I am feeling quite bleary-eyed and foggy-brained this morning following a night of sporadic sleep. I have been experiencing tightenings since yesterday evening, leaving me unable to sleep for any length of time.
I was up and about a couple of times. The first time at around midnight having been rudely awakened several times by the regular squeezing around my middle – not painful but very, very uncomfortable. I came downstairs and pottered about, moving laundry from washer to dryer and folding another pile before ambling off to bed for another attempt at sleep.
It didn’t work.
A couple of hours later after several more interruptions I was back downstairs again. Again rotating laundry, folding nappies, and replying to emails, noting that the tightenings were occurring every 15 minutes or so. Over an hour later I tried my bed again but sleep came and went in more of a snooze form.
By 5am I thought it best to prepare Mike for the day ahead. ‘I might need to go and be monitored at some point,’ I told him.
Now, at 8.30am the tightenings are continuing – still at around 15 minutes apart as they have been all night. I have mixed feelings about what to do next. On the one hand I know that I am not supposed to go into full-blown labour yet on the other, despite the on-going discomfort and certain breathlessness at times, I am not fully convinced that my symptoms are worthy of a hospital visit. What to do? What to do?
Please call the Hospital and get checked! I was exactly same with Z and in early labour, and you know how that turned out! If you cannot sleep through tightenings then they’re probably contractions….it doesn’t hurt to get checked x
I was like that with DS2 (though at 40+9) – regular tightenings, but not painful – went to hossie anyhow and got told I “wasn’t in labour”, but opted to stay in overnight as they weren’t busy and I felt a little “concerned” – then when they were monitoring me the following morning, they found bub’s heartbeat dropped badly with every one of these “not in labour and not painful” tightenings, and hence accelerated (broke waters, drip in, etc.) and it turned out he had the cord twice round his neck, poor lad, and I was glad I’d listened to my niggle and stayed in.
As said, it doesn’t hurt to get checked – you’ve had a lot of babies and your body is not always gonna behave like someone who’s only had one or two!
Oh Tania. Stay safe and well. All our love xxx