Contraction Timer?

Chaneski wrote:
hi,

My wife is due... well, any day now... and while I feel perfectly
confident to time her contractions with my wris****ch, I wonder if
there isn't something better out there.

Other then the PDA thing...not that I know off. If you birth in a hospital
they attach their own monitors every once in a while. I think pen, paper
chart and a clock are your best bet - or heck, treat yourself to a PDA -
sounds like you're a gadget man :-) You could probably set up a spreadsheet
on your desk top.

Ask the doctor. They might know of something.

FWIW I've never timed a contraction an can't say that I was curious about
the times either.

--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (3)

Nikki spake thusly
Chaneski wrote:
hi,

My wife is due... well, any day now... and while I feel perfectly
confident to time her contractions with my wris****ch, I wonder if
there isn't something better out there.

Other then the PDA thing...not that I know off.

What's out there for PDAs? I've got a Palm and was thinking of getting
a (free) contraction timer for it. Partly for me and partly for my DH.

--
Maggie
EDD 28 April

I'm in agreement with the other posters - timing isn't rocket science,
and labours don't follow textbook patterns. The only thing about
timing that matters is are they becoming regular and are they getting
longer, stronger and closer together over time??? This is not
something that takes any more than a wrist watch to track, and I'd
have been ready to KILL my husband had he been obsessing about timing
precisely.

Labour can go on for hours and hours - it can slow down and stop, it
can just sit at one level for a long time, and it can go like
gangbusters (last baby I went from 6 cm to 10 cm in about 10 minutes
flat).

So what does timing get you? Whether they are 3 minutes or 3 minutes
and 7 seconds apart doesn't mean much. A better indicator of whats
going on is probably can your wife still talk through them? When she
stops talking and has to concentrate entirely on the contraction, or
screams at you to get stuffed if you try and talk to her while she's
having one, its a pretty good sign things are moving.

Mary G.

"Nikki" wrote
Oh yes. We fired up the space heater during bath time. The bathroom was
really warm but both my babies really enjoyed their baths...as long as it
was super warm :-)

I'll keep this in mind too! I wash just telling my husband that I hope our
baby is one who enjoys bathtime and doesn't scream during baths. I am not
sure I would have thought of a space heater! Great idea! We keep one around
but only use it ourselves in the winter.

Carla wrote:
"Nikki" wrote:

Oh yes. We fired up the space heater during bath time. The bathroom was
really warm but both my babies really enjoyed their baths...as long as it
was super warm :-)

I was actually thinking of doing this at bath time when my little guy
gets here but I hadn't mentioned to anyone because I thought they
might think it was silly or something...I'm glad to know that there
are others that actually do it & that it WORKS!

LOL I do this for me!

Have done for years, warm up the bathroom, the towel, the clothes I will
put on afterwards, everything! It's yummy and probably a result of
growing up in a cold damp country (Ireland) I don't need to do it here
(USA) but still do for the comfort level and will no doubt introduce my
child to the ritual too...

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:42:38 GMT, "Jill" wrote:


"Nikki" wrote
Oh yes. We fired up the space heater during bath time. The bathroom was
really warm but both my babies really enjoyed their baths...as long as it
was super warm :-)

I'll keep this in mind too! I wash just telling my husband that I hope our
baby is one who enjoys bathtime and doesn't scream during baths. I am not
sure I would have thought of a space heater! Great idea! We keep one around
but only use it ourselves in the winter.

The first few baths may be upsetting to the baby; they were to my DS,
when he was newborn. Over time the baby is likely to get used to
them, and may eventually come to love them. The earliest days are...
interesting, sometimes good-interesting, sometimes bad-interesting, as
you adjust to having a baby and the baby adjusts to being on the
Outside instead on the Inside (where life was very different).

Kerry J. Renaissance-McAdams wrote:
On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:42:38 GMT, "Jill" wrote:


"Nikki" wrote
Oh yes. We fired up the space heater during bath time. The
bathroom was really warm but both my babies really enjoyed their
baths...as long as it was super warm :-)

I'll keep this in mind too! I wash just telling my husband that I
hope our baby is one who enjoys bathtime and doesn't scream during
baths. I am not sure I would have thought of a space heater! Great
idea! We keep one around but only use it ourselves in the winter.

The first few baths may be upsetting to the baby; they were to my DS,
when he was newborn.

IME it really helps to bath with the baby. I did it all the time with
Hunter. I did it in the beginning with Luke. Once he was a tiny bit older
I put him in the big tub with Hunter.
--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (3)

I think this is more about the male need to be in control and 'fix' things.
My fiance felt totally hopeless because he couldn't make my pain go away
during labour. I on the other hand, was oblivious to most of my pain because
I was focused on giving birth. I think he remembers more of it than I do.
Perhaps the OP should invest in things like massage oils, a beanbag, and
from personal experience, shark-gloves maybe? ;-)

"Mary Gordon" wrote in message
om...
I'm in agreement with the other posters - timing isn't rocket science,
and labours don't follow textbook patterns. The only thing about
timing that matters is are they becoming regular and are they getting
longer, stronger and closer together over time??? This is not
something that takes any more than a wrist watch to track, and I'd
have been ready to KILL my husband had he been obsessing about timing
precisely.

Labour can go on for hours and hours - it can slow down and stop, it
can just sit at one level for a long time, and it can go like
gangbusters (last baby I went from 6 cm to 10 cm in about 10 minutes
flat).

So what does timing get you? Whether they are 3 minutes or 3 minutes
and 7 seconds apart doesn't mean much. A better indicator of whats
going on is probably can your wife still talk through them? When she
stops talking and has to concentrate entirely on the contraction, or
screams at you to get stuffed if you try and talk to her while she's
having one, its a pretty good sign things are moving.

Mary G.

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:56:31 -0500, "Nikki" wrote:

Kerry J. Renaissance-McAdams wrote:
On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:42:38 GMT, "Jill" wrote:


"Nikki" wrote
Oh yes. We fired up the space heater during bath time. The
bathroom was really warm but both my babies really enjoyed their
baths...as long as it was super warm :-)

I'll keep this in mind too! I wash just telling my husband that I
hope our baby is one who enjoys bathtime and doesn't scream during
baths. I am not sure I would have thought of a space heater! Great
idea! We keep one around but only use it ourselves in the winter.

The first few baths may be upsetting to the baby; they were to my DS,
when he was newborn.

IME it really helps to bath with the baby. I did it all the time with
Hunter. I did it in the beginning with Luke. Once he was a tiny bit older
I put him in the big tub with Hunter.

That's certainly true, and is in fact what we've done with Miles since
he started outgrowing the baby tub.

"Amy" wrote:
I think this is more about the male need to be in control and 'fix' things.
My fiance felt totally hopeless because he couldn't make my pain go away
during labour. I on the other hand, was oblivious to most of my pain because
I was focused on giving birth. I think he remembers more of it than I do.
Perhaps the OP should invest in things like massage oils, a beanbag, and
from personal experience, shark-gloves maybe? ;-)

Mary responds:

Too true. I've often thought that the real culpret in the rise of
medicalized labours and birth intervention is that mostly male doctors
have that XY tendency to want to measure and quantify and regulate and
control as a response to what they see as problems i.e. woman in pain,
biology unpredictable and messy, must do something to fix situation!!
They like to measure stuff even when evidence shows that the
measurements are meaningless - like exactly how far apart contractions
are, or yards of fetal monitoring strips. Data is somehow reassuring
in the face of the unknown.

I had my second and third babies without drugs, and believe me, it
didn't take a rocket scientist and a sophisticated time piece to know
when things were getting serious - i.e. I stopped talking and went to
"Mars" in my head, other than to bark at anyone who was dumb enough to
come within a yard of me (i.e. DON'T TOUCH ME, SHUT UP, GET AWAY, GET
THAT OFF ME!!!) I also just about broke all DHs fingers holding his
hand during transition.

Mary G.