The False Alarm

The False Alarm
by facebook status updates

6:30 am
Kelli, Tamera, Daurelle – tried self-inducing again this morning (not castor oil, no, but not going to describe!)… I’m worried it’s going to cause a false alarm, because I’m definitely having frequent, hard contractions. Will keep you informed. Hopefully will start the real deal and I can call you out to meet Carolyn! Until then, make sure your phone is charged and your gas tank full!

6:45 am
A birthday date I could actually remember too! (I’m sitting at the computer timing contractions for a little while so I can compare later.)

8:21 am
Not ramping up and not fizzling out yet. So… in other words, nothing to report. 🙂

Not on facebook: Contractions were 3-6 minutes apart

9:30 am
Sitting down with an online contraction timer. Better than doing nothing while waiting to find out if this is the real deal or not! I’m three hours into contractions… They should peter out by around noon (or at least get gentler) if they aren’t going to become full blown labor.

10:15 am
Sometimes I don’t realize I’m having a contraction til I notice I am puffing my breaths. Then I have like two seconds to prep myself for the peak. 🙂 I really hope this is labor!

12:00 pm
Well, it’s noon and the contractions are still strong. Going to go sit and rest awhile in a quiet dark room and see how it goes. Planning on calling my mom and midwife out soon so they don’t get an urgent call during rush hours this afternoon. Maybe today isn’t the day, but I’m descending into that meditative labor zone, so hopefully we’ll have news of some sort soon.

Not on facebook: Between 12-1:30pm I had some really serious and regular contractions. They were about six minutes apart and I couldn’t talk through them. Often, they were double-peaked. This is when I was sitting in the (empty) birth pool in a dark closet and using the isolation to allow myself to just go with the flow. I felt good, I felt optimistic and Brian started talking about putting water in the pool. They had definitely become harder… but they weren’t so very hard that I felt like I needed to call anybody to rush out. We asked my mom and our midwife to head out here by 3pm before rush hour got going.

But….. when I got out to wander around for a bit, the contractions slipped off, becoming milder and milder, shorter and further apart.

2:15 pm
Thanks everybody! I had lots of strong contractions… but now not much for over half an hour. So….. we shall see. If not today, then soon. (see, tryign to be optimistic!)

2:16 pm
Possibly petering out over here…. will keep you all posted. 😛

8:30 pm
I am so blessed! Everybody was so supportive and encouraging today, even when I felt so disappointed and sorry to disappoint. Thank you Mom (Daurelle) and Melissa and Hannah for being so laid back and helpful and sweet today. We’ll get to meet this baby in due time… but until then, I’m grateful for all of you! (And thank you Kelli, for being so dang patient and unphased by the whole false alarm thing. This is my first time being fooled!)

This is me in labor-land during the peak of my false labor yesterday. I was completely zoned out and there. And kinda cozy too. A walk in closet is a GREAT place to put a birth pool and labor. Even when you don’t have water!

See you soon, Carolyn!