signs of stork

If Steve and and Wendy had a marathon then I think Sal and I are going for the ultra. Sal started contracting yesterday afternoon a little before I left the office. The observant may have seen me tidy my desk a little more than is typical for a Monday. We went to the hospital at around 10 (Sal, Jo her sis and me) and things continued to progress until midnight when they went into reverse. We had been at 3-4min intervals with contractions up to 70seconds...but as we got to midnight Sal dropped back to around 10mins. Mum to be fine, baby fine, everything good...just not established labour. Sal chose to ignore the advice of the midwife to not be disappointed.

Sal was given the option of going down to the maternity ward on level 3 where there was a free single room and, as she was admitted, they could give her painkillers for her back (major cause of concern) and industrial strength sleeping tablets. The trade off; she'd have to stay alone as relatives are not allowed to stay. We live 5mins from the hospital so we agreed (Sal decided, I agreed) that the best thing was for her to take the room and try to get some sleep - a distinct possibility; between the contractions she'd been looking relatively rested. I would also give me the opportunity to grab some shut eye.
f
Jo had left the hospital earlier in the evening for our place and I managed to scare the crap out of her as I arrived home at just before 01:00. I'd not spotted her car and thought she was at the third sister Mara's place. My arrival wasn't too quiet. Anyway, Jo went back to bed, I crashed on a mattress in the lounge and awaited a call. Rosie, the midwife on duty, thought Sal would "go' at around 04:00.

She didn't. There was no call, so at around 06:30 I called to see if jo and I could come back in. We could and we did. Sal had managed to get a decent (relative) sleep which was a good and a bad thing. Sleep good, no progress bad. We wandered down to get some breakfast and see if we could get things moving but we couldn't and by 10:00 the contractions were infrequent and irregular. Bugger. We went for a walk; no change.

While out walking the doc called and asked us to come back so Sal could be checked upon. Somewhat inevitably, with little progress, we were advised to head home and try to get some rest. I called Sal's dad mike and had him get some meat pies for our arrival. As we left the hospital - of course - the contractions started to make a return. Fairly well spaced, but pretty intense. Nothing to justify turning around immediately.

We got home at a little after 12:30pm and since then thins have moved on a bit. It is now 14:40 and Sal is having a bath while grimacing through steady, strong contractions lasting over a minute each and are now at steady 5 minute intervals.

I think things are starting to move along a bit.