My long rant about my night at L&D

mrsjengle · May 2012

I'm tired. I'm cranky, and I hurt.

My hospital is about an hour and a half away from my house which makes it incredibly hard to decide when is the right time to go. Being a second timer, you would think that I would know a little better, but it's actually harder since I don't know how fast I might progress.

I woke up at 2am in the middle of a hard contraction. I'm pretty sure I was having them for a while and just falling asleep in between them. However, when I woke up, they were very hard. I peed first, of course, because half the time that makes them go away. I repositioned, timed, reposition timed. Mostly they were 5-6 mins apart, lasting between 45sec to a little over a minute. Every once in a while I'd have one that was an odd ball, but they seemed very timable. After an 1hr 1/2, I went to the bathroom again, and it was bloody and very mucusy. I decided whether they fizzle or not, we should go just to be on the safe side.

We called my MIL to come watch DD1, and we headed to the hospital around 4am. The drive was miserable, and knowing that I might have to make it by myself while in labor if I go into labor while DH is at works scares the crap out of me. Everything stayed pretty timable. All the excitement would stall me out, but as soon as I got rested, the contractions would come back. I got to the ER, registered, got wheeled to L&D, and I contracted through the whole thing. The instant I got on the L&D floor all contractions stopped.

They put me on the monitor, and the baby was kind of lazy, so it took a while to get a reactive strip. They checked my cervix, and I was still finger-tip/1cm but I had gone from 30% at my last appointment to 50%. Then they unhooked me and told me to go walk around, go to the cafeteria and get some breakfast try to get the contractions to come back. They gave me an hour. Every freaking contraction stopped. I was so irritated and embarrassed to have run everyone around in the middle of the night.

They hooked me back up around 7:30am and checked me again. No change. They offered to strip my membranes, but I'm not 40 weeks until Wed., and I don't see the point in being super uncomfortable while trying to speed up my labor when I'm not even to my due date, so I declined. They told me I did everything I should, and that this will possibly happen again.

I got a strawberry limade for the drive home

and took a 2 hr nap before being woke up with contractions again. I continue to have some blood when I wipe, and I'm pretty sure I just lost my MP. Ugh, I'm miserable.

jlsweets · May 2012

Ugh thats horrible I'm sorry! Nothing worse then thinking its the time and then having everything fizzle out! Hopefully it will be soon for you and the real thing!

Tippy05 · May 2012

Sorry you had such a rough night. It's tough when you have a LO at home to worry about too.

This sounds VERY similar to my experience with L&D on friday. I had been having contractions all day and when I got to L&D they calmed down. I've been 3cm for about 2 weeks now but as of friday was up to 50%. I was told not to wait until I'm in full labor since I'm having a RCS. I thought I was doing the right thing by going in after contracting all day and having them be about 3-4 min apart, lasting 45 sec to a min, but here I am still pregnant so I guess I was wrong.

The nurse, made me feel like an idiot for even coming in and eventually sent me home. I felt super embarrassed after having a friend pick up DS from daycare and called my mom 2 hours away and had my brother almost bolt down to help... Then I showed up to work this morning and had to tell everyone it was a false alarm after leaving work friday afternoon with contractions. She said to come back when they are consistent (they were), rhythmic (they were), and more intense (I guess they weren't strong enough for her). I'm still a little bitter about it and hope that next time I go in it's for "real".

I hope the same for you!

sda6485 · May 2012

I too am a STM and this has been happening to me on and off all week - accompanied with diarrhea (sorry TMI). My hospital is about 20 minutes away so I don't have to worry about distance but because it's been happening on and off again (all in the middle of the night, I get woken up with horrible pain from the contractions) I haven't gone to the hospital.

I'm so confused this time around. I'm not sure what my body is doing or trying to tell me so I just sit there in pain for hours, crying, and getting sick.

Hopefully this is a sign of something to come for us -- sooner rather than later because I'm a mess trying to figure it all out.

Good Luck!

LadyTyler · May 2012

I am so glad I am not the only one having this! I am a FTM and last night started having contractions that were 30-45 seconds long and 6-8 minutes apart and it continued all night, keeping me from sleeping. We decided to head to the hospital to be checked at 10am because they had gotten a little longer, more intense, and closer together. Luckily I decided to stop at my mom's house first to see if I could nap real quick and of course once I get there and lie down the contractions just stop out of the blue. I take a 2 hour nap, wake up, have a few intense and long contractions and now it has settled back down to an on-and-off cramping sensation. So frustrating!