The General Chronicles - Part 1

1 July 2014 D-Day minus 2

I have high tolerance for pain, physical pain, that is – probably because I come from a generation used to corporal punishment or maybe from the CAT physical training /pseudo hazing I had to go through in high school.  Either way, it takes a different level of pain to get the waterworks in my eyes.  And so the tears I'm shedding in the wee hours for the past nights for this little General describes how much physical pain I am experiencing with this third pregnancy.

With Aqui, I was induced at 38 weeks and although there was pain, it was only for a day and I had drugs as my crutch.  With Ia, my waters broke at 36 weeks and the labour also lasted for a day. Both were delivered via c-section, and for both, tears only came out of my eyes when I held them for the first time. 

I’m now into my 39^th week with the General, nearly full term and the pre-labour pains are creeping in day by day and worse at nights.  For those who don’t have an idea of this type of pain, imagine stubbing your toe on a sharp corner, multiply that by ten with a build up speed of 30 seconds, height of pain at 10 seconds and a slow down of another 30 seconds. Move that pain to your belly across the back.  To make it more fun, imagine a big boney lump inside you swimming leisurely at the expense of your internal organs.

The frustrating thing is that they're intermittent so I know it’s not labour yet. Even further frustrating is that I cannot take anything for it because I have to experience the pain to know if it was labour or not – and all of this started a few days/nights ago.  The only consolation I have is  that I only have 2D/2N to go before it’s all done… and then it’s a different kind of pain.

So how I do cope? I distract myself. I write. I pray. I stare at my sleeping girls beside me. I online window shop. I’m on Facebook. My TradeMe watchlist is full of nice things to look at. I feel bad for Ronnel because he is also losing sleep, asking me every now and then if I need to go to the hospital yet. I also feel his helplessness because really, there is nothing he can do. He is probably annoyed because all I talk about are the distractions that I use – FB posts, the viral videos, my TradeMe watch list etc.

But I hang in there, because I know that the General is healthy. He is oblivious to the pain he is inflicting and is swimming and just counting the days before his grand appearance… and maybe one day, when he is in his troubled teenage years and decides to inflict a different kind of pain to his parents – I will use this post as a guilt-extracting tool. Maybe.