Dress Rehearsal

UPDATE: I don't want to leave anyone hanging. Monster Jam was great. Jackson was over the moon happy. And there was no sloshing. Pictures tomorrow.

Yesterday was quite eventful. I had gotten it in my head that I hadn't been feeling the baby move around enough, so I began calling my doctor's office at 7:45, asking to be seen. My doctor had said over and over again to come in for any reason. So I thought I would take him up on it before the weekend came. Apparently their phone system was down and that was causing all of their phone calls to be routed to an answering service. By 3:00 I was ready to just drive to the satellite office closest to me and take my chances. So I did. There was no doctor there, but my regular nurse checked the baby's heartrate with a doppler and said she sounded perfect. Great! Now I could let my mind rest.

Mom offered to take Jackson for the evening so that Curt and I could go out. I was very happy to take her up on that. Jackson had had one of those days that made me feel like a drill sergeant. He was understandably bored since we couldn't go anywhere while I waited for the doctor's phone call that never came. He was getting into everything and not responding to any form of discipline. Date night sounded great.

We dropped him off with some pajamas and headed to a Cajun seafood restaurant called Pappadeaux. Curt isn't a seafood person, but he lets us go there on occasion. The place was packed and the atmosphere was great. I've never been to New Orleans, but I felt like we were there. I had fried shrimp and a baked potato. (Curt is allergic to shrimp. Poor thing.) What I really wanted was some bread pudding for dessert, but mid-way through our meal we had decided that I was in labor and needed to call the doctor. I thought I should probably forgo the bread pudding.

So yeah, labor. We were on our way to the restaurant when we started timing my contractions and they were every five minutes. That lasted over an hour and a half. Mind you, I had basically been sitting on the couch all day. I'd done nothing to provoke this. Curt timed me with his cell phone during our dinner. I wondered if the people at the tables next to us realized we were counting contractions and planning our our next moves. It was actually really fun and exciting, especially since Jackson was already with my mom. Plus, I was having a great hair day and that would be perfect for pictures.

We spoke to the nurse on call as we drove home and she said not to mess around with that, especially with it being my second, and to go to the hospital. We spent the next hour packing like crazy and getting our house ready. To our surprise, we found that at some point in the day Jackson had locked the guest room door (which we don't have a key for). Awesome. What is up with the drama in that room? When my in-laws came they would just have to stay in our room. Again, no clean sheets! Ahhh!

So off we went at about 9 p.m. On the way, Curt kept asking me if I was still feeling the contractions. For the last hour I hadn't paid attention because I'd been running around. I wanted to say yes, but they had started to change. Sad!

We got to the hospital and checked in. We admitted to the nurses that we knew we might be going home. I had to change into a gown and put on a monitor and all that jazz. Our sweet nurse, whom I fell in love with, had to go through the list of 100 questions before she ever checked me. Bless her heart. (But now it's done and next time I won't have to do it.) What I find totally unbelievable is that I did not have one contraction the ENTIRE time I was laying in the bed with the monitor on. Bless my heart too! Scratch that, I actually had one right before we left. And my cervix is apparently made of steel because it has not budged one bit. Awesome. (But I'm very thankful and blessed that it's strong.)

Our nurse was so sweet about it. She said she wished she could keep us and hoped we would get her again when it was really time. I got dressed and we headed to my mom's to get Jackson. Actually, we went to Sonic first so I could get some ice to crunch.

So it was an exciting night of having a great meal with the Hubs and getting to do a dress rehearsal of going to the hospital. I was minorly bummed, but it was actually kind of fun and I feel a lot more peaceful about how this is all gonna go down. It was nice to meet the nurses and see a labor and delivery room. And now we have the Suburban already filled with the things that can stay packed.

I have no idea how I'm going to know it's time. It's really hard. This morning I just told the Lord that I'm entrusting myself to Him. That's all I can do! I hope He'll make it obvious to me. Since I was induced with Jackson, I have no idea when my body would have actually gone into labor on its own or what it would have been like. That's where it's tricky for me.

Tonight we are taking Jackson to Monster Jam. It is going to be the best night of my son's almost-three-year life. I will not elaborate about it at this moment since that will need its own post. I'm just hoping my water doesn't break while we're there. I'm really not a monster truck show kind of girl and I'd just hate to have that be in my princess's birth story forever and ever. The Lord may want to humble me though. I've seen a variation of this saying before, but I might make and wear a sign that says, "If my water breaks at Monster Jam, drag my sloshing self to Neimans."