update continued

Part of me was really hoping that this was it and we'd have a baby today so I'm definitely disappointed, but at the same time I know it's still pretty early and it's better if he can chill out in there for a bit longer, at least till we get to 37 weeks. I guess this was just our practice run, our dress rehearsal :) and now we know much better what to expect and we'll be ready when the time really does come.

It was such a roller coaster ride yesterday. The contractions started early afternoon and I was home alone and quickly started to realize that these were not like other contractions. They were stronger and more frequent and lasting longer than anything I had before. So at first I was just feeling totally unprepared and overwhelmed. And I just sat on the phone with my sister and cried :( Tim was supposed to be working in the city last night and I needed to pick up Reilly and I was trying to take a practice board exam at home and we had nothing prepared or in place for us to deal with labor and I felt like it was too early for the baby to come. We were still only 36 weeks, 2 days! Not quite full term yet. After a few hours of contractions i talked to Tim and we decided that he needed to be home with me and not go to work in the city. We arranged for Reilly to go with Aunt Betsy for the night so we could deal with what was going on. We got our bags together (after Tim ran out to the store to pick up a few last minute things) and did some laundry so we had clean clothes to bring to the hospital. I was feeling better at this point about being in labor and having the baby come and we started to really get amped up for it. The midwife said to wait until the contractions were 4 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each for an hour at least. So we had gotten everything together and decided to try to lie down and get some rest. Tim fell asleep but I was wide awake. The contractions all of a sudden got really regular and by about 1:30am, it had been going on for over an hour. I woke Tim and we called the midwife. She said to come on down to the hospital. We felt giddy and nervous and excited...this was it!!! It's time, it's time!! so we got to the hospital and they hooked me up to a monitor to see how the contractions were coming and to check the baby's heartrate. All looked good and after about 20 minutes the midwife did an internal exam and said that I was "closed", not dilated at all. She felt it was best since I wasn't in real active labor, to try to keep the baby in a bit longer. She said that hydrating me with an IV would help slow or stop the contractions and we might be able to get some more time. So we sat there for a few hours with the IV and the contractions did get less intense and spaced out a bit and then the midwife came and checked me again and said no change, still "closed". So she sent us home. This was all just practice. We got home about 6am and by that point the contractions had pretty much stopped and I was able to get some sleep. She said I should just rest and relax and let her know if there are any major changes. So it's kind of disappointing to be all ready to have a baby and then have to wait some more. And who knows, Kermit could decide to come tonight or next week, or 3 weeks from now. We'll just have to wait and see.