My "Not Having a Baby" Surprise

I REALLY thought yesterday was going to be the big day! For the days leading up to yesterday, I was sure that at my doctor's appointment, he was going to say "Yeap, you're already at 3 cm so let's go to the hospital." Although I was pretty good with stickin' to doctor's orders on bed rest, I was still having very mild contractions the whole time. But this is the first pregnancy that I've actually felt the contractions ahead of the big day, so I was sure that they were doing something! And to top it all off, the morning of my appointment, I woke up at 5 am to really strong contractions! I didn't go to sleep until really late the night before (because I was so sure that I was going to be in the hospital for the next few days so I was getting all of the last minute things done around the house), so waking up that early and being as exhausted as I was really meant something. Because I was so tired, I just stayed in bed hoping that I would drift off again and thinking that the pain would go away. But it kept coming back. When I went into labor with Annabelle, I went from 3 cm to 10 within a matter of 5-ish hours, so I was starting to fear that I wasn't even going to make it to my 10 am appointment. I've never had to do the "Should we go to the hospital now?" thing because with both Annabelle and Corgan, I was at a doctor's appointment and he said "Yeap, time to go to the hospital" so I was worried about going too early or waiting too late.

After laying in bed for an hour, around 6 am I finally came to the realization that the contractions were not getting lighter and didn't think they were going to stop. I wanted to take a shower before heading out of the house (it had been a while, and I knew that if I went to the hospital, it was going to be at least a couple more days), so I cranked up the hot water in the shower and got in. As I took this nice, long, steaming-hot shower, the contractions seemed to get more and more mild. I assumed that it was just the heat of the shower making it not hurt as much though.

Then, I got out of the shower and proceeded to get dressed. By this point, I wasn't feeling the strong contractions at all so I thought about laying back down. I didn't lay down though because I assumed that those really strong contractions earlier REALLY meant that I was going to be going to the hospital that day and I could sleep when I got there so I went upstairs to write a couple of blogs that I had been thinking about and get a few more last-second things handled before the appointment.

So... in the few hours leading up to the appointment, things were as they had been over the past couple of weeks. Mild contractions, but nothing regular. I went to my appointment as scheduled, and the doctor checked me... still 1 cm and 90% effaced... just the same as I was 2 weeks ago! I was SOOO surprised! The only information that he added this time is that she's at "Station 2". So she's all locked-and-loaded, but apparently not quite ready yet.

So... I get to keep holding her in my tummy and playing our little secret games for at least a few more days. I'm kinda torn on the bed rest thing. At this point, I've been taking it easy so much the past couple of weeks that the tiniest things wear me out, but... I'm ready to get things moving! 37 weeks is Friday, so she'll be all cooked then. I did leave the house last night to attend a family "Life Group" meeting (like a Bible Study), but that didn't involve much effort on my part since Keith drove and I just had to eat dinner, then sit on a comfy couch to listen to the lesson/discussion. So, again, I'm torn... do I try to get out there and get all extra-active to get things moving or wait until Monday to start doing that because my doctor is not on-call this weekend!? Ugh!