Blog? Sure! Why not?

Let's see... it's closing in on 4 AM, and I'm sitting here, wide awake, timing contractions. 

Am I in labor?  I sure as heck hope so.

Thursday evening I started to get some pretty regular contractions.  They were 7-8 minutes apart and not painful- just annoying.  The contractions woke me up a few times in the middle of the night, but they were totally bearable.

Friday morning, I had the lovely uhhh... "show" we'll call it (soooooo gross).  The contractions were still coming but again, just braxton hicks.

I brought the kids over to my parents house for a bit and my mom looked at me and said, "You're in labor.  I can see it in your face.  You are either in labor now or you're going into labor very soon."

As the afternoon wore on, the contractions stayed about the same.  But I was starting to pay close attention to them because they had been coming now for almost 24 hours.  I timed them for an hour and realized they were closer to about 6-7 minutes apart.  I figured there would be no harm in calling my doc to just let them know/ ask them what to do next...

The midwife said the contractions needed to be 5 minutes apart for one hour, before I could go up to labor and delivery.  She gave instructions to drink, rest and relax...

What did I do?  Went out for Mexican food.  HA! :)

Shortly after dinner (around 8 or so) I noticed a kick up in contractions.  I googled one of those "contraction timer" things and found a free one.  After an hour, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my contractions were between 5-7 minutes.    I thought, "YAY!  I can finally go up to L&D!" 

My mom came over, and Ryan and I left around 10ish.  Once in labor and delivery, they triaged me- decided I was still at 2 cm (same as yesterday) and monitored me for a couple of hours.

My contractions started to come harder and faster.  They were about 4 minutes apart and definitely uncomfortable.  Unfortunately, they weren't doing anything to my cervix.  Around midnight, they checked me again and gave me the sad news that I was going to have to go home and wait it out.

We got home around 12:30/1.  I took a bath, some tylenol and tried to sleep.  I've slept in little spurts, but I think I'm up for the long haul now.

The contractions are coming every 4 minutes and are pretty painful.

I'm writing this blog entry in between contractions- timing them on the contraction timer thing- and praying that my water breaks so I can go back up to L&D.

I think its safe to say I'm in labor.  Now the big question is, when do I go to the hospital??? 

I've always been induced- meaning, I've been at the hospital from 1 cm-10 cm.  I've never had to worry about my contractions being strong enough to be admitted. 

I'm in this holding pattern right now or something.  I'm waiting either for my water to break (PLEASE GOD!) or my contractions to get completely unbearable, I guess.

And I hate those stupid pain scales they make you do... but on a scale of 1-10, I'd say I'm at a 5ish.  I'm feeling okay in between contractions, but during the actual contraction, I'm definitely breathing through them, and in a good amount of pain. 

This is labor, right???  I really, really hope so.

I will keep updating as I can! :)

Any thoughts or prayers would be soooo appreciated! 

COME ON BABBBBYYYY!!!!!