False Alarm

So, we thought that yesterday would be "the day." We started our nightly walk earlier than usual, around 3:30pm. Towards the end of our walk I started getting consistent contractions which hasn't happened for me yet. So naturally, we were pretty excited. We went home, had some dinner and packed our last minute items for our hospital bags. I had been having contractions 3-5 minutes apart for a little over 2 hours. On to the hospital we went! Craig and I were both so giddy and anxious for what was to come. We kept saying, "We're going to be parents soon!"

We arrived at the hospital and made our way to the labor and delivery floor. We got checked in and put in a triage room right away. Soon a nurse came in and hooked my up to a heart rate monitor for the baby and and contraction monitor for me. When she left I looked at Craig and said "Can you believe we're here? Doing this?!" I couldn't believe I was at that point in my pregnancy where I could literally have my baby at any minute! After thirty minutes of monitoring, the nurse came back to check my cervix. Here we go... the moment of truth. ((On October 7th at my last doctor's appointment, I was only dilated to 1 cm. and 20% effaced))

"Well, you're about 50% effaced, but still just 1 cm." I just closed my eyes and thought "F***." I felt like an idiot, really. One of those first time moms that says to her spouse, "It's time!" only to be told that these aren't even the REAL contractions that do any part in changing my cervix. So she told us to walk around for an hour and come back. We walked all around the hospital campus. We even  ran up and down stairs. A couple people looked at us like we were insane. lol

After the hour was up, we went back to our room, it was 8:30 pm. I was then monitored again for an hour ((which seemed to take forever. My hubby had to work early tomorrow and I felt so bad that we were just sitting there, and most likely about to be sent home.))

The nurse came back in, checked me and said the dreaded words again...

"Still only 1 cm."

"F***!" ((sorry, I was so mad! I just wanted to meet my daughter all ready))

So, we were sent home. It was now 10:00 pm and we headed home sad, tired and disappointed. I was extremely sore. My body had been through a lot, and those weren't even the strongest contractions I'll feel... great.

The nurse reassured us that this is the longest stage of labor. Who knows, maybe in the next couple of days the "real" contractions will come and then I'll be more certain that the time has come. (My due date is TOMORROW, for gosh sakes) I'm just starting to think our baby doesn't want to come out. She's totally fine with just chilling inside her mommy. What a laid back little darling!

Here's to hoping my next post has better news!