Our practice run!

We don't know what labor looks like. What first-time couple would? We had been saying all along that we'd like to labor at home until Amanda gets into active labor. After our experience Wednesday morning, I almost thought we missed our shot!

Amanda woke me up at like 12:30 am with a strong contraction that had been lasting for an hour and counting. I hadn't really gone to sleep yet. (With her not getting good sleep at night, she's been going to bed early and I've been staying up late.)

So around 1 am, she called the Ask-A-Nurse hotline to find out if what she was experiencing was anything to be concerned with. In today's world of liability-conscious companies, they wouldn't give out any real answers. Instead, they transferred her twice, made her call back and -- when she got a hold of someone that was ready to do their job, we were told that we should go to the hospital . . .so there we stayed all night long. Well, sort of.

We got there and, after hooking her up to a bunch of machines, they told us that she might be in early labor. Amanda's strong/long contraction had subsided by this time, and we both had the feeling that we might be going through the motions of false labor. Her contractions were at irregular intervals between 3 and 6 minutes apart. The nurse told us that we could go into active labor and have this baby today, or that it might be another 2 weeks.

The nurse put a call into our doctor, who advised that we should probably stay over until morning (around 7 am). We only live 7 blocks from the hospital, and with only a recliner available, I thought it'd be easier to get some sleep at home.

They told us she'd be there until at least 7 am, but my phone rang at 5 am with Amanda on the other end saying she was being released and was ready to come home (there went my sleep!). So I drove the 3 minute commute and picked her up. Needless to say, neither of us went to work yesterday!

On a happy note, at least we were able to get a practice run in. Now, we know what the routine is. Amanda's vowed not to go to the hospital until she's in active labor! They wouldn't let her have anything but crackers and water -- and she probably would have been limited to ice chips if she had been any further along (water breaking, etc.)!