[Solved] False start

My wife and I are having a baby. For people who know us this is not new news as we are as a write this a little over 28 weeks pregnant. As the pregnancy has progressed I have sought to find out as much information about pregnancy, giving birth, babies and parenting as I could. Partly as I am so excited about it all but mostly as I feel there is so much to know and the more I can learn before our little one arrives the better!
Through my quest for more information one of my favourite sources of information has been blogs, just getting information on the perspective of the dad as that is obviously what I'm going to be. This is what has inspired me to write my own blog although, until now, I haven't had a whole lot to write about so I figured I would start my blog from when my little one turns up. As it happens though I do have something to write about...

There are countless weird and wonderful things that will happen to and in your partners body during pregnancy. The best by far is feeling your unborn child kicking and fidgeting inside your partners belly. So much so that we have developed a little night time ritual; when we go to bed I massage my wife's belly with all sorts of lotions and potions that supposedly stop stretch marks, this in turn 'wakes' the baby up and we have a little feel of his movements then after feeling all loved up and cosy we settle down and go to sleep. Saturday night however went a little different.

It is very common during the mid to late stages of pregnancy for the mother to get what is called braxton hicks contractions, sometimes referred to as practise contractions.
Basically the whole tummy sort of cramps up for a short while, kind of like the real thing but just not quite as painful as the real deal however I am reliably informed by my wife that they are still fairly uncomfortable.
My wife has been having these on and off for a few weeks now and has got fairly used to them. On saturday night she had a couple of them through the evening and when it came time for bed and our normal routine she was still getting them. We carried on as normal figuring that they would die down eventually but still they came and went. after an hour I noticed they where starting to fall into a pattern so thought i would get the stopwatch open on my phone. Sure enough they where lasting for 2-5 minutes each with a 10 minute gap between.
Asides from the discomfort my wife didn't seem to be in any real pain as all the information on signs of labour suggested but then again they where regular so maybe she just has a higher pain threshold then most;
Not wanting to jump to conclusions I thought id call the maternity triage line: Its worth noting here that if your partner is just in the early stages of pregnancy and this is your first as well have the triage number in your speed-dial. They are always so helpful and kind, they understand that you have no idea what is going on. Even if it is something silly they offer reassurance that its always best to call and ask.
Anyway back to saturday. after a quick chat to triage and me explaining that its probably nothing but I just wanted to check. Very calmly the midwife told me that its probably best if we pop along to the labour ward and that she'd ring ahead to let them know what to expect.
The labour ward? but she's only 28 weeks? So calm and controlled face on, I tell my wife the news and grab a few things and we head of to the hospital.

After the palaver of trying to find the labour ward (although we had been to the hospital for scans and the like, we still haven't had a hospital visit yet because as I said she's only 28 weeks!) we get buzzed in and shown into the first delivery suit by reception unfortunately I noticed on the door as we went in that it was the 'resus suit' which is a bit of an oxymoron (resus is short for resuscitation) - the resus suit is basically the emergency room for when it goes a bit wrong or is expected to go wrong Luckily the my wife didn't see this as i imagine it would have panicked her even more.
As we get in we are seen to by the senior midwife and two doctors who whilst doing various tests and examinations on my wife are all talking to each other about what to do, each weighing in with their own opinions from there specialty. After about 5 mins two of them finish with their tests and diagnosis and leave the remaining doctor explains the plan saying that they are going to continue to monitor the progress and if it continues to look like premature labour that they would have to give my wife a dose of steroids (to help the babies lungs prepare to start working early) and will probably transfer us to a more specialised near by hospital!

Now my biggest piece of advice I can give so for is that your job as a father to be and partner is to reassure the mother. I pride myself in being someone who can stay calm under pressure and adversities but I was bricking it! I was worrying for my wife and that of my unborn child. Of course I kept looking calm told my wife everything would be fine and that we where in the best place. Calming my wife down also had the same effect on me, I reminded both of us that we where in very capable hands and that babies do have a very good survival rate if born this early.

As the night progressed, things did start to calm down the contraction slowed then stopped and the doctors seemed quite happy that they weren't going to need to rush us to a specialist unit and it became apparent it was just a false start. Again one of the weird and wonderful things that a pregnant woman's body does!

My wife was kept in for a day or so for observations though just to make sure everything was ok. Even though in the end it was just nothing and that the ward and its staff where extremely busy we felt looked after and that we where as much a priority as others.

The whole experience has left me with a better understanding of what to expect and a great respect for the maternity and labour staff.

It was a great test run, even if an unintended one, with the real life panic thrown in for good measure! Both myself and my wife feel confident that we now know (some of) what to expect and we both feel that we will be looked after through what is an exciting but daunting time.

We have also been spurred along into sorting out our hospital bag a bit earlier then we were planning and putting a few extra bits in it that we hadn't tough about, here's a few that I thought are good ideas:

Ear plugs & sleeping masks - maternity wards are noisy places, even at night and although when in a delivery suit you can turn the lights off if your kept in after the birth, some of the wards keep lights on to a degree as midwifes have to do observations round the clock!

Baby wipes - not just for the baby, pack some for you too. They're an easy way for mum to feel refreshed and for dads, you probably wont be allowed to use the shower facilities as your not a patient. This way you can 'shower' without going home. and on that note...

Deodorant - self explanatory

Pillows - lots of threads on hospital bags do say pillows but I mean more for dad. If your getting any sleep it will most likely be in a chair, just bear that in mind.

There are loads of other stuff obviously and there are loads of blogs and webpages about it, these where just a few that we didn't even think about but found out would be useful.
I hope to continue to document and write about my perspective of the pregnancy and birth and then becoming a dad for the first time. You never know some of it might even give useful advice or tips!