My L&D Visit

I'd been having bloody show all night, and called my mom at about 6:30 am on Thursday, because at that point, I wasn't quite sure what to do. She said I should go in "for a real check", since there was blood. Lady, I know what I'm doing! I know how to check myself, and I hadn't made any progress all night since I started having show.
Then she informed me that this happened with my older brother- intermittent contractions, showing, and zero progress. But back then, they didn't scream "failure to progress!" and section you. They just made you walk. Until your legs fell off. (I guess that's a mini-rant against my mom's cluelessness about how things are done these days.) I was scared that's what would happen to me if I went in.

The first OB that checked me, Jenny M, was very excited. She said I was 1 cm, and very soft, which was what my own estimate had been before getting there, by the way. My contractions (most of them I didn't feel) were 6 minutes apart, and she was hopeful that things would get going faster so I could VBAC on her shift. I had a good, steady labor pattern already established, hence her hopefulness. My BP was a little high when I came in (of course it was, I was terrified!), so they kept checking it, and I stayed on the monitors until it went back down.

Then Jenny told me to go walk around L&D for an hour, and she'd check again. When she did her second check, nothing had changed, so she did a "mini-strip" hoping that it would move things along. I was monitored for another 20 minutes or so, and then she told me to come back in 2 hours, and she'd see if I made any progress. We asked if it was ok to go get something to eat, and she said that was fine, that I should definitely get something in me, she didn't see me going to a 10 in only 2 hours. So we went & did that, then walked around some more. When it was time to be checked & monitored again, there was still no change at all. At this point, Jenny's shift was over, and I swear, she pouted.

She turned me over to another OB, Erin R., (who was just as nice as Jenny had been). When she came into the room, I was yawning, and my eyes were all watery and red. "Oh, no! Are you crying? Are you ok?" she asked. I explained she'd caught me yawning, and no, I wasn't crying, I was just really really tired. She was a little deflated. She told me, "Darn, I thought for sure you were in labor for real! Because if you were crying, then it's the real thing for sure."
I was told to do some more walking, then come back to the room again. When we'd done about 20 laps of L&D, and my feet wanted to fall off, I went back to my room, and sat on the birth ball they had there until it was time again for another check. I just couldn't do any more, I really was totally wiped out.

Erin checked me again, and said she didn't think anything had changed, so she was going to consult with the attending OB, Dr. P, about what to do next. Dr. P came in and he gave us a couple of options.

Option one was to stay and see if anything was going to happen, they would get me into a better room (I was still in L&D's triage at this point).

Another option was starting pitocin, if I wanted to, but he didn't think it would turn out well. From what Jenny and Erin had told him, my Bishop's Score was still too low for a successful augmentation, and I'd probably end up in surgery.

The last option was to go home and wait there until labor truly began on it's own. He didn't think anything was going to happen quite yet, and it could still be a couple of days, and he was more than ok with us going home. He said he expected it wouldn't be long now, and I'd be more comfortable in my own environment.

I opted to go home and wait, and he was very supportive of that choice. If I was still pregnant late next week, they'd discuss my other options, which would be pitocin to augment my labor, or to schedule an RCS (which I won't do unless there's a damn good reason).

Alex looked great on all the strips (never had a decel! yay!), and my uterus was doing what it was supposed to, but it just wasn't ready to go yet. When Dr. P found out my next appointment wasn't scheduled until the 20th, he got us a new one for next Tuesday, if I hadn't already gone into real labor by then.

Dr. P told me not to worry about the bleeding, unless it changed to bright red or got heavy like a period, or if my water broke. He also said to trust my instincts, and if I felt different, not to hesitate to come in. I could take Tylenol if I needed to, and he recommended hot showers to help me relax, try to eat small meals frequently to keep my energy up, and try hard to get some rest. I kind of laughed about the rest thing.

We went and picked up TJ at my mom's, and we came home. We picked up KFC on the way, because GW & I were both too tired to think about what we wanted to feed TJ for dinner. I sent GW out for the things on the grocery list that we really needed (like toilet paper) in case something happened. I had also had wine on the list (sort of as a joke, but not really) for the last couple of weeks. He brought me some. I had a shower, and a glass of wine, settled down with a book to help me ignore the contractions, and passed out. Pre-labor is officially stupid.