get better. I took some Mylanta tablets to try and move things along.
On Saturday morning, I was woken by a searing pain in my left side. The pain was intense, and I had trouble getting myself out of bed and then to the toilet. I had to stop and breath through the pain as a wave of contraction overtook me on the short 5 metre journey from my bed to the toilet. The searing pain continued to varying degrees throughout the day, as did the peaks in pain. On the suggestion of my best friend, I decided to record these peaks in pain, however there was no pattern, and I couldn’t discern the start and end of the contractions due to the continual searing pain I was feeling. I was taking Paracetamol throughout the day to control the level of pain I was feeling.
I had a shower early as I was having trouble urinating on the toilet. The pain I was feeling meant that I couldn’t lean forward without pain, and the pants I was wearing meant that I couldn’t spread my legs enough (to fit my belly between them) to lean forward enough to do more than a trickle of urine every 15 minutes, unless of course I wanted to pull them right down to my ankles. The problem with that was that I then had to pull them back up, and I was struggling enough with trying to wipe myself after I had been to the toilet. Anyhow, I wanted to get into my nightie so that I could go to the toilet easier. This part of my tactic worked, however, the searing pain intensified after my shower so that I was in tears. Under the hot shower, massaging the spot felt very nice, but after I got out it was excruciating, especially after I had dried my feet.
I ended up sitting in a recliner with a wheat pack around my pelvis. I haven’t had a wheat pack for long, but I’m sure glad I bought one because it is very effective at relieving pain. After a while, the searing pain subsided and I could feel the start and end of my contractions. I was having mild contractions of varying duration (30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds) every 3 minutes. However, after an hour they petered out. I went to bed, expecting to be woken up by breaking waters or intensified contractions, however, I woke up completely pain free several times throughout the night for my usual toilet visits. In fact, the searing pain did not return until this morning.
I had noticed several things throughout the night, however. Because I was completely pain free, I could tell the moment the searing pain started, and I started to notice that if I supported my bump, the searing was either greatly reduced or non-existent. As a result, I have come to the conclusion that the majority of the pain was actually caused by round ligament pain, and the pain that woke me both mornings was due to the need to do bowel movements.
I do not think all the pain was for nothing, and I firmly believe that the baby will come this week. However, any people asking whether I’ve had the baby yet will be directed to the following website: http://haveyouhadthatbabyyet.com/. Rest assured that I will tell some people by text message once I have had the baby, and the rest of the world by Facebook once I am ready to announce our latest addition. I am in no hurry to be “supermom”, and I want to take as much time as I need to recover from such an undertaking as childbirth, whether natural or by caesarean.
Monday, 27 May 2013 (Day 6)
This morning, I took my car in for a major service. I live in an "out of the way" part of town, so the courtesy bus nearly always does a special trip just for me. Today, he managed to make it a round trip, dropping off two other people. One of his destinations for another lady was the hospital, and he jokingly offers to drop me off to have my baby. I smile coyly, and accept his offer of the front seat, while declining his offer of assistance to get in. He drops off the first lady and is taking the second lady to the hospital, and finally asked the question I've been waiting for: "so, when are you due?" "Oh, tomorrow," I casually answer, at which point I hear two gasps and exclamations from the other passengers. For the rest of the trip, I felt like everyone was expecting me to go into labour then and there, but it was funny at the time. I expect I'll be the amusing talk of the office today, and I'm sure there'll be some sort of jib when the bus picks me up again about me still being here and not in labour down at the hospital.
I noticed last night that my heartburn, particularly at night, has been greatly reduced. Yay! The round ligament pain also seems to be greatly diminished, so I may actually be able to try some of the “old wives tales” everyone has been regaling me with (not that I think they’ll work, but they’ll be good for a laugh). For those that don’t know, the round ligament attaches from the uterus to the pelvis, and I seemed to have had an inflammation at the pelvis end of the attachment, so any sort of sudden movements were causing me great pain. Of course, I couldn’t take any sort of NSAID (i.e.. ibuprofen or the like) to help heal the inflammation and help with the pain, so I just had to live with good old paracetamol to dull the pain and being careful to not aggravate the ligament.
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