A Practice Run!

Well after our already exciting day yesterday with the news of Ava Kate's induction on the 17th, the excited just continued. We got home from our appointments and after many calls, emails and blog updating to spread the news we decided to go for our daily walk. We were pretty close to home when I started having contractions which isn't all that abnormal except these seemed to be somewhat regular. We got home about 5pm and had to get a casserole made for a couple from church that just had their baby girl a couple of weeks ago. The contractions were continuing so after much pleading from Justin I sat down to see if they would stop. After 30 minutes of sitting they still had not stopped so I started timing them. They appeared to be 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute each which seemed pretty close together. I finally called the on call doctor and he said I could wait a while longer and see if they got stronger but that if I wanted an epidural I shouldn't wait too long. Needless to say we started getting the rest of our bags packed. We got to the hospital about 7:15pm and the contractions were still coming. They hooked me up to the monitors and confirmed that I was having contractions every few minutes. The nurse checked me though and I was still only dilated to a 1 so they decided to keep me and watch me for a few hours. The contractions began to get much more intense to the point that Justin was having to help me breathe through some of them. Our families were on call and just waiting for us to tell them to head that way but we wanted to wait to see if I was really in labor or not. In the meantime the nurse began to ask me about what I had eaten and had to drink that day and I realized amidst all the excitement of our two appointments I had managed to only have a few drinks all day. She came back in close to 10pm and checked me again and I was still only dilated to a 1 and my contractions had spread out over the last half hour so she said they would send me on home. She gave me two Ambien sleeping pills before I left though and told me to go home and eat something and go to bed. By the time we got to the house my speech was slurred and I could barely stumble into the house. I managed to get some dinner down quickly and my head hit the pillow. I think I was hallucinating when I first laid down. I have never taken sleeping pills so taking two at once really knocked me out. I slept better than I have in months. My contractions must have stopped sometime in my sleep. Justin helped me stumble to the bathroom about 6:30am this morning and I went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until after 9am which is really late for me. After waking up and getting my feet under me I did manage to get to work late this morning for a meeting which I was awake for but I'm not sure I remember much of. My body is really soar and achy from the contractions and dehydration I guess. It was such a strange night and I just kept thinking things just didn't feel like I thought they should when it was time for her to come. I am glad she has decided to stay in there at least for a while longer but after yesterday's events I can't help but wonder if we will make it to the 17th. At least for now we already got to answer the 5 million questions at the hospital so maybe when it is really happening we won't have to do that again and I experienced some pretty intense contractions and realized I can survive them. Justin was a champ- reminding me to breath, rubbing my back and feet. He was so funny. He said I just want to climb in the bed with you so I can be close to you because I don't like to see you this way! So sweet! I did have to tell him I wasn't sure we could both fit in that bed though. At least now we have a little practice under our belts for the real deal!