brilliant post Fio :)
I'm quickly writing my update while the curry is cooking in the oven.
We got to the hospital at about half past 4, and the MW (same one as Thursday - her name isn't Marianne, but in the notes she's just down as S Surname, so don't know her first name.), asked whether I wanted the sweep first or the CTG. I ummed and ahhed a bit thn said "I'll go for the unpleasant one"
It was definitely not "right, get on there then off we go!" there was plenty of time for me to do my thing in getting my knickers off, and getting in position (I never need much time to faff around - just get on the bed and get on with it!, but it was nice to be given a slow pace). She explained what would happen, and that she had really small fingers (really they were tiny!), and then just did it. It didn't hurt. the only uncofmrtable bit was when she first inserted her fingers, but that was it, the rest was perfectly fine. The conclusion is that she could fel everything and stretch me to 3cm (in the notes she's just put 3cm dilated, membranes swept - intact), and she could feel the waters and the head.
The CTG was less successful, because Isbn just kept moving, and knocking the monitor out! The paper got screwed up a bit as well. It meant that we were on there a lot longer than we should have been, but she was perfectly happy with the readings. My notes say "CX mid position 80% effaced"
All the other notes look good, pretty much the same conclusion as Thursd.
I reckon I did have quite a strong contraction - not sure if more than one, but it felt really, really tight.
Oh, another thing she mentioned was that my abs have separated (cos when I pulled up my head, the lump stuck right out, so she had a palp, and could feel both sides of them.) That has been the most upsetting thing so far, because I thought that the bellydancing was supposed to prevent that from happening (although I do remember reading that if your abs are too solid before you are PG that as it all grows, they are more likely to separate)
Hopefully it means that they will be quite quick to get back to normal again.
(it doesn't hurt)
I think i'm having another contraction now.
The plan for tomorrow is that if I don't go into labour tonight, we have to go back again for the CTG again. I asked if it would be the sweep as well, but she didn't seem too bothered about it, so I confirmed with her that if I wanted to try that again, they would do it.
She also said that if I had my waters broken, that it was pretty likely that everything would start very quickly, because of how dilated I was.
(so I'm assumign the same if I have SROM tonight)
she also recommended the nipple-tweakign thing, so any tips on how to do that to the best advantage is now appreciated :)
While we were being monitored, a girl came in at 38 weeks, who thought she might have a UTI, but they put her on the CTG, and then suddenly she was surrounded by green scrubs. Unfortunately, her trace was not normal, and they said that the baby needed to be taken out as quickly as possible. It was awful. I really hope they're both okay. The speed at which it all happened was horrid, too. It went from brown wee to Doctor asking loads of questions to "i've been having migraines" to "we've got to get this baby out" :( :( :(
I'm really thinking about her and her baby (and partner) now, hoping to God that it all works out and that the baby is okay, and that she is too.