Double Fake Out

Merry Christmas! Even with all the excitement, present opening and food going on right now, I want to take a moment and go over what has happened in the world of my uterus in the past couple days (mostly for my own reflection).

On the morning after the first fake out, starting around 8:00, I had a few mild "contractions." I could tell it was insignificant because there were no patterns forming. Around 9:00, Megan and I met Cindy for breakfast at Panera, la di da, nothing going on... then at 11:00 I went to Publix to stock up on food for Christmas because Ethan's family was coming into town that day. As I walked around, enjoying my shopping, I realized I was starting to have pretty regular contractions. I decided to text Ethan and he told me to text him every time they came so he could keep a little record. I think around this time they were 8 minutes apart. Keep in mind I am still pretty comfortable to continue shopping, chatting it up with strangers who told me I "look like I could have him any moment" and am I "sure it isn't twins" (thanks, actually I'm trying to keep smiling and nodding at you while my utereus is crunching down on itself as we speak).

I decided to go home, leave all the groceries in the car that I could and go for a walk around the apartment area. I kept updating Ethan and by 2:00 I was having contractions consistently 5 minutes apart. This is throwing off my whole plan, see. Our childbirth instructor told us a simple rule on how to remember when its time to go to the hospital: 511 (or 311 if you live close by). That means contractions that are 5 minutes apart, lasting for one minute each for at least an hour. But these didn't feel like real labor contractions. So why were they so consistent? I decided to go upstairs and lay down to see what would happen. Now they're 4 minutes apart. So I walked again. Now its 3:00 and they're 3 minutes apart. Ethan suggested I call the nurse. She said if they kept up like that for 45 minutes, to come into labor and delivery.

Well now, I'm just getting excited. I go and pick E up from work, we stop by the house to get our bags and Sam (my brother who had just arrived for Christmas) and we drive to the hospital. I'm thinking if this is the real thing and I go ahead and check in, they're not going to let me back out. I'd rather walk around the pretty pond with all the Christmas lights than in the hospital halls, so we walk. Then I can't take it any more. By this time, the contractions are getting pretty uncomfortable and I want to know if I'm crazy, so we go into labor and delivery.

They took me into triage and hooked me up to 2 monitors, one for Carver's heart beat and one to measure contractions. The nurse said I was having beautiful contractions 3 minutes apart (I was relieved I wasn't making all this up) and that people would kill for a pattern like that. Carver was doing great and things seemed to be progressing, but I was trying not to get my hopes up. It just didn't feel painful enough. Sure enough, she checked my cervix and I wasn't dialated at all. She said I am about 50% effaced and she could feel Carver's head, but no dialation. She and the doctor on call suggested I go home, get some sleep and they would probably see me the next morning. That was Tuesday. Now its Thursday and besides a contraction here and there, I don't really have any news.

I was really dissapointed at first because, Lord, I just want to see my baby boy! But now I am trying to just go with the flow and hopefully this is all a sign that things will happen sooner than later.