a long 24 hours

well, more like a long last few days.

I started feeling really sick and experiencing a lot of abdominal pain starting Thursday morning this week. I finally went into the doctor's office later that afternoon and the only conclusion that we came to was that I was experiencing early labor, but it wasn't causing me to dilate or progress in anyway toward birth, so not to worry about it too much unless it got worse. Thursday was shot. I was exhausted from all of the pain. Friday was a little better and by Saturday morning, I felt almost back to my usual pregnant self. However, Saturday night, it hit again, and this time harder than the first. I thought I was just sick... like with a stomach ache, and tried walking around the block, soaking in warm bath, curling up in a little ball on my knees and elbows... nothing seemed to provide much if any relief. After about 5 hours, the pain became so intense that I started vomiting. I vomited for a couple of hours until there was nothing left to vomit. Finally we decided to head into the OB triage to see what was going on. I was thinking... maybe food poisoning? Maybe the flu? Who would have guessed... LABOR... contractions every 3 minutes. So, that's what that pain was! The only odd thing about it is that it wasn't making me progress. So, after an bag of saline through the IV, a shot of Tribultylene and a shot of zofran, I was on my way home again...just as the sun came up... still in a lot of pain, but a little more relaxed to where I could actually give into the exhaustion and sleep for a couple of hours. My relief was short lived because at 8 am, it all started again. This prodromal labor, as they call it comes on so suddenly and so strong! And the worst part, there's no relief. At least if it was real labor and I was progressing and getting ready to deliver, there would be an end in sight, and options for pain management... like... EPIDURAL! but not with this vicious attack. The nurse described my next couple of weeks to a month that I have to look forward to as "you feel like you just want to murder someone, but there's nothing we can do about it." great. The rest of my day has been a fog.

I'm trying to keep an optimistic perspective. I remember when I was so sick with morning sickness that I was shaking and couldn't get out of bed, I thought... I can't do this for another 10 plus weeks... like I did with Noah. But I survived, and it didn't last as long as I was worried about. At that point I still had 32 weeks to go. Now I have 4 1/2 or less. perspective. and knowing that the end result will be the sweetest baby girl I can imagine in my arms makes it all worth it.