Pain Tolerance

Yesterday I had my whatever week appointment. I am not to the point where I go every week. I have had some off things/feelings over the past few days so I talked to my doctor about them. One was that I thought BZ wasn't moving as much as she had been. She still moves around but she has been extremely active and just over the past couple days has slowed down.

So my doctor said she wanted to put me on the fetal monitor to see if BZ was doing ok. I really haven't had anything done at the doctors the entire pregnancy. I haven't had any issues/complications. The last ultrasound I had was at week 18 when we found out BZ was going to be a she. And it wasn't until this last week that things have started to feel off. I am having more pain-almost like I have been horseback riding-sore pelvic muscles/bones. But I just keep on keeping on.

So it was interesting to sit in the chair, watch a little HGTV and listen to BZ's heartbeat for awhile. I was suppose to press a button each time I felt her move while one monitor tracked her heartbeat and the other monitored contractions. I felt one contraction while I was sitting there right after the nurse came in. I tell her and she says "Yup, that was a good one" after looking at the little readout sheet.

I ended up sitting there for about 40 min...quite a while, but whatever. I was enjoying the TV and reading a magazine. Then the nurse came back in and asked me if I had felt any of the other contractions. I say no. She says really? I was like, "no, just hanging out here." Apparently I had a bunch of them, and some of them strong. She and the doctor come in and tell me that I must have a high pain tolerance since I didn't feel them. :) By the way...all is good with the baby and me...the doctor said just to pay more attention to the contractions and the level of "pain" that is there.

Of course I already knew I have a somewhat high pain tolerance, I have been told that many times. I think most athletes do. Something about a certain level of what I think of as just uncomfortableness. I mean, after training all week, you typically are tired/sore/uncomfortable...but after years of doing it, I think it becomes a somewhat normal feeling. So then you really only feel pain, when that pain is extremely bad. So maybe I have been "feeling" the contractions and maybe not, to me, it really just is some amount of uncomfortableness, that I expect to have because I am 36+ weeks pregnant. I am not suppose to feel great, just like when you are training you don't either.

I am not saying that I have this fairy tale vision that labor isn't going to go beyond some level of uncomfortableness...because I know it is. Just like racing, you know it is going to hurt, but there is a good hurt about it right. But I am trying hard to keep an extremely positive and calming attitude about the process and about how I have gone through a lot of pain in different areas of life before and that this is just one more of those things. I know I am capable of going through this being comfortable and without meds and just like with training know that it will be a good hurt, with a rewarding finish line.