MATERNITY LEAVE: Day 9

STATUS: pending (so...was it a false alarm or am I still in early labor???)

Yesterday I woke up with the fatigue I felt all day on Sunday. I felt nauseous and spent most of the day in bed eating cereal and mixed nuts with cranberry juice. By about 11:30 in the morning contractions started in - very mild - and came every 30 minutes and lasted until about 3:30. At 4:40 in the afternoon the contractions came back and continued every 10 minutes until the wee hours of the morning (about 2:00 AM). I slept between the contractions, drank plenty of water every couple of hours (in my sleep!), and used the bathroom continuously. Sometimes the contractions would even wake me or Jason.

Then...Jason left for work at 5:00 this morning and I realized that all the symptoms were gone. I was so disappointed. All this time I have been afraid of going into labor and the chaos of it all and last night, when the end appeared to be near, and I had harnessed and realized my meditations and patterns of dealing with the pain....it all went away. I was ready. I was getting rest. I was calm. And - nothing.
I know she will come when she is good and ready but I really hope it's on her terms and not Pitocin.

Today we have our weekly appointment. I am assuming dilation will be checked again and hopefully those 12+ hours yesterday did some progress as far as dilation goes. I am also curious to see what my doctor says about the possibility of stripping my membranes (that is, separating everything from the cervix - this tends to cause natural stress on the cervix thereby releasing the necessary hormones to begin labor. Unfortunately this can take 2-3 attempts - then again, it can be at most of 48 hours to see results of labor coming true).

Nonetheless, I hope all is well in there. She was up all night moving and squirming between each contraction, too (I can only imagine the discomfort she, too, was feeling).
I have been up since quarter to six this morning so I think I am going to try to get a cat nap in before the hustle into the city about noon-ish.