Sunday night I was less than an inch away from heading over to Labor and Delivery, even if just for some relief from the agonizing pain. My contractions were hard, and every few minutes, lasting for a minute or more. Reader, I was looking death in the eye. If I was in real labor, and in the hospital, it would have been at that point that I would be begging anyone passing my door for an epidural. Grabbing the nurse by the collar of her (or his) scrubs, offering up my first born children. That bad.
So I popped a narcotic, sat back, and waited for the magic to happen. I think it helped that I restricted myself wholey and completely to the couch, not even getting up to give Cohen a kiss at bed time. "Come to me on my death bed son." He did. He's a good boy like that.
And while the narcotic eventually did help "take the edge off", which I interpret to mean "drug me up enough that I no longer cared a whole lot about the pain and put me to sleep," I still had to wake up Monday morning to a very sore body, and more painful contractions.
I'm sure they can give me a whole pharmacy of stuff for the pain, but eventually, the reality is, I have to just deal with it for now. I read a lot about how they get worse as the due date nears (nears is not a term I'm using for me at this point. 20 weeks is only half way freaking there.) My poor cousin Abbie had to have her husband flush her contraction-stopping-dream pills at the end. Brave woman.
You know those women who say, "I was in labor for 52 hours!" I want to shout back at them, "I was in labor for 23 weeks! Beat that!" (Calm down Kelly, it's not a competition...) And most days aren't as bad, as long as I behave. My body gives me excellent warnings to "Slow down" and "Sit down" and "Down that narcotic" and so on and so forth. I'm grateful that I get those warnings, that I'm not heading down a dangerous path of pre-term labor and having no clue about it. I know what's going on, and knowledge is half the battle, or power, or something along those lines.
All in all, having contractions every few minutes all day long just isn't as fun as I had anticipated =)
Kelly Down
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1 comment:
Ok Kelly I just have to say thank you, you alone have brought a little more peace into my life. I have been struggling very much with my choice not to have any more children, As I read your blogs I feel more comfort that I made the right choice. Being on bed rest was the hardest thing I have ever done, I know it is the same for you. I hope your contractions start getting better, I know odds are they wont but hang in there, stay down and I'll keep praying for you!
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