Early Labor - Minneapolis,MN

Same thing happened to me, but it was a terrible thing that I listened and went home! I was back in 3 hours in late 1st stage labor, vomitting the whole car ride there, in intense pain, vomitting in the admitting area, and bleeding everywhere. I was abandoned in triage (vomitting) for over and hour, bleeding, poor DH was beside himself trying to find a nurse. When I finally made it into L&D, I was screaming for an epidural. They administered one without checking my dilation and checked as soon as it was in...and I was at 9, yes NINE centimeters. It slowed my labor, they administered pitocin...I pushed for 3.5 hours... my baby started going into major distress because of the pitocin....they said "emergency c-section" but elected to try forceps and vaccuum first. My poor baby had apgar scores of 2 when she finally came out and was rushed to the NICU with low oxygen and major swelling from the forceps. I didn't see her for 6 hours and was beside myself. I didn't know if she was alive.

She was, and she had to stay in the NICU for 24. It was an AWFUL experience. I do not recommend "waiting" at home to anyone. Go back to the hospital. The LAST thing you need is to be nearing/in transition and nowhere near your delivery room.

With my second pregnancy, I was dialated to 5cm for 3 weeks before real labor actually began. You will know the difference. If you think about what your body is required to do in order to birth (VERB) a baby, you'll understand that it is not an easy, painless process. Being educated helps you recognize this process, but being excited and anxious to meet your new little one sometimes outweighs the most basic knowledge. Be patient and good luck. Congratulations in advance!!! :)

YES! Our bodies do not read the textbooks, so don't worry about it. I had Braxton Hicks contractions with the last 2 babies sometimes for 20 hours, and then they'd stop.

I had a friend who was in prodromal labor (menaing stop/start) for 5 days. She finally relaxed after I told her to send her mom home. She did and had the baby the next night...a home VBAC.

Here's my favorite video re: prodromal labor:
http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=2a4e81...

It's not the homebirth I want you to see, it's the prodromal labor. Cut and paste the TWO lines below if it doesn't link due to pop-ups being blocked on your computer.

http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?
p=2a4e81fbf0f66accb8afce

Also, if this is your first baby, rule of thumb, you should be at 3-4 minutes apart for min 2 hours before leaving for the hospital. Also, the contraction you are feeling shoul dbe in the lower uterus near the pubic bone AND you should have some pressure in your perineum (between your vagina and anus). If this is your 2nd, maybe not so much pressure before leaving.

Be glad they sent you home. :) I had the same thing with my first and because I was 9 days overdue, the decided to induce me rather than let me go home. It ended up in 36 hours of cervadil and pitocin.

My 3rd baby I had similar early labor and delivered about 24 hours later.

Congratulations and good luck!
J.

Did they tell you why they are calling early labor versus false labor? How do they know for sure? I had false labor with my son. Contractions 3 minutes apart (not painful) for a few hours. I did not go in to the hospital but I did call. They told me it sounded like I was going to have the baby that day but to wait to come in until my contractions were more intense and lasting 60-90 each. This started early in the morning on a Saturday. By early afternoon, my contractions were sporadic at best. I slept great that night and had no signs of labor on Sunday during the day. By later that evening, I was having fairly intense contractions but they were random...sometimes 20 minutes or more apart. I went to bed that night and woke up around 4am to go to the bathroom and my water broke.

Don't know if this is helpful for you, but wanted to share my experience! Good luck!

Seriously, THEY SENT YOU HOME IN THE BLIZZARD THAT'S MESSING UP ALL OF THE MIDWEST!!!??? And saying that you'll probably be back in 12-24 hours. I hope you are back there already and safely tucked away in a L&D room or at least camping out in the waiting room, waiting for it to pickup.

With my 3rd, I went over and on a Monday afternoon, had accupuncture to induce and get things started. All day Tuesday I had contractions, some really painful. But they varied so much in duration and time between. Finally at midnight I decided to go in. Was only 1 cm, but my water broke during the exam so I was admitted. Baby was born before 4am.

It can go down in so many different way, though. With #2, she was 4 hours start to finish and all but the last 1/2 hour was easy contractions. I was cooking, cleaning the kitchen, going to the hospital, walking to the L&D room with no problem, then BAM! 30 minutes of hard contractions and a couple minutes of pushing.

It's Sunday night, now. Hope you're at least at the hospital or maybe even holding your little one.!