Today I'm gonna receive the most bizarre telephone call of my life.
I am gonna, apparently, get a call from the hospital telling me they don't have any beds, so they can't do my induction at 6 AM as scheduled, and I will have to wait 'til this afternoon.
I'm gonna get this call at 5 AM, after a near-sleepless night due to the pain in my lower back and hips being so intense that I had to take a hot bath at 2:30 just to be able to lie in bed long enough to doze off for an hour before the phone started ringing. And after making meticulous arrangements to have my parents watch my son and get him off to school this morning even though changes to his routine basically have "meltdown" written all over them. And then I had to call my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law and my dad at 5:05 AM, and tell them that even though everybody took the day off work today, they were only "pretty sure" they would be able to get me a bed this afternoon.
It's not the hospital's fault, and I'm sure that if I went into labor in the middle of the night last night I'd be glad that they were putting off inductions to accommodate me. But if I happen to go into labor before they call to tell me they have a room ready, they had better make alternate arrangements quick, because my first labor only lasted three hours from start to finish and the second one is likely to go even faster.
I really wanted to tell the nurse that called, "Can I just come in now? I'll go fast and you can send me right home." I mean, there is a distinct possibility that some of the women who there right now will still be in labor when I'm done, even if they don't call me in 'til this afternoon. (Average labor for a first-time mom is 14 hours.) I just...I have been incredibly more uncomfortable than I was at this point in my first pregnancy, and it is incredibly frustrating to hear that that light I saw at the end of this here tunnel is basically a glowing neon sign that says "ONLY TWELVE MORE HOURS HANG IN THERE."
So. I can't go back to sleep at this point, I've got at least six hours before I can expect a phone call, and I'm too uncomfortable to get off the couch. I'm gonna get myself a box of cheerios, hang around here, get some knitting done, maybe fire up the Wii.
I'll keep you posted.