Last night

Yesterday was the second-annual "Super Bowl" bowling tournament for Young Life Cambridge, a youth outreach organization that Bryan and I volunteer for. We were supposed to show up at the bowling alley at 5, the event started at 6. Bryan was supposed to give a speech. We never made it.

We had a busy morning, and then ran some errands in the early afternoon. About 2:45 I started having contractions. They started out about 15 minutes apart but by the end of the hour they were coming every 7-10 minutes. I called the doctor, he said to lie down and drink some water, give it a couple of hours, and call him back if I was still having 4-5 or more an hour. Well, they kept speeding up, coming between every 3 and 7 minutes. So I called him back and we headed to the hospital. Mind you, we had no bag packed yet (I keep meaning to get it packed but it is still so early...) and we still have no carseat! We don't even have a blanket for little Eden yet. And the nursery furniture is far from finished. (These were all the things running though my mind - we're not ready yet!!). So I directed Bryan (between gulps of water) and he packed us a bag just in case we ended up staying, we called Meg so she could be on notice and prepared to make phone calls and come to our place to stay with Nino, and we headed to the hospital, probably about half an hour after the Super Bowl started, with me still having contractions very regularly.

Right away they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and the contraction monitor thing. We got to listen to Eden's heartbeat (and hiccups) while the machine spewed out squiggily lines on a long strip of paper. We quickly learned what those lines were as I contracted and one of the lines became a series of hills. That was comforting - I wasn't imagining these contractions - they were real. What they meant, though, was the remaining question.

The doctor (the one we had yet to meet from the practice - we have an appointment with him next week) did a whole bunch of tests, checked me, and decided that I was not in labor. They kept me for 4 hours so they could check me again just to make sure nothing was progressing (nothing changed except I slept a little and the hills became more wave-like) and then they sent me home, at about midnight. We don't know what caused the contractions but we know that they were happening, regularly. The doctor seems to think I might just be one of those lucky few for whom Braxton-Hicks contractions feel an awful lot like the real thing.

So now the only orders I'm under are to call if it happens like that again (I'm still having contractions now even as I type this but they're further apart now) or if I show any other signs of labor. Basically, watch and wait. And hope and pray that Eden decides the outside world can wait at least another 4 weeks. We want her here, but we want her healthy. We'd appreciate your prayer on that front as well.