sent home from the hospital
I've been having contractions for the last 12 hours, but not at a steady pace- I'll have them every 15 minutes for a couple of hours and then every 7 minutes for a while and then tapering down to every 4 minutes for about an hour but then suddenly back to 7 minutes back out to 15 minutes. I'm 80% effaced and 1.5 centimetres dialated loosing my mucus plug gradually.
Apparently I'm a wussy because although the contractions feel intense to me they register as pretty light on the machine. But of course the other factor is that when I arrived at the hospital the contractions totally slowed down anyway.
They said it could be anywhere from several hours to a couple of days.
The contractions felt intense but cool, fascinating, hopeful before i went to the hospital. But now that I know that they've done so little they feel much more painful and lot less cool. How can i get back into my zen dilation mindset?
Tigerfish Mama
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sorry you got sent home...and sorry you are feeling out of the groove.
my doula self says: relax and do things you enjoy and i'm sure you've heard this too, but try and get some good sleep where you can : )
here are some other things i can think of:
bath
walking
resting
snuggling/kissing
watching a movie
singing
laughing!!!! this can be really helpful, and if you are feeling scared it can kind of shake some of that stuff out
or do you need a good cry?
also, some mamas find reading or watching good birth stories to be helpful... although some i think find it disconcerting as they are about to venture in that direction themselves... so i think everyone is pretty different there.
cyber hugs to you : )
my labor w/ colette was really slow and the contractions varied. i started on a thursday and gave birth on monday afternoon. counting through them helped coupled with the thought that they only last for two minutes and what are two minutes in a lifetime? don't draw away from them and don't call them painful. think instead about what they are physically doing and remember that every one of them is purposeful. you are not failing, you are not a wussy. you are in labor and you will be holding your baby boy soon. very exciting!
(if you were serious about the zen thing, try chanting a mantra through them with your mala/prayer beads. do walking meditation. you can't control your body and don't try to. do control your mind and how it perceives this magical time.)
put on some music that sends you to your happy place and walk. when a contraction comes stop and put your hands on your belly, feel how hard those muscles are working to open you up! imagine them opening your cervix up contraction by contraction, and give yourself up to the power that your body is showing you right now. sounds totally cheesy but i spent the first few hours of my labor doing just that and it was good for me mentally AND physically.
the contractions WILL get more intense, motor, i know you know that and probably don't want to be reminded right now! but when you can give in to them and let them do their work they'll blow your mind with their power!
also: i noticed during labor that every time i sat on the toilet my contractions would like DOUBLE in intensity; my midwife told me it was because that position encourages cervical dilation. birthing balls and toilets are great places to labor, so give it a shot if you're in the mood!
love you motor, hope i don't sound preachy. big huge birthing vibes to you!!!
{{{{hugs}}}
I did walking meditation through all 10 hours of my labor with Jonah. I also did something called "toning" during each contraction. It involves making a deep, low-pitch tone with your voice (think tibetan monk-type chanting). I started each tone with the onset of a contraction and got lower as the contraction peaked. It really pulls your energy inward and helps to focus the contraction.
Good luck, mama!
So frustrating! But baby's almost here!! Big vibes for you! You finally get to meet your baby soon! I'm so excited for you!!
My first one had a meandering labor like that...nothing 'real' for 24 hours, just a squeeze here and there. Then there was one particularly uncomfortable squeeze that I instantly realized was a serious contraction...she blasted through 45 minutes later.
My advice to you is to eat pancakes or ravioli, all that you can hold. It doesn't do much for labor, but it's fun and delicious and will carb you into a wonderful nap. When you wake up, you'll have plenty of energy and be that many hours closer to meeting Motorboy. Have you chosen a name for him?
Glamorous
Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food. ~Austin O'Malley
what was taking motorbean so long! My advice? Take a bath. 10x daily, if need be. And walk. And load up on the food. Your body is practicing for labor and the itty bitty contractions are a way of gearing up for the real thing. My docs said if I couldn't talk through the contractions, they were bad. If I could, they were just practice ones. So don't feel bad that the scale at the hospital doesn't measure them the way they feel. There is no guarantee that the "real" contractions will feel any worse. And besides, the more practice you and motorbean have, the easier the birth might be. When I went to the hospital for #2 (dilated to 2, contractions were 3 minutes apart), it was only 3 hours of labor and whammo- a baby. Might have gone quicker if I'd just pushed through and declined the epidural too. (Not starting that thread here- I've done one with the epi and one without and can make no recommendations either way). So you'll be strong and fine and baby will be here Verrrrrrry Soooooooon. Promise.
maybe yer already in labor? i agree with alla the mama's - walk, chant, take baths, have an orgasm, eat pizza, drink a beer, laugh, "stimulate" those nipples (that always makes me laugh);
yer body is made to do this shit. you will be fabulous. i am sending total birthing vibes yer way. yay motorbean!! welcome to the world!
I was sent home with my last baby. He was a month early when I went into labor. Then it stopped. It started again. We went to the hospital. They said you can go home, this can take a while. It took until early the next day. I understand!! 
hang in there mama
Jessica
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind~~Dr.Seuss
ack, somehow I missed this when it was posted! Perhaps motorboy has already arrived!!!!
It's terrible to know "how little" the contractions have done, that's why I hate being checked while in labor (okay, I've only done it- labor- once but you know what I mean). It's just not really all that indicative of what's going on. Motorboy was probably doing lots of work getting into position, etc. etc. Who knows, really, what the being that became Thalia was doing and my body were doing for the 40 hours I was in labor but I'm sure it was SOMEthing important!!! 
Okay now I am going to look around and see if there is some sort of announcement that I have missed......
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. -- Emily Dickinson
You want to do what you think is right and what matters to you, and if other people don't like it, as my father would have said, they can go fuck themselves. -- Amy Bloom
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