A trip to L&D...but no baby.

So. As those of you following along know, as of last Tuesday I was dilated to a near 4, and having lots of contractions, but they just wouldn't settle into any sort of timetable for any consistent amount of time. I'd have the "perfect" 4-1-1 contractions for an hour, and then right when I was getting ready to call, I wouldn't have another contraction for 40 minutes. It was irritating.

Last night Justin had a late playoff softball game. I'd been having contractions for a few hours before the game, but again they were like 8-10 minutes apart...then 4 minutes apart...then 8-10 minutes apart. They were uncomfortable, and I was starting to get really short with Justin and Lizzy if they'd talk to me during them, but I wasn't convinced that they wouldn't just stop all of a sudden like all the other ones. Since the softball fields are much closer to the hospital than our house is, we decided to just pack all of us up and head to Justin's game. Even though it was way past Lizzy's bedtime, I figured that maybe keeping her up late would actually make her sleep in past...oh 5am.

I timed contractions the whole game. Every once in awhile I'd have a big gap of time in between them, but they were still averaging about 4 minutes apart. They were still uncomfortable and I definitely had to breathe through them, but I didn't know what to do because I did NOT want to go to the hospital only to be sent home. Justin convinced me that we should at least call labor and delivery and see about going to get checked, and that it was no biggie if they just sent us home. So, he called and we went in.

I was telling the nurses that I wasn't 100% sure this was it or that the contractions wouldn't just stop again, but that things had gone so quickly with Lizzy and I was already so dilated that I just wanted to come in and make sure that it wasn't it. The sweet nurse assigned to me had actually been to mom's group before, and was so nice and kept telling me that she was glad that I came in and that I did the right thing...which was sweet...but honestly, I just kept thinking 'Yeah...I did the right thing IF I'm in labor.' She checked me, and said that I was dilated to a 5, and could be easily stretched to a 6, and was about 50% effaced. And then the contractions slowed down.

They monitored me for a little while, and then conferred with my OB, who said that we could either just call it a night and go home, or walk for an hour and then be re-checked and see if that either got things going more or if I dilated further. So, Lizzy went home with Stump (who had been at the softball game too), and Justin and I got to walking.

The contractions started picking up in intensity and frequency, and I was eventually leaning on Justin and swaying through them. At the end of the hour, they were about 2 mins apart, and Justin commented that he could tell they were getting more intense. Those suckers HURT. So, the nurse checked me again, and said that I hadn't really dilated or effaced any more. And once I'd laid down to be checked, the contractions had decreased again, so we were on our way home because they didn't really think I was in active labor.

The nurse kept commenting how strange it was to be sending someone home who was dilated to a 5-6, and how I was a total medical outlier in this situation...which is really kind of funny, because if I had a dollar for every time I'd been told that in a medical setting, I'd be a rich girl. Anyway, they sent us off about 12:30 or 1am, with assurances that they were sure they'd be seeing me again soon, maybe even later that night/morning.

And then I cried most of the way home. Because it sucks and it's frustrating, and I'm sore from head to toe even when I get a break from contracting. The contractions are still coming, but have slowed back down a bit since coming home. I've given up timing them for awhile. I slept a little, but not a lot. I'll probably have this baby in the car, because I'm not really sure when to head back in (and will probably second-guess myself like crazy) other than if my water breaks...so I'm kind of praying that my water just breaks and then there's no debate!

Now, I'm just trying to decide whether to take it easy, pop on a movie for Lizzy, and try to get some rest this morning, or whether to pack us up, head into the mall, and walk like crazy trying to get things going again. But that seems like an awful lot of work for something that I'm not convinced will make any difference, because the trick isn't necessarily GETTING things going, but KEEPING them going.

Blah. Sorry to whine, but I'm kinda over this.