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2004-11-07 - 6.31pm��previous entry��next entry
40 weeks, 2 days - changes??....
Thanks for the nice guestbook entries about my photos! :)
Well, two days past my due date and things are starting to look a little more hopeful today!
Last night I had such an urge to go for a walk at around 9pm, so we went out for about 20 minutes just around the local streets in the dark. We saw lots of fireworks and that was nice. I felt great walking, it was weird. I have found walking painful for so long that it was odd to find it easy. Well, not EASY exactly! But much easier than I expected. I still have to move slowly and carefully, because my pelvis does hurt a lot still, and Arthur's weight out the front pulls a lot against my lower back muscles, so I have to go carefully and try to keep my bump in as much as possible or it gives me awful backache.
Anyway, a walk in the nice misty rain and smokey air was lovely, and I felt healthily tired when we got back. Unfortunately I didn't sleep too great, but oh well. I kept waking from dreams - the first lot were very fragmented, but basically I was looking around me and everything was made up of, um, millions of cervixes!! They were all in various stages of dilation and softness, and I couldn't resist poking some of them to see how they felt! It was very weird! Then I dreamt of being on a transatlantic flight at my current gestation (40 weeks and 2 days), and having painful contractions and crampiness, and realising I'd broken the law (!!) by being on an airplane after 36 weeks of pregnancy! So I told the pilot and it turned out that there were only 4 people on board - me, the pilot, and 2 schoolgirls!! And the plane was teeny tiny, and could barely stay above ground level, so it would take us like 24 hours to get home, and I knew I would have to give birth before then, and nobody on board could deliver my baby! Weird weird.
Anyway I woke at 5am on the dot with awful period pain. Yay! But ow. It did come and go slightly, but it was basically there all the time, dragging and painful, like a real period. I couldn't go back to sleep because it hurt too much, but also I suspect being a bit excited that there was finally pain at LAST wasn't helping my wakeful state! By 6am I was too hungry to stay in bed, so I got up and ate cereal. Then I came back to bed. The pain seemed to stop being so constant and by 6.45 it started to become obvious contractions that hurt. I didn't time them too carefully but I guess they were about 10 minutes apart, maybe not that exact or regular. By 7.30 though, I was getting sleepy again and the contractions seemed to be easing, so I guess I only had 5 or 6 good contractions in total. But yay, because they were my first ever real painful contractions! They hurt like a bad period pain in my lower abdomen, right down low like where I used to get period pain, and also in the small of my back. At the peak of the pain it was quite sharp and searing.
Anyway I think I must have fallen back to sleep somewhere around 8am, and I slept till nearly 10am. Neil hadn't woken up yet so I lay there for a while trying to rest, as I felt like I hadn't had enough sleep yet. There were no contractions, but I had that constant dull period pain feeling. It was quite bad at times. Eventually my stomach was scrunching awfully from hunger so I got up and ate a HUGE breakfast! It was weird because I don't know where that appetite came from, especially after having eaten cereal at 6am! I even felt shaky and weak whilst preparing it, like as if I hadn't eaten for waaaay too long or something.
Anyway I have had constant period pain all day long. Only a few times have I noticed it's eased off, but only for about 20 minutes or so. Nothing has really happened though. I just hurt a lot, like I have my period, but it's pretty full on for period pain. I took a shower earlier, and we had sex this afternoon to try and help things along. I had some really quite painful contractions after that, about 5 or so minutes apart for a while, but they didn't stay regular. Since then I have just had the constant achy period pain low in my abdomen, and slightly sharper pain at the same time in the small of my back. I cosied down on the sofa between 3 and 5pm to watch a movie to distract me/pass some time. I took painkillers at the start, because things are feeling painful enough for that - which is quite exciting in itself! They didn't work though. Or if they did, I guess the pain was getting worse because I haven't noticed a difference! After about 40 minutes of watching the movie, I noticed the period pains were back to on and off contractions again, so I started to time them. I timed them for the rest of the movie, about an hour and a half, and they weren't super regular, but they started out 7 or 8 minutes apart and ended up about 5 or 6 minutes apart, with the odd 3 or 4 thrown in. My Braxton Hicks contractions have always been much more regular and more frequent, but then these don't feel like Braxton Hicks. Some of them do. Some of them are relatively mild (though none are actually painless today), and some last only 30 or 40 seconds, but most are around a minute to a minute and 20 seconds, and I had one mammoth one that lasted 2 and a half minutes! I am trying to note when they are particularly painful or not too. A few of them have needed breathing through, but I guess I didn't HAVE to breathe through them - they just hurt a lot so I decided to try relaxing further by breathing long and steady.
Anyway after the movie I got up and went to the toilet and that, and didn't really notice contractions till I sat back down again. So I don't know if those are "real" contractions if I don't notice them much when I'm walking around. They are pretty darn sore when I'm sitting or lying down though, all the time. I know this is a pretty good sign, and maybe things could happen tonight. But also it could be one of many days of pre-labour, and it could also completely fade off and disappear if it chose to. So I can't say I'll be going into proper labour later tonight or anything. Right now I'm a bit worried as to how I'll get a good night's sleep, since I'm not convinced that I'll be in real labour during the night. Maybe tomorrow? But who knows. These things can take their time, even once they start hurting. I mean, I've been like this for 13 hours now and no obvious progressive pattern can be seen. So we'll have to see. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted though!
People are phoning me a lot today and yesterday. Family are phoning left right and centre, apologising for disturbing us but wondering if there's any news yet. And a couple of people from church have phoned to ask the same. It's so nice to have people who are excited for us and waiting for Arthur, but it's kind of a bummer to keep having to say, "No, there's no news yet. We're still waiting." I hope I have news soon! I am encouraged though, because even if this pre-labourness does drag on a bit, I now feel that Arthur won't be too long in arriving, because these are definite signs that labour could be fairly imminent! I am nervous now though. In the night I was lying there thinking, "I changed my mind! I CAN wait!" Hehe! I just suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed with nerves about the pain and how long it would all last and whether I'd cope or not. It's the unknown I suppose. But there's no point in waiting because it has to happen sooner or later, and one way or another this boy is coming out, and I WILL get through it, no matter how hard it gets.
My breasts have started aching and stabbing again these last few days, as though they are growing again. I haven't felt that for a while. What else? My crampiness hurts. Ow. But it's got to mean good stuff! I just want to get the birth over and done with now that I am in pain in preparation for it. Especially since those painkillers did not work! I was hoping they might work in the very early stages or during pre-labour discomfort, but apparently not.
Arthur is very active today. He has been pushing and shoving around in there all day long! His little feet keep pedalling around up near my ribs, and I keep feeling like he is shifting or shrugging his shoulders, which is NOT comfortable! It hurts quite a lot when he pushes about during a contraction. He tends to go more still when he's being squeezed, but he'll start to wiggle as it wears off and that hurts if there's any contraction still going. No sign of a show or anything yet.
Well I think that's the update for today, but I'll update again when there's more news - even if it's the middle of the night when I hit established labour. If I haven't updated by tomorrow then you can presume it was a night of no consequence! I hope I have exciting news for you all soon! :)
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