I was was “released from partial bed rest*” and started eating all the things that people say would start** labor. It didn’t seem to do much to help. So, we kept to the plan to go into the hospital at 8:30 p.m. for them to start the labor process with a pill they planned to put next to the cervix***. Turns out that when we went in I was having contractions every 3 minutes, but I didn’t know**** it. With monitors attached, I was given Pitocin, and settled in to see how long it would last. Sometime before midnight, the TV no longer could distract me.
* I had a friend go with me to a prenatal appointment a few days earlier (Jacob had a class), and being that we are good friends, we were talking as usual, this time about something that makes me mad, and so my blood pressure read a little high. At the end of the appointment it was checked again, again after they left us in the room talking again, same topic. So, they had me go over to L&D at the hospital for a couple hours of observation. Most of the time my blood pressure was good, baby’s stats were good. But when on certain topics, they didn’t like the BP. I was sent home on partial bed rest and had to do a 24 hour urine collection. They found no trace of protein in the sample. The only questionable factor was BP during certain conversations. So, my advice to new moms, avoid topics that make you mad for prenatal appointments; for me it was talking about selfish behaviors of certain people that occasionally affect my life.
** Turns out that those things that people say will “start” labor really only encourage labor that has already begun.
*** It truly is all about the hormones.
**** I thought I just needed to pee every 3-5 minutes. And having never been through labor before, I didn’t recognize that as contractions of early labor.