Yesterday a little after 3:00 PM CST, Pregnant Jane started to have some contractions. Earlier in the day, we went to her doctor’s appointment (which Jane will update you on in her post today) and the doctor stripped her membranes again. A couple of hours later, some contractions began.
We thought, “This Is It!” We’re off to the final stage of the pregnancy journey: Labor and Delivery!
Jane was on Twitter and a few contractions became really uncomfortable for her, so she gave me her computer and asked me to keep updating people on Twitter. I was reluctant to do so, but went ahead and started posting updates and talking to everyone. We even started a special category or whatever it’s called called, “#twitterbirth” to keep track of the happenings.
You can also read all of her posts here.
However, as the night pressed on, the contractions became further and further apart, where they were just 8 minutes apart for awhile there. Jane also had some other signs of labor like swelling, too.
I thought for SURE we’d be getting up in the middle of the night a lot – and maybe even running to the hospital in the middle of the night. Well, we’re still home and still, Jane’s contractions have subsided.
We’re both really confused as to what happened. And we both feel VERY bad about getting everyone as excited we were on Twitter. We just really thought this was the beginning. We’ve never been through this before, so we have no idea what to expect or know exactly how things work here.
Jane on the other hand feels REALLY bad about last night. She feels like she let me down and hundreds, even thousands of others on Twitter rooting for Baby Tarzan to make his appearance last night or this AM. I’ve given my beautiful pregnant Jane many hugs since we got up a few minutes ago (although Jane was up many times throughout the night).
I’ve told her it’s not her fault and not to feel bad about anything. If it was up to us, Baby Tarzan would have been born last night. But he has other plans and he didn’t want to come out last night.
So what happened? What were those contractions?
We’re not 100% sure. There has to be a connection between Jane’s doctor stripping her membranes again and the episode last night. Jane was feeling things and pains she’s never felt before. So like I said above, we thought this was it.
Based on looking around this AM, it sounds like this was “Prodromal Labor”. Huh, a new term that we’ve never heard of. But reading about it, it sounds like that was what Jane was going through, and more importantly, it says that this is a very important part of labor and some woman feel it, and others do not. It’s the body getting ready for the big labor to kick in I guess. Anyway, read all about it here: http://www.childbirthsolutions.com/articles/birth/whatlabor/index.php
As far as any other news, Jane thinks she is starting to leak. Not a lot, but when she lays down and moves around, she feels it. I remember from the class we took that Baby Tarzan can act like a plug when you’re standing or sitting down. But when you lay down, the baby can move a little, and allow for a little water to leak out if indeed the bag has broken a little.
So that is not confirmed and we’re keeping an eye on it.
All I know is that Twittering on Jane’s account was the BEST thing for me! It kept me calm and helped me not get all freaking out that this could be “it!” Jane was smart to have me do that – or else I would have been a nervous wreck. But twittering the play-by-play last night kept me calm and we both had a lot of fun, minus the times the contractions came of course.
I was reading Jane all the replies and post as fast as I could. I was trying to reply to as many people as I could. But the coolest thing of all, SO SO many people provided a lot of great advice and great ideas for us. You guys really helped us out – Jane and I thank you so much!
So, we’ll of course be a little reluctant to post on #twitterbirth until we know for 100% that “this is it”. We don’t want to get everyone’s hopes up like ours were. That’s no fun. :( But we’ll keep everyone updated on here and Twitter as big things happen. So for all those who were watching everything unfold on Twitter yesterday, Jane and I are deeply sorry about that Baby Tarzan decided to put the brakes on.
Hopefully… wait…
As I’m writing this, Jane called me into the bathroom. Let me add that I’m eating cereal while I’m typing this and had a mouthful while I walked into the bathroom.
“What is this!?” Jane asked.
I looked and swallowed hard. She showed me a lot of blood and mucus stuff on the TP. More blood than anything.
“The bloody show again?” I asked.
We both don’t know. Can you have two bloody shows? Was what we thought was the bloody show that happened the other day just the mucus plug and now today is the bloody show?
Wow. We’re some very confused soon-to-be parents right now. :(
Baby Tarzan, come on out so your mommy and daddy can stop being so confused here!
P.S…. We love you guys. We VERY appreciative of all of you that read and comment on our pregnancy (soon to be baby blog!) and post comments to Jane on Twitter. Thank you guys so much. And a BIG thank you to the woman who Twittered us last night and said that she was going to bed, but has Twitter on her phone and set it to go off every time we posted so she’ll know what’s going on! That amazes Jane and I and we’re so thankful and grateful that we have people like you who care about us and want to know what’s going on.
Thanks to all of you for making this sometimes scary and confusing journey easier to go through – and for keeping a soon-to-be-father sane last night. 
P.P.S… Jane is on the phone now leaving a message for her Doctor updating her about last night, but more importantly asking about the possible 2nd bloody show of whatever that was that just happened. We’ll keep you guys posted.
P.P.P.S… As mentioned in the post last night, when things are happening, Jane or I (most likely me) will be updating Twitter with the play-by-play including the trip to the hospital, contractions, and while we’re in the hospital, all the way up to the birth of Baby Tarzan.
You might also want to read:
- Pregnant Jane may be having contractions right now
- Signs of labor? 39 weeks pregnant and the bloody show or mucus plug arrived today
- 38 weeks pregnant: OB pregnancy appointment, date night, & my labor dream
- Bloody show. Mucus plug. Lightning Crotch. Pregnancy and Labor Terms I Really Could Live Without Hearing!
- It’s 4:46 AM. Jane’s water broke at 4 AM CST. Called Doctor. She said head to the hospital NOW!!!
Sorry I just sent you guys a comment but the beginning of it is suppose to say hi not I so I just wanted to correct that. Congrats on the new baby again.
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