What is Prodromal Labor and How You Can Pray for Me

    I'm 38 weeks and 3 days. I know, it went by super fast.  We are totally ready to meet Greyson (and not just because he's ran out of room!). On Friday night, I was having some pretty noticeable contractions so I started timing them. They started out as ten minutes apart for 2 hours and then they moved to 8 minutes apart. At this point, we called Josh's parents to come stay with the boys (they live an hour and a half away). When they got there (about 2 hours later), my contractions were still going strong at 8 minutes apart and seemed to be getting stronger.  We headed to the hospital with the hopes of finding someplace (even if just inside the hospital) to walk around and help my contractions get closer together. My doctor told me to come in when they are five minutes apart, but we live an hour from the hospital so it is kinda hard to time that right. When we got to the hospital it was midnight, so we had no choice but to go to L&D. They monitored me for an hour and then let me walk L&D for a while (I think we walked for two hours!) as per my doctors instructions. After we walked, I had not had any cervical change at all so they sent us home.  This was discouraging and nerve wracking, as we were sent home when I was in labor with Boaz only to get home and have my water break!  We headed home though, and nothing happened. 

    So have you heard of Prodromal Labor?  Yeah, I hadn't either. Basically, it is just labor that is stop and go for a while without progressing.  It is different than experiencing Braxton Hicks (those are just practice contractions, these are the real deal). 'Typically' women who experience Prodromal Labor have contractions that are painful and timbale but then they stop and pick up again later. For me, this means that I am having contractions 12 minutes apart for several hours, and then they will start to be 7 minutes apart for about an hour and then they go back to 12 minutes apart. And. They. Never. Stop. And when I say contractions, I mean the kind that make you stop what you are doing and force yourself to breathe. I am unable to talk through them (or if I do, it's through gritted teeth), and they last about 1-1.5 minutes a piece. 

So here's how I need you guys to pray for me:

•Having painful contractions that lead nowhere is both emotionally and physically exhausting. Pray that I can rest.  I have been doing my best, but the contractions have even been disturbing my sleep. 

•Pray that labor will progress and that I will know when it's time to head to the hospital 

•Pray that we will not be discouraged 

•Pray for a safe and easy delivery. I have read that often times, Prodromal Labor causes actual active labor to be quick and easy since your body did so much work during the Prodromal Labor.  We of course want this, but we do want to make it to hospital! We plan to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), so pray for a safe delivery!  

•Pray that no one gets sick before Greyson comes!