False Alarm

Well that was interesting. Last night was spent at Hinsdale Hospital for what was determined to be false labor.

Just like my labor with Ava, I woke up in the middle of the night and was feeling contractions every few minutes. After 10 or so contractions I called the Dr who (based on my Mach-3-delivery-speed with Ava) suggested I come in to get checked out. We got everything (and everyone -- including our happy-to-be-awake-in-the-middle-of-the-night little girl) loaded into the car and were on our way.

They checked me at the hospital and the nurse said that I was "maybe 1 cm dilated". WHAT?!? They hooked me up to the machines (did I mention how much I hate that damn blood pressure cuff???? I forgot how annoying that thing was!). The contractions were regular, occuring every 3 minutes or so.

They suggested I walk the halls of the hospital to see if it would help in getting things moving. So Miss Ava and I walked the halls, stopping every so often to check out the babies in the nursery-- to which she would run to the window and say, "Ohhhh, Babies!! So cute!!!". As usual, she became a local celebrity in no time, charming everyone with her dancing and silly sayings.

She thought this particular 3 AM field trip was fun-- She got to be up and about in the middle of the night, eating loads of shaved ice, watching Little Einsteins in a hospital bed with Mommy and eating mini-wheats, crackers and gummi worms (hey, don't judge... it was all I had in my bag of tricks (diaper bag)).
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Well, after an hour of walking, I was checked again-- and there was "no change". So, we were sent home. I felt silly and stupid for causing a false alarm-- but the other part of me didn't want to take any chances. As the Dr said, "Hey, it's better than delivering in the car!". Good point.

We took a detour thru McDonald's on our way home. We were all starving! We got home around 7:00 and after breakfast, everyone was back to bed to catch up on some zzzz's.

As annoying as it was to go thru all of that, it was exciting too. My favorite part was the memory I now have of Ava and I walking the halls of the hospital at 4 am (while her dad laid in my hospital bed, trying to sleep), trying to coerce her little brother into making his grand entrance. She was my little buddy. And we just LOVED seeing those tiny, sweet babies. It's hard to believe that in 16 days (or less) one of those little beds will contain our baby boy.  One of these days... but not today. ;-/