Back Labour?

Last night was a sleepless one in the mamaetmaman household. Starting last Tuesday, I noticed a slight tight spot in my left quadratus lumborum muscle during a pregnancy massage I was receiving. Since then, the tightness has morphed into a dull ache in my left lower back for a couple of days, but not constant- it comes and goes. Yesterday during the day, I noticed it linger for 20-30 minutes then go away for a couple of hours, and then start up again for 20-30 minutes, and then go away again. 

But last night- things changed.

Last night, the achy tightening became a searing pain in my left-sided lower back that also reached forward and caused a debilitating squeezing pain in my left belly. Each “contraction” lasted about 4-5 minutes, and then backed off for and irregular period of time- sometimes 9 minutes, sometimes an hour, but mostly in 15 minute intervals. 

I was moaning, wimpering, crying my eyes out. I tried bouncing on my exercise ball, leaning forward on the bed and swaying my hips, squatting, cat-cow on all fours, and DW did some counter-pressure and deep massage on my back and sacrum. The positional changes helped a little bit, but mostly with distracting from the pain. DW’s counter-pressure helped a lot, some of the time. The pain ranged in intensity, but was always between an 7-9/10 on my perceived pain scale. I puked twice from the pain.

We were so tired that I’m between contractions, we’d get back into bed and try to catch some zzz’s. But with 15 minute intervals between contractions, you can imagine how much sleep we really got. 

Also- the contractions are much worse when I’m laying down (on my sides- I don’t lay on my back anymore). When I’m standing, they don’t seem to start. But it’s so hard because I’m so tired from propping myself up and changing positions, that all I want to do is lay down and sleep. 

We finished packing up some last pieces for our hospital bag (mostly clothes because I’m wearing the same 3 Lululemon pants pretty much everyday), and DW has been working on lesson plans to leave for th substitute teachers if she has to take tomorrow off work. 

I’m trying to keep busy by finishing up some items on my “To Do” list. First thing is padsicles. 

It feels like Dumplin’s birth is gonna happen soon. I wasn’t anticipating this back labour though, because at last check, baby boy was left occiput anterior, and not in a typical position to cause back labour. I’ve read that back labour can happen regardless of position though. I’m not sure what to expect of its progression. I’m trying to time the contractions but they’re not showing any progression. I haven’t called the midwives yet because of this. But last night, all the Hypnobirthing breathing and visualizations went out the window, and I was wishing for an epidural. My own moaning and breathing cadence seemed to calm me a bit, but totally freaked DW out because they were sounds of pain. 

Having been sitting up and standing for a while now, I haven’t had any back labour, so who knows where this is going. All I know is that something is happening, and all I wanna do is sleep!