Contractions (8/28)

On August 28, around 9:30 PM I thought maybe I was starting to have contractions. I did some googling. I wasn't sure because with Ella they were never that mild.

I took pictures of Ella dancing around and doing gymnastics while I was having contractions.

Around 10, I started timing the contractions.  That's probably when I told Dave too. Ella and Dave were eating dinner near 10 PM. I didn't actually have dinner or feel like eating then.

I kept wanting Ella to go to sleep. I was dealing with her jumping all over me. The picture above is from 10:21 PM.

This is what my contractions app looks like

I finally called the on-call doctor at 11:16 PM. Well it was the answering service. Then I got a call back at 11:33 PM.

Contractions over that 2 hours were getting stronger and closer together but were nowhere near as strong as they were with Ella. So I was torn about going in.  I was consistently having them last over 90 seconds and come 4 minutes apart.  But even though they were mild they were getting stronger. Maybe they started at a 1 and got to a 3. They were so often though. Ella's labor was so fast but I knew this was different. I was still unsure if I should go in. I figured it would be nothing.

I'm told to go in since I'm VBAC.

I get there and checking in was around 12:10. Standing there while they get the info and assign me a bed I start to feel like I'm going to pass out from all the standing. Also construction made it so you have to walk further outside and cannot get to door to be dropped off. (Well maybe the other door works but not sure since when we did the tour 3 years ago they mention the door we went to.)

My contractions basically stop when I'm there. I don't get it.

My blood pressure is high. They retest it after 15 minutes and it's higher.  They then tested it again later and it was higher yet.  146/84 and 144/89 but I don't think I wrote down the first one.  Then later it was 140/81.    It seemed like right after I talked to the doctor the first time contractions started again but still mild mild mild.

I did blood work because of the high BP. I also had to pee in a cup and I failed at aim so I had to drink water and try again.  They got the tests back from the blood work and they were normal so then since the doctor ran into Dave when getting water he came in and said I could leave even without the tests on the urine because I was probably just nervous/embarrassed and that's why my BP went up.

Once he said that, then contractions started up stronger but still super mild and not 4 minutes apart. It's so weird. Ugh.

Throughout my time there the baby's heart rate was normally in the 120s but sometimes was as low as 113 and went as high as 159. I was curious what normal baby heart rate is and during labor it's 110-160 so he fell right in there.

We left at 2:22 AM.

Two friends knew about contractions. I told Beth first since she'd have to come be with Ella. I told Gio and then Gio was still up so I kept talking to her from the hospital.  I sent my parents a message but they were sleeping.

We got home, Beth left. Beth had driven 20 minutes to stay with Ella. Poor Beth came for nothing.  Since she was still awake it was just easier for her to go home so she could get ready for work in the morning in her own house.

Dave was so tired. I wasn't that tired but knew I had to sleep. While trying to fall asleep my stomach was growling. I never did eat dinner. I slept horribly until 7 am. I kept waking up with various light contractions.

Then at 7 I decided to use my phone and read facebook.  I fell asleep holding my phone. And slept soundly until 8:50 when Ella woke up.

Throughout the morning I had minor contractions and did not time them. Maybe they were 15 minutes apart. Maybe worse. Once I did note the time and it was 10 minutes apart.

Below are more screen shots from the app before I deleted the data.

You can also email yourself a detailed history of the contractions. I did that too but the screen shots were easier to insert.