When I went in labor with my second child, I had no idea I was actully in active labor. You'd think I would know better, right? Wrong! The evening of December 16th I sat at home, with my little guy. Toward the early evening I noticed a terrible backache that I could not shake. No matter what I did, my back hurt. I thought it was just pressure from the baby. I didn't think for one second that I was in labor. I called my friend, since my hubby was at work. She came over to sit with me for a while, because she was worried about me. Great friend, right? That day I had cleaned my whole house, so no worries of leaving a mess. As my girlfriend and I sat there she brought up the possibility of back labor. What is back labor? How does back labor feel? I had no clue and neither did she. So we googled it. Sure enough I had all the signs. Basically, it's a really bad backache that wraps around the sides and as uncomfortable as all getout. Who would have known that back labor feels just like a backache? What about the contractions? I didn't feel them, so when the doctor asked how far apart my contractions were, I didn't have an answer for him. He told us to make our way up to the hospital. So, I called my husband to have him come home from work and then called my parents. Someone had to watch my toddler while we were away. I waited an hour for my husband to get home. By then my parents were already there.
So it was time to head up to the hospital. They checked me and sure enough, I was in labor. Unfortunately, I wasn't very far along. This labor was moving at a snail's pace! I was to the point where I just couldn't handle it anymore. They gave me the option of going home and letting labor progress naturally (since I live so close to the hospital) or to walk around the hospital and force it to progress. By now it was after 11 pm. I pick option 2! I was already over feeling uncomfortable and in pain. So we walked for 2 hours and I progressed slowly. My husband insisted on stopping at the cafeteria and eating. I couldn't eat. As he sat there eating his nachos I walked up and down the isles of the cafeteria, contemplating strangling him. I decided to wait, I may need to do it again in the near future. About 20 minutes before I had to go back for another check, I started to feel the contractions. And boy did I feel them! Honestly, with both births, I never got the opportunity to let the contractions build up slowly. Instead it was more like, HELLO, Good Lord help me! The backpain slowly subsided. Not like I noticed much, because by that time they were hauling me into labor and delivery to get to work.
The moral of this particular story is don't ignore those back pains. They could mean something other than a mere backache.
No comments:
Post a Comment