A night of practice contractions

Now it was not long until the calculated date of birth, to be exact 4 days. Sure, it's just an orientation, I know. I was starting to get more nervous and wanted it to finally start. Next week would be the start of the kindergarten vacations and I imagined it to be quite exhausting pregnant.

My husband had another appointment in the evening, so I was alone with Noah and put him to bed. He hadn't slept at noon or in the afternoon, so that wasn't a problem at all. My husband was even still there when he was already asleep. I noticed that Igor was tense because of the appointment and we talked about other things and I encouraged him.

As soon as he left, I felt a slight tugging in my uterus and I was tense. Was this a first slight contraction? Was it going to start today? The timing was actually perfect, although there was probably no such thing. I sat down at the laptop and worked a bit on articles I had started. The next wave came - and then another. The intervals were long, but I hadn't looked at the clock, not even because of the length of the waves.

Slowly I could not concentrate so well. I was looking forward and a bit excited. Was it really going to start today? I was now paying attention to the distances and noticed that they were quickly getting shorter. After a short while, I was at 6 minutes apart and the waves always lasted about a minute. I walked around the apartment when the contractions came, this was most comfortable for me.

After about two hours, my husband came back and was totally euphoric and excited right away. He told me that several times that day at work he had kind of thought it was going to start today. I had already cleaned up a bit while he had been gone and he kept going. I didn't want to talk during the waves and rest in between. It didn't stress me out much, but I could tell it was working in my head. I also noticed that I was now breathing differently to deal with contractions.

But I still wasn't sure what they were. Was it just exercise contractions? Or was this birth? Everything had been different with Noah anyway... I was unsure if I should call my midwife. When the intervals became even shorter, I called her once and we decided to continue like this and wait. Around midnight, I was getting very tired, although I kept lying down in between. My husband and I both tried to get some sleep. I noticed as I did so that the contractions were subsiding and I fell asleep.

Around 3 o'clock they were back and came about 3 minutes apart, but I still didn't notice much downward pressure during them. I was a little sad and worried that it really wasn't the birth. I called my midwife again and she came by around 4 to check me out. And yes, nothing had changed. The cervix was still long and the os was closed. Sobering and depressing. She gave me tips on how to try to get the waves to weaken and even stop altogether.

I tried and sure enough, after half an hour, they stopped. I lay down in bed and just wanted to sleep. Sad and disappointed. When my son came down to us from his bed a short time later, I was happy to be able to cuddle with him. That did me good.

It was an incredibly exhausting night. And so depressing in retrospect. My midwife made it clear to me that this happens. It's annoying, but it's part of the process. My body is getting ready. I doubted myself and was very happy to be able to talk to my husband about it. He encouraged me. And now I'm excited to give birth and continue to look forward to the experience with some respect.

The cover image comes from pixabay.com.

The image in the article comes from unsplash.com.