False Alarm

It looks like we'll have to wait a little longer before this baby enters the world. On Wednesday I had my 39 week appointment and my doctor said that I was almost 3 cm dilated and about 75-80% effaced so she decided to strip my membranes (yes, that sounds about as pleasant as it feels) which is really just trying to thin out my cervix to get this baby to come sooner. I think she secretly wanted it to put me into labor because she was on call the next day and really wants to deliver this baby - we want that too! She told me it would be common for me to have cramps or spot after the exam and so for the next 6 hours I ignored the cramps I was feeling. Finally around 11:30 p.m. I decided to time the "cramps" to see if they could actually be contractions and they were 10 minutes apart for a little over an hour and a half. Because they were so consistent ant I figured that they must be contractions, not just cramps, but they didn't really hurt as much as I thought they would. I was somehow able to fall asleep from around 1 to 3 a.m. when I woke up to more contractions but they felt a bit closer together than they did a few hours before. I tried to ignore them and fall back asleep because I just didn't really think this was it but they wouldn't go away. I finally woke Rob up around 4 a.m. and we decided to time the contractions, though they still didn't hurt that badly. We timed for an hour and they were all between 3 and 5 minutes apart and lasted for an average of a minute and a half each. Now, in our birthing classes they told us that we should be going into the hospital when contractions are 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute a piece for an hour. We decided to call the on-call Dr. to see what we should do. She told us that we should get our things together and come in because it was most likely the "real deal". So at 5:30 a.m. we were getting ready to go to the hospital and possibly meet our little bundle of joy in a matter of hours! We got to the hospital around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning and I sat with a monitor on my belly for a little over 20 minutes to check to babies heart rate and then the Dr. came in to check my cervix. It was so neat to be able to listen to his or her heart beat for that long - usually it's only about a minute that we hear at my regular check-ups, so this was a real treat. At this point I knew for sure that I was having real contractions because every time I had one it's little heart rate would shoot up and then slowly go back down- too cute! But anyways...the Dr. came in to check my cervix and she said I hadn't changed at all since my appointment the afternoon before so we should walk the halls for an hour and then come back to be checked again to see if I would dilate more. We walked the 3rd floor of Strong for an hour (which does get rather boring because we had to stay in the birthing center area) and when we got back to be checked again, there was no change. The Dr. told me that I looked ready because the baby's head is all lined up and everything is "ready to go" except I wasn't dilating anymore. At this point they sent us home and told us not to come back until the contractions were stronger and even closer together. So now we wait. I came home yesterday morning, caught up on some sleep and when I woke up the contractions were gone. They came back last night when we were at a show and lasted through the night but they're really not very strong and definitely not regular. I keep trying to think of anything I can do to get this baby to come sooner but nothing has worked so far. Maybe I'll deep-clean the apartment to see if that will help (I just won't tell Rob until I'm finished!) Hopefully this little bundle of joy will decided to come soon, but if not we'll be ready for him or her whenever he or she wants to meet us! Hopefully the next post will be our birth story and some pictures of this sweet baby!