False Alarm

Well, I had a whole other post ready to go, but usurped it with this evening’s activity. Spent a couple hours in the hospital this evening, just to get sent home, I guess it was false labor, but honestly I’m not completely convinced yet. Which means, yes I am still having contractions.

About 4:00 today (right as I was picking up TS from daycare) I started having regular contractions. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I seem to be constantly having contractions, so I didn’t give these much thought. But they were strong enough to make me wait through one to start the car. Let’s just say they made me "take notice." Got home & started unloading the dishwasher & defrosting some fish for dinner as they continued, after about half an hour I pulled out my watch & wrote down how often they were hitting—every two minutes. And they’re still making me “take notice”. I keep unloading the dishwasher & decide that if they’re still happening after that I should head upstairs & finish packing up our hospital stuff. Thank God for Wiggles DVDs! So I start going through my list of last minute adds to the hospital bag, packing overnight (and really a couple days worth) clothes for TS at the G’parents, etc…I’m watching the clock. DS usually is home by now. The contractions are getting faster. By the time DS gets home & I call the doctor they are now 30 seconds apart and have been going on for at least an hour an a half. Jeez. The doctor on-call (not my own) didn’t sound convinced, but told me if I thought I should go to the hospital then I should, so we did.

Of course they slowed way down by the time we got to the hospital. The monitor was showing they were often off the chart and about 3-5 minutes apart. They checked me, still 3 cm. They kept asking me how I would rank the pain on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 5. Then they’d ask if I wanted something for the pain, like an epidural. I’d say no. Papa took TS home and G’ma hung out with us to see what was going to happen. Apparently, nothing.

They released me after a couple hours because my cervix hadn’t changed, but I could tell the nurse was impressed with what the contraction monitor was showing.

DS & I went and got some dinner after (hey free night without toddler in tow) & I told him I have a feeling there are a lot of women who would’ve gotten an epidural by that point, but I have a chronic pain syndrome, so I think my perception of pain is maybe a bit different then most people. I have a really defined idea of what a 5 vs. a 7 is because I’ve dealt with it a lot. Someone who hasn’t may tell you it's a 7 when really their pain level is closer to 5. (Yes, I’m trying to rationalize this whole thing.) He thinks I should’ve told them I wanted something for pain cause then they would’ve kept me & might have even induced at that point since I was already hooked up to stuff. Didn’t consider that, and honestly while I’m not opposed to pain medication, I dig modern medicine, I don’t take the idea of it lightly.

So here’s a question for you internet; “If 30 seconds apart isn’t the bar to send you to the hospital, what is?”

Anyone know how to check your own cervix?
(Please, don’t answer that second question.)