false alarm

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July. Adam and I spent the day down in Kemah with my side of the family. My Gram turned 70 on June 30th and we got everyone together yesterday for a trip to Kemah. The weather was miserable and I hate driving in rainy weathe. However, the lunch was delicious and the fellowship with my family is always great.

I was really tired by the time we got home and decided to take a nap. I laid down for about an hour and a half, but was woken up in the middle of the nap due to some contractions. I've never had contractions wake me up, so I decided to walk around to see if they would go away. Sometimes changing positions will help you know if they are real or braxton hicks. I had to lay down because I was still uncomfortable and started to time them. I didn't want to jump the gun, so we waited for about 3 hours before calling the doctor. At this point, my contractions lasted for about a minute and were 5 minutes apart for an hour. They originally started at 7 minutes apart. The oncall doctor told me to go ahead and come on into the hospital.

We drove down to Memorial City Hospital and just phoned our parents and siblings at this point. We told everyone to hold off on coming up to the hospital until we knew if they were going to keep me. After arriving at the hospital and waiting for about an hour, the nurse said that I was staying. She explained that the doctor would evaluate me in the morning and decide what to do from there. The nurse would monitor me throughout the night and keep an eye on my contractions.

At that point, my parents and sister joined us at the hospital. I told them not to stay too long, because we wouldn't know anything until the morning, unless I started to progress quickly. Adam called his family and told them to stay home until the morning as well. Adam pulled out the chair that turns into a bed and tried to get some sleep. I'm sure it wasn't comfortable, but he was able to get more sleep then I was.

My contractions continued to get stronger and were now about 3 minutes apart. Around 2am, I noticed on the monitor that they started to die down a bit and weren't as strong, but I was still having them. In the morning, my doctor came in and informed me that it was still too early and to go ahead and go home. I have been going to Dr. Friedman since I was 13 and completely trust him and his opinion.

Needless to say, I was so dissappointed. I felt like I had let everyone down and got everyone's hopes up for nothing. We did everything we were supposed to do and really no one is at fault. It's just part of life and Mason will let us know when he ready. Dr. Friedman told me to go home and rest and keep my feet elevated. I have been having some swelling in my feet and ankles that he wants to monitor. I haven't had any swelling during this pregnancy anywhere else, except for the week of Jeanna's wedding. So now the waiting game continues.

Thank you to all of our friends and family for sending us messages of love and support. Hopefully next time you hear we are in labor, it will be the real thing...