Uh-Oh...I think Andrew wants to be a February Baby!

Today was supposed to be my last day of work, then I was going to start my maternity leave a little early. I had a doctor's note, taking me out of work, starting Monday, March 1st, which would give me a week off before the planned induction on March 8th.

Just before lunchtime, around 11am, my stomach started to get a little crampy. Nothing major, I'd just notice every once in a while that I felt a little ache here and there. I went to lunch thinking this boy was coming this weekend. Then later in the afternoon, it started to be more and more achy. By the time conference time came around, I knew this little boy was coming this weekend. I was frantically trying to tie up loose ends and getting everything ready for my sub, who was starting on Monday. By the end of the day I knew I wouldn't make it past the weekend...though I was hoping! I wanted to take Madison to Camelot Faire on Saturday, I had volunteered to help with the Faire, then we had Katelyn's FIRST birthday party planned for Sunday. I was thinking, if I can JUST make it through Sunday, he's welcome to be born on Monday!

I thought i'd just go home and lay down on my left side, like they say, to make the contractions lessen or go away. Um, who was I kidding?! I had a contraction calculator app on my iphone, so I was timing the contractions. They were about 2 minutes apart, and lasted over a minute since I started timing at 4:30pm. They hurt but werent incredibly strong. I picked up Madison from school and was going to try to get her home so Gordon could change her and take her to dance class. Since I spent a little extra time at school trying to wrap things up, we were running late for dance, so by the time I got her home, dance class was starting in 10 minutes and it'd take at least 20 to get there with traffic and all...plus get her dressed, so I just told Gordon not to mention it to her! I'm glad I didn't send him to dance class with her, bc we went to the hospital within the next hour and he wouldn't have been home yet! My mom came over to help with the girls and get things ready. I had JUST packed my bag yesterday and was missing a few things, so mom and Gordon helped throw a few things in my bag, get Madison dinner, get Katelyn a bottle then by 6:30 or so we headed for the hospital. My mom had the girls and was bringing them up right behind us.

We got to triage and they said I was only at a 2, which is the same as I was on Monday at my last dr. appt. They said if I didn't progress, they'd send me home...which is what I was afraid of. This happened last time and it took forever, once they were finally convinced it was real labor, for me to get the epi...I was dying! So at 8, they checked and I was only at a 2ish..maybe 3. At 9, I was a 3, so they told me to walk around L&D for a while and at 10:00 checked and again, only a 3. Dr. Johnston was on call that night and she came in and explained that she didn't want to induce or use pitocin right now bc he was still on the early side and 20% of babies, especially boys, do not yet have fully developed lungs, so they end up in the NICU. I didn't want a NICU baby, but I also didn't want to be sent home and end up having the baby at home or in the car on the way back to the hospital or soemthing! I explained to the nurse bf the doc came in that both times prior, I did not progress much at all without pitocin, and had labored for hours, but when given pitocin, I went from a 5-10 within 2 hours...both times. I was a little disappointed or maybe afraid when they said no pit yet, since I was only 37weeks, 5 days.

About 11ish, doc said they'd keep me overnight and see what happens. She said if I progress by morning, they'd break my water andlet it go from there, but if not, they'd send me home. I was fine with that, just wanted to make sure I wasn't sitting at home having the kid in the living room!!! Contractions slowed and were further apart, but they became more intense during the night, even though they were probably about 10 minutes apart...