False alarm! Sigh.....
I woke up this morning at 3:30 with this very intense pressure. I thought that it was my bladder going crazy. So, I get up for the middle of the night break as usual, except this time, there's no relief. I go back to bed thinking it will go away, or maybe Logan has just dropped down even farther. After a few minutes the pressure turns into pain, very intense menstrual type pain. I used to have cramps that would bring me to the fetal position on the floor with tears in my eyes. This was almost the same & now I could time them. FINALLY! Contractions that I could time! These were not braxton hicks contractions either! I wake up Bill to see what time it is & he gets up to grab the stop watch. I was getting contractions every 5 minutes for an hour. I wasn't holding my breath that this was going to be the real thing, so I jump into the shower to see if anything changes & get cleaned up if it is the real thing. I was still getting them in the shower. I was getting them as we finished packing & as I was getting ready. They were pretty painful & the consistancy was there. I turned to Bill, "I think this is it".

We get on our way hitting morning traffic jams & every single stop light. Then the contractions started to space farther apart. Nice. Just as we are almost there. We get checked in & put into an observation room. The nurse (who was really nice) hooked me up to the fetal monitor & then did a pelvic exam (not digging in as far as the O.B. did on Friday. Still uncomfortable, but she was really understanding). Then she tells me that there isn't any change from Friday. Everything looks good, but not progressing. I think I was too tired to react. She told us to go walk around for a couple of hours & then she would check me again. So Bill & I go walking around the Labor & Delivery unit & the Mother & Baby unit. We walked by a room where it sounded like someone was just being born. The baby gave out a loud cry & I wanted to cry too. I wanted it to be us in the room. We walked for what seemed like forever, passing another couple on walking duty too.

We walked back to the observation room & got hooked up to the monitors again. The contractions were still registering at about 5-7-3-5 minutes apart. The nurse turned me on my side to see if it would increase the intensity. Apparently, when you're laying on your back it restricts the blood flow & thus lessens the intensity of the contraction. It seemed to work. It also felt like we were in that room for eternity. I was falling asleep as I listened to the nurses talk about Logan's fetal movements, "Look at what that baby is doing! She's on her side too!" & Bill was falling asleep in the chair next to me. The nurse comes back in & checks my cervix again. This time it's moving forward a little bit more, but no more dialation than when I came in. Basically, the contractions weren't doing their job. The midwife comes in & explains what's going on & gives me homework. I have to eat, go to sleep to get some rest, drink lots of water (I was a little dehydrated & that can cause painful yet ineffective contractions), take a bath & take a walk. If anything changes & I feel "different", then come back in. They thought that I might be back tonight or tomorrow morning.

Dissapointed, we left & got bagels for breakfast. We got home & took a 3 hour nap. I took a bath, but ran out of hot water so it wasn't that relaxing. Then we took the dogs for a walk. Bill's sister told us that her good friend went bowling when this happend to her & it got her body into the swing of things. I had a friend at the gym tell me the same thing. His mom did that when she was pregnant with him & he was almost born at the bowling alley. Bill & I laughed at the idea, but thought it would be a fun way to kill some time. So we went out for dinner (sushi...because I was told I could eat anything...yeah! It really made my day better). Bill had some really bad back pain last week & it started to flare up again. We decided to walk the mall instead of bowling. So, we walked some more & then got some hot fudge sundaes on the way home.

So here I am now, the same painful contractions all day long & it's going nowhere. It's been quite an eventful day with a not quite so eventful end. I really hope things change soon, because dealing with these contractions is not fun. I thought I was uncomfortable before! Now I'm just in pain every 5 minutes on top of it! Please Logan, come out soon...