Practice Makes Perfect

We had the most interesting weekend.

We hung out with Christopher's parents on Friday evening. We had dinner with the whole family and then started watching The Adjustment Bureau (which is excellent, btw) around 10:30pm. I was sure I'd fall asleep in the first five minutes - but somehow managed to stay awake. Christopher and I assumed our normal movie-watching position (aka me laying down with my legs over his lap). He was loving on Evey throughout the night.

About an hour into the movie, he looked at me with a shocked look on his face. He asked what Evey was doing because my stomach had balled up so tight. She'd never moved like that before and I just knew it wasn't her. It just felt so different, and I really had to focus on breathing because it took my breath away so much. That same feeling happened five times in a row within the next 20 minutes and I finally realized they were contractions (yes, I'm a little slow in my late pregnancy). After that they completely stopped.

The next morning, we woke up and had some quality relaxingt time. Around 11:30, I started having contractions again. We went on several walks to help me get my stamina up and to help Evey drop further into the birthing position. We put the finishing touches on packing and getting our car ready to bring our little girl home and we ran a few errands to get the last of what we needed to care for her. I started off having 2 an hour and worked my way up to contractions that were about 10 minutes apart on Sunday morning. As much as I tried not to get my hopes up, it was impossible not to. I thought for sure we were going to be bringing her home in the next few days.

Sunday morning, I was still relaxed and mobile enough to make it through the contractions with some semblance of dignity, so we went on to church. One of our pastors and his wife prayed over us and I breathed my way through an amazing message. Around noon, my contractions were slowing down - a lot. By 5pm, they'd completely stopped and Christopher and I were a little bit crushed. We called the on-call doctor to see if false labor could last for 2 days and he told us that it definitely could.

He re-confirmed that if I did go into labor, they wouldn't do anything to stop it since we were so close to being full term. Our doctor had told us that at out last appointment, but it was nice to be reassured. We spent the next bit of time praying that the labor wasn't falase, but we didn't have any luck.

By Monday morning, to my disdain, I was up and on my way to work.

We were so excited to see where we were at our appointment today. We had hoped with the amount of contractions I'd had that we were somewhat closer to seeing our daughter.

Evey's heartbeat was so strong, as usual, and so loud! It's still the best sound I've ever heard. I know the only sound that will be better is her first cry. After Dr. Ashmun checked me out, we were exactly the same as we were last Tuesday. She said since the contractions didn't change my cervix at all, they were definitely Braxton Hicks.

We also learned that my Strep-B test came back positive, which means that I have to be on antibiotics during labor. Strep-B is some kind of natural bacteria that you either have or you don't have. It can't hurt me, but it could hurt Evey if she's exposed to it. So they'll hook me up to an IV and keep the antibiotics flowing to treat the bacteria while I'm giving birth.

All things considered, it was our most dissappointing appointment to date, but I just told myself that if that's the only thing that goes wrong - I can't complain. We've had such an amazing pregnancy and our girl is big and healthy, which doesn't happen to everyone, so the fact that I have to have a constant IV instead of just a saline lock is not a huge point of concern.

As of now, I'm still pregnant and we'll just have to wait and see what happens. My doctor is out of town from Saturday to next Sunday, which means that next week I'll have to see her partner for my regularly scheduled appointment and if Evey decides it's her time, he will deliver her instead of Dr. Ashmun.

If we're dilated past 2cm next week, we'll be scheduling our induction for July 26th. Since Evey is so big and gaining so much weight each week, Dr. Ashmun wants to induce to give me the opportunity to go natural. She's already around 7 1/2 lbs, so we'll see what happens. As much as I want the doctor I've been working with for 3 years to deliver my girl, I'm not telling her to stay in while she's on vacation. I want to do everything I can not to have to induce, so we'll be coaxing her out and thinking downwardly thoughts over the next couple of weeks!