The books lie. Their description of early labor was way off for me. "Mild contractions" ... "5 to 30 minutes apart" ... "might not even feel them" ... "rest and relax" ... "sleep" ... "go about your regular business." Basically early labor can last a long time and usually can be ignored for a while, it's active labor you have to watch out for. My body thought differently.
Here's what happened:
I had some pre-labor symptoms, I was very sure my baby would be coming within a week. My vulva got very soft and wet, I started having painless contractions that felt like a tightening and pulling sensation in my uterus, sleeping finally got very hard to do. But it all really got started at about 6 am on May 29, 2011. I woke up with bad menstrual-like cramping. My cramping woke me up. I got up and walked around a bit, bounced on the birthing ball, I let my husband go to work. The cramping subsided a bit and I took a nap on the couch.
Around 8 am I woke up again from a contraction. A "real contraction." At least I thought it might be, because it felt very different and had a definite beginning and end. And then it stopped. And I got up and decided to make breakfast and attempt to "go about my day." HA HA HA! I laugh at the fact that I thought I could go about my day, oh I had no idea what was in store.
Very soon after this I felt another contraction. Again, it had a definite start and end and hurt a bit and my uterus was very hard. Too soon. The last one only ended a few minutes ago... this isn't right. I was freaked out at how close together my contractions were. They didn't stop. I timed them and there were anywhere from 2 minutes to 5 minutes apart, and they lasted 45 seconds to 90 seconds.
I was so confused and worried. Not a good combo for dealing with pain. I was both sure I couldn't be in labor because my contractions were too close together and sure I was in labor because I kept having contractions. And I was a little worried I was already in active labor and going to give birth alone at home. But in the beginning the contractions were mild, so I figured I had at least a few hours. But why so close together? It was very confusing. So I started calling people.
I called my birth doula, I called the HCMC midwives, I called my husband, and I called my friend, Manda. I sat in the tub while talking to my doula who was also unsure about weather I was in labor, she did offer to come over, but I told her to hold off a bit. The midwives basically said I was doing great at home, stay at home for now. My husband didn't answer and I left a message, he called back and I told him this might be the real thing, but I wasn't sure. He stayed at work. Manda was most helpful, she brought me Chinese food and kept me company.
Also, my doula and the midwives kept asking about mucus plugs and bleeding. I never saw that figgin' mucus plug. Mucus plug sign never happened for me. I also wasn't bleeding at all. Which I guess is good, but makes people skeptical of your labor. Bloody show is a definite sign of labor, I didn't have it. My doula even said it could be days or weeks still. I imagined weeks of contractions happening 3 minutes apart and got very upset. But in her defense she wasn't totally aware they were so close together, because I was more focused on how inconsistent they were 2 minutes apart once then 5 minutes, then 3...
Because of that stupid 4-1-1 rule. The "rule" is to not go to the hospital until you have contractions 4 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute in length, for 1 hour. I KNEW that rule. I had it down. I was planning on using it. My early labor made this rule impossible to follow. By the time I was calling the midwives and my doula I'd had contractions averaging 4 minutes apart lasting for 1 minute for several hours.
By the time Manda came over and fed me I could tell they were increasing in intensity. They got bad. Manda was there at about 12:30 pm and we hung out and timed them on and off and by 3 pm they were quite painful and I finally told the doula to come to my place. Still they averaged 4 minutes apart. But still I was pretty sure active labor had not begun, but I thought I was getting close. HA HA HA! I laugh now because active labor was a ways off.
My doula came and did what she did best for the whole labor. She kicked my butt. She insisted I go for a walk. I refused to leave our house, so I paced around the house and the contractions got more intense and closer together. Fuck. This was the first point in which I nearly wanted to quit. Walking made my contractions come very quickly. We called Brent and had him come home. I continued to walk with him and was in quite a bit of pain.
Early labor is supposed to have these nice breaks in between contractions. I often got a whole 15-second break while walking, or at least that's how it felt. And that's really what counts when you are in labor, the perceived break you get, not the actual. If I laid down I got a couple minutes. I became a bit afraid of moving around, because it made the painful contractions start, but at the same time I knew I had to move around.
My doula did let me rest too and I ended up laying in bed with Brent and crying. Labor was way, way, way worse than I imagined it to be. I felt like the baby should be out by now. I was so mad at how close together the contractions were. I didn't know how I was going to do it. I also moaned a lot through the contractions and got quite load and started getting snappy at people and demanding. Mama wasn't happy.
I believe this cued my doula into suggesting it was time to go to the hospital. Which got me excited, because I figured that active labor was upon us for sure. It was about 8 pm now, 12 hours of laboring at home. A good early labor.
Early labor wasn't over.
I walked in to the hospital from the parking lot and had too many contractions to count on my walk in. I was told this walk is typically one contraction in length (this is coming from someone who worked at HCMC). But since walking made my contractions happen almost on top of each other, this meant I had a contraction every few steps and slowed the walk way down.
The HCMC staff led us to my room and then basically ignored us. Which was in my birth plan after all. I wanted MINIMAL interruptions. HA! There were TOO few interruptions. I tried to eat a little, but my stomach wasn't doing too well and my appetite was low. I was anxious to get the monitoring over with and have a cervical check to see if I was 5 cm. I wanted to be 5 cm so I could get into the tub. I was in very much pain and wanted into that tub. HA HA HA! I must laugh again because really I had no idea what awful pain was yet to come.
They did finally hook me up to the monitors for a while and confirmed that I was indeed in labor (stupidest rule ever). And then the awful cervical check came. Which was possibly the most painful part of the whole labor itself. I screamed through it.
The rule was that NO ONE was to tell me how dilated I was. I would obsess about it and didn't want to know. The rule was that they were to tell my doula and no one else. What I know now is that at about 9 pm, after 13 hours of contractions averaging 4 minutes apart, I was at 2 cm, roughly HALF of early labor.
They told my doula. And I imagine this is what went on in her head, "TA-OOH CENTIMETERS! Are you fucking kidding me? Oh fuck, this is going to be long. I need to get her labor going quicker. I don't want any interventions and neither does she."
She made me step up and down on and off of this step stool. This sucked and made my contractions come very quickly again. Then I could rest, but then I had to take a walk. I was moving a lot and contractions were happening a lot. But I'm grateful for it because my labor was progressing. As in getting a hell of a lot more painful.
Things get blurry at this point. But I remember that even in early labor I was telling my doula that I was SURE I was in transitional labor. I was simply in too much pain to not be in transitional labor. I was very mad that no one believed I was this far along. I was sitting on the birthing ball in the bathroom and my doula looked freaked out. She basically said that I needed to calm the fuck down and prepare for many more hours of this. But she said it nicely. But the meaning was, "calm the fuck down and prepare for the long haul."
I laid in bed again for a while. And during one of my contractions I felt a popping sensation. It was about 1 am the next day, May 30. I thought it might be my water breaking. I sat up in bed and fluid GUSHED out of me. "My water broke." I announced. My doula, bless her heart. Said. "Really?" I'm sure it was innocent at the time, but I was pissed. There is no mistaking a huge gush of water for anything else. I put my husbands hand in it and angrily said, "feel it?!" My doula also said, "ok. things are going to pick up now." Oh how right she was, oh how awfully right she was.
The midwife came in and said, "we have meconium. Heavy meconium! No Tub!" I got hooked up to the continuous fetal monitoring and another cervical check showed I was at 4 cm. I was officially into active labor. For 17 hours I had early labor contractions averaging less than 4 minutes apart for the ENTIRE time. I feel like I deserve a medal simply for that feat.
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