So, Sunday, after not having slept very well, I awake at 8:30 am w/some serious back pain. We had stayed at Julia's the night before until about 3 or 3:30 am hanging out (btw, I SUCK at Balderdash!), so it was pretty much a wasted attempt at sleep. Most of the pain was in my lower back and my pelvic area, so I was confused as to whether or not to think they were contractions. I kinda waited a bit to see, and then called my dr. when they didn't ease up. She said they were back spasms. I wasn't so sure I agreed...
Somewhere around 10 or so, I began to notice that the "spasms" came at a pretty steady pattern, so I started timing them. They were coming every five and a half minutes for about 30-60 seconds. They didn't hurt too, too bad yet, so I figured I'd just keep timing for an hour or so and see what happened. After about an hour, they went to every four and a half minutes. After Trey's mom telling me to wait till every three minutes, and my mom saying to wait till two, I decided that I was going to the hospital, despite their warnings. If anything, there was too much going on at home that I had to hear and deal with, and Taryn was fussy and wanted to be held a lot, so I was ready to at least be in pain in peace!
When I got there they hooked me up to the monitors and watched them for an hour. I got to the hospital around 11:30 or 12, and I was at 4 1/2 cm. After an hour, I'd only changed to about 4 3/4 cm., and the nurse said they were going to send me home if I didn't change faster. So she made me walk...for an hour. They were right about walking! After about half an hour of roaming the halls and having people look at me with pity (I had to hold the rails on the walls to keep from falling everytime a contraction came), I was begging to stop, but she said to keep going. Finally, after I thought I would die if I walked another step, she came and checked me again. 5 1/2 cm.! She had told me earlier that they would not let me have an epidural till I was at least 5 cm., and the second she told me I was, I told her I was ready!
The nurse I've been talking about up to this point was the bitchy one, but I haven't really gotten into why I hated her so much yet. She had, however, already pissed me off. Her insistence that I wasn't in labor and that she was going to send me home had really pushed my buttons. I mean, this is not my first child...I think I know at least a tinesy bit about labor and if I'm in it or not. She hadn't done her worst yet, though...and, since this has gone on long enough, I think I'll save the rest for later.
Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, my precious children, who now have TOOOOOOO much candy, in their Halloween costumes:
TJ was Peter Pan, Taryn was a ladybug (an uncooperative one!), and Cole was a dinosaur (sorta!).
I think its interesting that you use centimters when discussing how far dialated you are, but Americans don't use the metric system. Sorta made me do a double take.