I now know what real contractions are compared to the early, fluffy bunny ones.
When I woke up Sunday morning, around 9am, to find Aden standing at the foot of the bed rubbing her belly. “What’s up,” I asked, groggily.
She sighed and smiled a tired smile, “I think today might be the day. I’ve been having contractions.”
“Oh, good,” I said, perking up. “How far apart are they?”
“Oh, about every ten minutes or so.”
“So nothing to worry about yet?”
“Well, last time it was when my water broke that I went to the hospital.”
We sat around much during the day. Aden trying not to do anything too challenging. Once JJ left with his dad for the next few days, we flipped on the Wimbledon finals which was like doubling up on the excitement and anticipation. Her contractions started hitting about seven minutes apart then, but actually subsided back to ten once it was done.
About 10-ish that evening, she started breathing heavy, and wincing, and this was much, much different than in the morning. We watched a movie, then a bit of TV as Aden grimaced every six or seven minutes, at least half a minute each time. It hit midnight and I suggested we try to get some sleep. I conked out almost immediately but I don’t think Aden got a minute of shut eye. I know she kept heading for the bathroom at regular intervals. About three and a half hours later, Aden’s breathing had become heavy and her contractions elicited painful groans. Blurry eyed, I got up and asked her how far apart they were, she didn’t know. I grabbed my cel phone, switched on the “stopwatch” mode and timed the contractions, eyes closed, half dozing, listening to her breathing, feeling her movements shake the bed, hitting the lap button whenever a contraction started and when they stopped (approximately). By 4:30 they were inconsistently around 5 - 7 minutes long, and 40seconds to a minute in length. Unlike in the movies, there was no frantic racing around, there was very little panic, and a hell of a lot more pain than they ever portray.
By 5:15 there had been little change and Aden’s water still hadn’t broke. I asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital (she was worried about going too soon, and getting sent home, as they do if your contractions are feeble and your water hasn’t broken… like if we decided to go at any point during the day on Sunday).