Not a Birth Story

You would think after 4 deliveries, I'd be a pro at figuring out when to head to the hospital. Last night proved that this is not the case!

All day yesterday I had a burst of nesting energy, as well as the usual signs that tend to occur pre-labor. By 8 pm last night, contractions had begun, and were a good 8-10 minutes apart. Michael and I sat up for a little while, continuing to time them, and I packed bags to be ready just in case. Since the intensity didn't seem too bad, we both decided to go to bed and get what sleep we could, not knowing what the night might hold.

A little before midnight, I woke up with more painful contractions. I stayed in bed for an hour, unable to sleep, and finally got up to walk around to see if anything might change. While walking, the contractions grew to be 3-6 minutes apart, and painful enough for me to need to stop walking and rock a bit. After an hour of that, I woke Michael up to get ready to go!

We called our wonderful friend Jenny who immediately came right over to stay with the boys, and we headed over to the hospital. Once there, I was hooked up to the monitor, and sure enough, contractions were coming every 6-8 minutes while I was lying down, more frequently while walking. However, I was only dilated to 2 cm! So the midwife said to walk, walk, walk - and we paced the halls, discussing the artwork and interesting floor designs, and Michael snuck me some animal crackers ;-)

After an hour of walking with some pretty good contractions, I needed to rest, so we went back to the room and laid down. The nurse and midwife were kind enough to just let us sleep, so they didn't bother us at all until a little before 7 am, when I woke up and asked to be checked. And the verdict was... still at 2 cm. And contractions had died down significantly. No labor!

So we're back home, a bit weary and dejected, but also a bit relieved because as far as timing goes, the next few days would be a bit stressful for having a baby due to Michael's work schedule. So all's well that ends well - the baby is doing great and moving around, and we have a few more days to prepare. I feel badly that we had to call Jenny over and alert a few others who were waiting excitedly in the middle of the night, though!

Now I'm just wondering - if I had all of my normal labor signs, happening for over 6 hours, and this wasn't labor... how will I know the difference when it is?! Yikes!