30-something week update

I'm 33 and a half weeks (nearly) today. I haven't been doing well- at all. I'm definitely feeling the end of pregnancy hitting hard. No energy- crazy outlandish hormones- nausea (great)- edema making it painful to walk- leaking breasts and oh yes- the whole nine yards of not being able to sleep at night.

I've had Braxton Hicks contractions (quite normal) up til last weekend. It's now been over a week since these cramps have changed to hard and heavy contractions- stop and go labor that I've found is known as prodromal labor. Stop and start 'real labor' pain that can be as violent as one minute long contractions every five minutes for an hour- and then it stops. Just when I may be thinking it's time to go into the hospital- it stops. Maddening. These contractions keep me up at night, steal my energy during the day and make it pretty much impossible at times for me to go about my daily life.

My doctor is not concerned. But my mom-sense is flaring up. I was rushed to the hospital a week ago today for what I thought was my water breaking. No one had answers but I did have an infection and was put on antibiotics, given an IV and was told to go home. It's 'normal'. Maybe. But not for most women. The thing with stop and start labor is- yes it's false labor- yes it's slightly different than Braxton Hicks- BUT most doctors don't consider it an issue because the progress it makes to ready your body for birth can be really slow- or really fast depending on how long you've had this pre-labor.

And so- I'm ready to pull my hair out. Kill someone with my bare hands. If I wasn't pregnant I'd be drinking and smoking all day to cope with the pain (oh they don't give you pain meds- didn't I tell you? :P ) Baths don't help. Drinking loads of water doesn't help. Lying down with my feet elevated doesn't help. It really doesn't help.

I'm hoping to have the baby at the end of this month or super early next month (when I officially hit full term at 36/37 weeks). Sometimes I cry out of pure frustration that in some doctor's minds I have the full 6 weeks to go until week 40 or my baby will be born with horrid health problems. (he won't be) I was a preemie and so was my sister (36 and 34 weeks respectively) and we were FINE. this was way back when, too. I can imagine modern medicine is a far cry better than it was in the 80's. No oxygen, nothing. We were absolutely find and able to go home in just the two day period for full term babies.

It's hard when mom-instinct clashes with the cold cut case study doctors you meet. I'm seeing an entire practice so I hope this next appointment is reassuring and maybe provides some answers. Every pregnancy is NOT the same and if I say I'm in extreme pain- well buddy- I probably AM. If this really is normal I pray for a swift delivery as soon as the baby is ready to be born without complications.