Spent most of yesterday at Labor & Delivery...

And I was really hoping this was it! No such luck, though.

I called my doctor's office around 12:30pm yesterday. I had been cramping all day Wednesday, and I spent Wednesday night throwing up. On Thursday I spent the morning feeling like a Mack Truck had run me over. I just didn't feel right at all.

Around 2:30, the doctor's office calls me back and says that I need to go into labor and delivery. They need to make sure Tink is handling the stress of how I'm feeling ok. Gene had been home and sleeping for about an hour, so I woke him up. We found a ride for MIL to come up here to watch the kids, and around 3:20, we finally got to the hospital.

The hospital we'll deliver at has a triage room that you have to go in before they actually send you into a room. Stupidest thing ever, because there are always 12 people in there at the same time. I hate it! Anyway, they hooked me up to the machines, took my blood pressure (really high), and let me lie there for awhile. After about half an hour, the nurse comes back in, and doesn't like how fast/hard my contractions are, and doesn't like the fact that my blood pressure is so high and Tink's heart rate is so fast. They decide I must be dehydrated, so they gave me 2 full bags of fluids and took a bunch of blood. After the first bag, the contractions were still just as strong, and coming one on top of the other. The doctor comes in, checks my cervix, and says, "You're at a 2 right now. If you dilate anymore, we'll admit you and let this baby come. I'm not going to do anything to stop your labor." YIPPEE!! It was such a relief to hear that, especially after going through what I did with both boys. So, I laid there for hours on end, and at 8 o'clock, he came back in to check me again. Shock of all shocks, no change. Tinks heartrate is better by this time, and my blood pressure has gone down as well. The contractions haven't even slowed down by this point, though.
The doc then orders an ultrasound. They want a Level II to make sure the baby is ok, and then they want a trans-vaginal to make sure my cervix is all right. After that, we can go home.

We wait for u/s to get up there for ever, she finally does everything, and by 10:30, there's still no "official" report. (The u/s tech did tell us that everything looks ok, but Tink is now measuring a few days behind, rather than ahead of schedule like she was before.) Well, by this time, I'm so worn out, hurting SO badly from lying in bed, I walked out to the nurses station and asked if I could just go home and they could call me with the report. The nurse apologized up and down and said that would be fine. So, they discharged me around 11 or so, and we came home.

I'm still contracting constantly, but my cervix just isn't doing a darn thing. I go back to the doctor on Tuesday, unless the contractions worsen.

Here's the thing, though, my contractions NEVER hurt - not even when I'm in full blown labor. I've never once had consistent contractions that send me to my knees, so I'm terrified that I won't know when it's really time.
The girl that was in the triage room next to us cracked Gene and I up the entire time. On the monitors, you could see her contractions AND mine. Every time one would hit her, she'd start with the lamaze breathing, and just act like she was about to die. Funny thing was, my contractions were about 4 times as strong as hers, coming one on top of the other, and I couldn't stop laughing because she was in so much pain. (I'm bad, I know, but come on!)

So, there's the whole ordeal. The good news is, if I go into labor, they won't stop me. Bad news is, I don't think my body knows HOW to go into labor on it's own. So, I plan to discuss all of this with the doctors on Tuesday and see what they think.

I'll keep ya posted. Double fudge brownies to anyone who made it this far!