40 weeks + 1 day

I am officially past my due date. Sigh. This baby girl must be just fine where she is. As a friend of mine put it "you must have a nice uterus"

To say that I'm uncomfortable is definitely an understatement. After a false alarm on Friday night - more details to come - we had a pretty low key weekend. We are trying to keep our calendars plenty open yet finding things to do that keep us from just sitting around and waiting. We are so anxious to meet our little one! It's crazy how fast 270 days can go by but the last 10 seem to just drag on and on. And now that I'm officially overdue each day seems like an eternity. The good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel. As I mentioned before, our doctor plans to induce next Monday - that's 1 week from today! - if she doesn't decide to come on her own before then. So, worse case I am uncomfortable and in this anxious state for 7 more days, which is exciting! Plus, our families will roll in Friday night or sometime Saturday so that's something to look forward to also!

So back to our false alarm story.....Friday morning I woke up to mild but consistent contractions. Jimmy helped me time them for about an hour or so before deciding that he should stay home from work in case today was the day. Since they weren't uncomfortable or very strong we continued about our day - we went for a walk, did some work, I did some baking, we ran a few errands and decided to do a little yard work. I continued to have contractions throughout the day but wasn't great about making sure to record each one. So about 4 or 5pm we decided I really needed to keep track of each one as I was still having them regularly and we wanted to know exactly how far apart and frequent they were so we'd know if we needed to go in. Sure enough they were coming about 4-5 min apart and lasting 1min or longer each. So I called the nurse line, asking if we should come in, and she gave me the canned answer, 5-1-1, meaning if they are 5 min apart, lasting for 1 min or longer each, and have been that way for at least an hour than we should go in. So, about 7pm or so we decided we should probably head in. We calmly got the last few things we needed put together, we each took a shower, took a few pictures, and loaded up the car. We called our parents on the way to let them know we were heading to the hospital. Of course they were so excited but we told them not to get too anxious and we'd call them back to let them know if we were staying or not. So we got to the hospital, as we continued to say to ourself "this can't be it, it can't be this calm and easy, can it?" We checked into labor and delivery and they brought us into a room, got me hooked up to a few monitors, and the waiting began. The nurse asked me a million questions, in which I kep thinking, if I were in a lot of pain I would really hate to being having to answer all these questions.....the nurse came in and out of our room several times watching the monitors and asking us questions. After being there a few hours she informed us that they would, more than likely, be sending us home because my contractions weren't strong enough and when she checked me I was no more dialted or effaced than my last doctor's appointment, which was on Tuesday. Her and the on call doctor felt it would be best to send us home to continue with contractions in hopes I would progress more on my own, in terms of dilating.  She also told us that there was a very good chance we'd be back in as early as the next morning, and in her opinion I would have the baby sometime this weekend, by my due date. Needless to say I was disappointed and embarrased we had come in but excited that we may be just a few days away. However we were also confused about how we are suppose to know when to come in next time if we listened to what they said this time and it wasn't "it".  Our nurse was super nice and talked us through some more signs or ways to know, and assured us that it is really hard to know with your first if your water doesn't break or your contractions aren't painful. She also assured us that many couples come in sevearl times before it's the right time and it's always safer to come in and be sent home than to not come in at all. So, 4 hours later, about 12pm we were heading back out the parking garage and heading home. False alarm #1.

I just keep praying that my water will break so it's very clear when "its time" because I would hate to go in and be sent back home again!

So that's our little mishap for this week, hopefully it won't happen again.

We will continue to keep you posted as we have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm not expecting any progress and hope to not be disappointed if that's the case - easier said than done, right?! But honestly it is comforting knowing we have an end date in sight and it's really not that far away in the scheme of things and the reality that once our little girl is here she will be here for the rest of our lives! I am also now working from home which makes things a little more comfortable for me, ok - a lot more comfortable!