Contraction Timer?

Yes...I don't think it's out of a negative controlling sense or wanting to
dominate, but there are general differences between the male and female
psyche, with exceptions. A female friend, for example, is usually just happy
to listen to a problem and let you vent, a male friend has feelings of
helplessness and becomes agitated if he can't find the solutions for you.
I often think men think more in terms of say, crossword puzzles, where there
are set right answers and the answers hold the puzzle together, whereas as
women our minds are more like a twisting maze which we're happy to stumble
our way through, meet a few dead ends, and take several different paths to
arrive at sometimes the same conclusion.
Not that women can't be similar...my mother became incredibly agitated and
eventually had to leave the room during my labour, she was much more upset
than I was. Partly because I bit her hand during a contraction. But I guess
it's hard to watch your baby in pain.
My midwife only timed my contractions when she wanted to know if she had
time to take a nap :-P

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.

In ,
Maggie wrote:

*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.

http://members.fortunecity.com/judeb...er/ctimer.html

I loved it. Awesome. Also used it for BF tracking postpartum.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

Hillary Israeli spake thusly
In ,
Maggie wrote:

*
*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.

http://members.fortunecity.com/judeb...er/ctimer.html

I loved it. Awesome. Also used it for BF tracking postpartum.


Thanks! I've downloaded it, but still haven't got round to installing
it yet. I'm getting the feeling I should do it soon.
--
Maggie
EDD 28 April

When my wife was going through contractions I got tired of having to write
everything down so I programmed a quick and dirty application that could
run on our laptop. It came in very handy. All I had to do is press the
space bar when the contraction started and again at the end. It would keep
a running log of start and end times as well as duration and intervals.
I've decided to post my contraction timer online for free for anyone to
use. You'll be able to find it he http://www.contractionmaster.com.

Um maybe you should have said it will SOON be available online because its
not on there at the moment you are just asking people to bookmard the site
or join the mailing list for when it actually comes out. Im not having a
mega go at you but no need for lies.


"snebold" wrote in message
lkaboutparenting.com...
When my wife was going through contractions I got tired of having to write
everything down so I programmed a quick and dirty application that could
run on our laptop. It came in very handy. All I had to do is press the
space bar when the contraction started and again at the end. It would keep
a running log of start and end times as well as duration and intervals.
I've decided to post my contraction timer online for free for anyone to
use. You'll be able to find it he http://www.contractionmaster.com.

Great idea :-) There's a sure way to know when she's hit transition, too -
that's when said wife throws the laptop through the nearest window after
wrapping the cord around your neck.

--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/


"snebold" wrote in message
lkaboutparenting.com...
When my wife was going through contractions I got tired of having to write
everything down so I programmed a quick and dirty application that could
run on our laptop. It came in very handy. All I had to do is press the
space bar when the contraction started and again at the end. It would keep
a running log of start and end times as well as duration and intervals.
I've decided to post my contraction timer online for free for anyone to
use. You'll be able to find it he http://www.contractionmaster.com.

"Mum of Two" wrote in message
...
Great idea :-) There's a sure way to know when she's hit transition, too -
that's when said wife throws the laptop through the nearest window after
wrapping the cord around your neck.

--

LOL I nearly put something similar... about knowing when to press the space
button every time the wife hits him for concentrating on the computer rather
than her...

Debbie

I'm sure you thought you were helping your wife out with timing the
contractions on your cool toy, but it absolutely drove me insane when hubby
would concentrate on the machine and tell me when a contraction was going to
come and end. All he needed to do was look at me and you can tell when a
contraction is coming and stopping. Focus on your wife and the contractions
will come and soon you will have a baby. You don't need anything to keep
track of the contractions.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

"snebold" wrote in message
lkaboutparenting.com...
When my wife was going through contractions I got tired of having to write
everything down so I programmed a quick and dirty application that could
run on our laptop. It came in very handy. All I had to do is press the
space bar when the contraction started and again at the end. It would keep
a running log of start and end times as well as duration and intervals.
I've decided to post my contraction timer online for free for anyone to
use. You'll be able to find it he http://www.contractionmaster.com.

Actually, my wife really thought it was a great help. The whole point of
the program is to allow partners to spend less time fumbling with a pen
and paper and more time by their wife's side. It also helpful to keep in
mind that every mother's experience with labor is different. In our case,
we'd already been to the hospital once and they sent us home because my
wife wasn't dilated. The nurse told us to time the contractions and not
return until they were 5 minutes apart for at least one hour.

Using a program to time contractions may not be for everyone but for those
expectant parents who feel it may be beneficial for them, my program may
be some help.

As for the suggestion by another poster that I was being insincere by
providing a link to a coming soon page my response is: Hey, cut me some
slack. I'm a new father with serious sleep deprivation. I did use the
words "you'll be able to find" in my first post. My intention here was
that I didn't know when someone would be reading my post. It was quite
possible that the program would be online at THAT time. Sorry if I mislead
anyone.

Anyway, as of this date Aug. 2, 2005 the program is NOT online quite yet.
I did get a couple hours (after putting my son to bed) to work on it last
night and expect to have it online (hopefully) by the end of the week. For
those interested in being notified when it goes "live" please visit the
website at http://www.contractionmaster.com and get on the announce list.
Thanks.

"snebold" wrote in message
lkaboutparenting.com...
Actually, my wife really thought it was a great help. The whole point of
the program is to allow partners to spend less time fumbling with a pen
and paper and more time by their wife's side.

If your wife liked it then that's fine. We never bothered with writing
anything down though or tracking them.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)