Labor Day"s" Weekend...

   ~Or~

   What I wish my midwife had told me before I went crazy :).

   We spent labor day in labor, and then it quit!!! Who knew that just because your (painful!) contractions are timeable, it is no indication that there is a baby at the end of all of that work...

   It actually started Saturday evening when I woke up from a nap with contractions three minutes apart...that can wake you up really fast! Well, after about an hour they were ten minutes apart so I figured it wasn't the "real" thing. The next day I had contractions every ten minutes or less seemingly all day long, but they weren't really strong. Monday morning I woke up at five in the morning with contractions (maybe I should just stop trying to sleep?) every 7 minutes, then 6 minutes, getting stronger and stronger. My back hurt sooo bad, I just knew that this was it. We called Lee's store and told them he wouldn't be in (they proceeded to call everyone with "We're having a baby!!!". Lee said this has become the stores baby as opposed to ours ;). We called Cheryl to come be with the girls. Poor lady, she gets into town and runs into a detour! She gets up to the traffic cop and tells him she has got to get here so we can leave for the hospital, he gave her his map and tried to explain where to go. She proceeds on her way only to run into another detour, with no traffic cop...luckily Lee was able to guide here over her cell phone pretty well. The girls were thrilled to have her here and Lee was available to "baby"  me in my misery. And then, they...slowly...petered...out... grrr! By this time I was exhausted! I hadn't had any real sleep since Saturday because the contractions were constant, even when they weren't timeable. We went walking at the duck pond for awhile and the contractions started back up and quickly went from every five minutes to every three but they just didn't hurt. I "knew" it wasn't labor, but I didn't know, if you know what I mean... Lee finally convinced me to go to the hospital if only to find out what was going on. I told them when they were hooking me up to the sensors that I wasn't going to be surprised when they sent me home, I just wanted to know something! Well, big surprise, I wasn't in labor. In fact, I only had one contraction strong enough to even register on the computer the whole time we were there! Apparently the more children you have the more likely you are to have "false starts". It was sooo nice to know that I wasn't crazy and feeling contractions that weren't even there! On the other hand, all of that work and nothing?! Of course, she did tell us the comforting (?) story of one of the other midwives who works in the hospital who had contractions 3-5 minutes apart for the last week of her pregnancy that weren't "doing anything" and then when "real" labor started it went so fast that she couldn't get to the hospital in time...that's all well and good when you're a midwife, I'm not! Then she gave me something to help me get some sleep. I really don't like taking medication, I haven't taken so much as a Tylenol more than a handful of times in over two years, but I was really emotionally unstable at this point from the stress of timing contractions for three days straight and getting virtually no sleep as well! After about eleven hours of sleep (!) I woke up the next morning feeling sooo much better! I'm so glad that Lee convinced me to go, who knows what a kind of a basket case I could have become by now without that recharge and reassurance :)? We had our appointment yesterday and Terre said that of the four women she saw in the hospital on Monday, every single one of them had been into her office, still very pregnant, Wednesday morning. Glad I wasn't the only one...

   So, we're still waiting and I feel like more of a ticking time bomb than ever. But, I feel much better and I'm not even timing contractions anymore, I'm just trusting God that when it's time I'll know it. What release! Now, why didn't I think of that before?!

   The girls were so disappointed when we came back home on Monday. Bri just knew it was time because she had just gotten done with this blanket she's been knitting for the baby to come home in, won't this be a neat keepsake for Baby? She worked on it so diligently this last week to make sure that it was done in time, I think it's adorable!

  

   We stopped at Babies "R" Us yesterday for a little motivational boost, to get my mind off of the process and back on the baby we'll have at the end, eventually :). Just what I needed! And I finally found a pair of "normal" blue jeans in 0-3 month size! Who knew how hard it was going to be to dress a boy?! Most of the jeans we have found have had that faded, ragged, or "pocket overkill" look.

   Six more days until the due date! Bri is still holding out for the 12th, she wants a birthday buddy :).