We had prepared ourselves for an induction on Tuesday, the 12th. Both our boys were late, and we expected this pregnancy would be similar. Although I would have preferred to go into labor on my own, I also had realized that inducing had some advantages (especially for a person who likes control!), and since my labors had gone quickly and easily previously, I didn't anticipate any problems. I expected a long (but not super long) day, with an epidural and a snuggly baby at the end of it, but Elisabeth had her own agenda.
I had been feeling some cramping and inconsistent contractions for a couple of weeks, but the week before she was born, everything stopped, and I hadn't felt anything remotely like labor in several days...until early Saturday morning.
I woke up around 4:30am Saturday morning to go to the bathroom and noticed I was feeling some contractions. I didn't think much of them, but I also couldn't get back to sleep, so I started timing them and noticed they were consistently coming about every six minutes. Around 6:15, when they hadn't let up, I woke up Matt and let him know that I was having contractions, but I wasn't sure if it was real labor yet. After that neither of us could sleep, and in anticipation of possibly needing to head to the hospital, we got up and around (the boys had spent the night with my parents, so we were alone). We showered, finished packing our bags, straightened the house, mopped the floor (you know, because everyone does that when they're in labor). Actually, I had redeemed a coupon Matt had given me for Christmas for a kitchen and bathrooms cleaning, and he had planned to clean on Saturday morning, so the kitchen and bathrooms were pretty dirty. I had kept up with the rest of the house cleaning/laundry, so we would be ready for Tuesday, but the hormonal, nesting momma in me wanted everything ready before bringing a baby home. Matt was sweet to do anything I asked, even though I'm sure he thought I was crazy. By 8:00 everything was ready, in case we needed to head to the hospital. I was still having contractions consistently every six to seven minutes, but they weren't intensifying or giving me a clear sign I was in labor.
We decided to go ahead and load the car and run a couple of errands and see where we stood after that. We ran to Lowe's, the library, and to breakfast. After breakfast, we were in the same spot. I was still having contractions, but nothing else was changing. They were still the same distance apart, the same length, and not getting more painful. I told Matt I really didn't know what to do. He had a work issue looming over his head that I knew he wanted to get taken care of, and he suggested stopping by his work and letting him fix the issue while I sat and read a book, and then we could reevaluate. I thought it was a great plan. He was at work for about an hour, and during that time, my contractions basically stopped. I was having one every 45 minutes or so. I told him we should just go home. I had gotten excited about having a baby that day, but we went home to see what happened.
We made it back home about 10:30. We left the bags in the car in case we needed to go to the hospital later and went for a walk to hopefully get labor moving along some if I was in early labor. Then we came home and finished a movie we had started the night before. My contractions were still basically gone. I would notice one every 30-45 minutes, but that was it. My parents brought the boys by for us to feed them and put them down for naps, so they could run some errands in case we did end up going to the hospital. I let Nathan nap in bed with me, to get some snuggles in. I couldn't nap and around 2:00 or so, my contractions came back again occurring every 5-6 minutes. When I was still having them at 3:30, I told Matt we should go to the hospital. I was positive for group B strep again, so I didn't want to wait too long to head in because I needed antibiotics, and I was pretty sure something was happening. My parents came back over to get the boys, and Matt and I left for the hospital a little before 4:00.
Last picture of her in my belly!
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