To Hospital or Not To Hospital

I got a lot of questions as to if and when I was going to go to the hospital last Monday when I was having contractions.  I forgot to address that in the original post, so I'll do that now.

First of all, I've said for a while now that my doctor said to labor at home as long as I can before heading in if I want to do a VBAC.  The reason for this is that once I go in, they will want to hook me up to a monitor and I will no longer be able to move around.  They will want to monitor me because I had a previous c-section.

Second, once you check in, they do not permit you to eat.  'Nuff said!  And in case it's not enough, just know that I have low blood sugar and if I don't eat, I pass out.  I need strength if I'm going to be able to do this.

Finally, I was told that once I get contractions every 3-5 minutes apart, lasting about a minute each, for about 2 hours sustained, and I'm not smiling through them anymore, then go ahead and head in.  None of that happened, so I stayed home.

Of course, the nurses in the office asked about the usual leaking of amniotic fluid, blood, and the mysterious mucus plug. None of those had made an appearance either, so I never went to the hospital.

And, it turned out to be the right choice.  Go figure.

It was a sucky day full of pain, but that's all it was.  For those of you following along with all the details, here is an image of the paper we wrote down all the contractions on as they happened.