36 Weeks

I made it to 36 weeks, when I booked into the hospital I was told “You will be lucky to get to 36 weeks”. Well here I am very excited and yet exhausted. I know that I would not have made it this far if I had continued working. It has been the rest and relaxing that I’ve been able to do at home that has really helped.

Having said all that, I’m now ready to have these babies out. My husband, father, friends, family and midwives have all said to me, ”Just try to hang in there another week”. My Mum has been the only one not to say anything when I tell her that I want these babies out. She can see me struggling.

I was back in hospital again yesterday as the contractions were worse and they were regular. 6pm on Saturday night they were 10 minutes apart and I was only able to sleep after 2am, but woke every 10 minutes.

Sunday morning they progressed to 7 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds, we still went grocery shopping but I just had to stop and breathe through the pain. It is our Nephews birthday tomorrow so we went for a little visit to give him the present. All the while we were there the contractions were regular.

Throughout the afternoon the contractions progressed to every 5 minutes then to every 3 minutes lasting 90 seconds. You can see why I thought I was in real labour. But the midwife put me on the monitor and determined that yet again they were Braxton hicks, more intense and regular but false labour all the same. They have not eased up at all and are still every 3-5 minutes apart.

Seeing how distressed I was yesterday, shocked my husband and when he saw me crying (yet again) in pain whilst trying to talk to the Midwife, changed his mind as well. Sometimes being told the cold hard truth by a stranger is better than reading books or making your own assumptions.

She basically told my husband that at 36 weeks these babies, may have feeding issues but as their weights and sizes are above average they will be perfectly ok. The steroid injections have helped mature their lungs so it is unlikely that they will have breathing issues.

I’ve already endured almost 3 weeks of semi regular contractions; being asked to endure another 3 weeks is weighing heavily on both our minds. I’m averaging about 4 hours sleep a night but it is not continuos as I’m getting up every 2 hours for the toilet.

We have both decided to talk to Dr K about my options. Every night before we go to bed we look at each other wondering if tonight will be the ‘real’ night. I don’t like going to bed as it is just so painful and uncomfortable, half the night is spent on the lounge chair trying to sleep. As I mentioned I’m exhausted.