by Melissa Willets posted in Pregnancy

I am 39 weeks pregnant with my fourth child.
For weeks now, my labor has abruptly started and stopped. Last night, I had contractions that were so painful, they scared me. I feared delivering my baby right in my bed, an experience I'm not looking for. After an hour, however, the very strong waves stopped, and I was left wondering, well, WTF"

 
I'm beginning to wonder if, in my case, being induced may end up being my best option.
Let me rewind and provide a bit of background on my previous deliveries: My first pregnancy is the only one in which labor progressed in the traditional sense. It had a beginning, a middle, and ended about ten hours later with me holding my baby in my arms. My second pregnancy was induced at 39 weeks due to medical necessity, since my baby was failing to thrive in utero.
My third pregnancy was a lot like this one; I experienced contractions that started and stopped, week after week. Finally, one night around 37 weeks, I went to the hospital and my doctor decided to go ahead and facilitate my labor so I wouldn't end up going home and having my baby on the living room floor.

This is exactly what I'm afraid of now. Seriously, I'm scared. I feel like I don't trust my body. It has faked me out so many times at this point, I don't know when to believe it's the real thing, even though this is my fourth full-term pregnancy.
After having such frighteningly painful - and regular might I add - contractions last ...