Just keep swimming...

We're watching Finding Nemo (again). Could you tell?

So here's the latest:

On Wednesday I was officially 37 weeks. I had a doctor appointment, but there was nothing exciting to report. 37 weeks is when they won't stop you if you go into labor. But you aren't technically "full-term" until 39-40 weeks. 

Wednesday and Thursday I felt pretty nasty. I had horrible heartburn all day and night and my stomach was just really not happy with me. So Friday I decided that I would try and ignore it and be happy and productive. And I did a pretty good job. Since it was Friday, we had date night. Which means that we take Ellie out to eat with us somewhere. After much debate, we settled on Five Guys. I haven't really liked burgers since I was pregnant with Ellie, but Will loves burgers and Ellie actually eats the food there, so it was all good. I ate about 2/3 of my burger and got very uncomfortable. I figured I'd eaten too much. So we came home and put Ellie down for the night and started watching Star Trek.

Around 8 I was still uncomfortable and realized I was having regular contractions. 4 minutes apart, uncomfortable, but not necessarily painful. By 9 they were 3 minutes apart and starting to become painful. At 9:30 I called the doctor and they told me to come to the hospital. So we left Ellie with my parents and headed to the hospital.

We had to go through the E.R. because the main entrance was closed for the night, but they took us straight to Labor and Delivery. They hooked me up to a machine where they keep track of the contractions and the baby's heartbeat. I was contracting every 2 minutes. But apparently the contractions weren't actually doing anything productive. After 3 hours and no progress, they had me walk around the halls for an hour. No progress. At 3 a.m. they informed me that my only options were to go home and sleep or stay and sleep and they would see what happened after that. I decided to stay, so they gave me some sleeping pills and I slept. At 7 a.m. I woke up, still contracting every 2 minutes, with no progress. So they sent me home and told me not to come back until I couldn't function through the contractions anymore.

Major bummer. I was trying not to get my hopes up, but every hour we were there made me a little more hopeful.

So we went home and slept and then went out and bought Ellie a fish. She loves Finding Nemo and my dad's fish tank, so it seemed like a good idea. I didn't get a picture. She named her fish Bellow. Still contracting every 2-3 minutes.

Saturday I was grumpy all day. Normally I would have just been as impatient as any other pregnant lady, but I had gotten my hopes up and was SUPER disappointed. I did all sorts of online research about contractions and false labor and noticed that most women (on the internet) who had been through the same thing had their babies pretty soon afterwards. That was kind of exciting.

Sunday I woke up sure that I was going to have my baby. I just had to wait. I was still contracting and during church they got very painful, still 2 minutes apart. Will and I teach a class of 7 year-olds, so I went on to that class, thinking that we might need to leave soon. Will took Ellie to nursery. Almost immediately I noticed that we had 8 kids in our class instead of 5. And then another teacher asked me to teach his class too, since he had just gotten off duty (he's a marine) and his wife was sick. So I said ok. And then I was asked to play the piano for singing time. So I said ok again. As soon as I sat down to play, my contractions stopped completely... until we got to class. Then we fit 13 kids, plus me, Will and Ellie (who didn't stay in nursery) in a little classroom that was very warm. I didn't feel so great.

After that we went home and Will made me eat something, even though I really didn't want to. I tried to take a nap, but couldn't. Contractions every 3 minutes (but lasting almost 2 minutes each) and getting more painful by the minute. Finally around 5 I felt like walking and talking during contractions was asking a lot of me. I called the doctor, they told me to go to the hospital. We grabbed our hospital bag, and several things that we forgot to bring the first time (including the camera).

We got there and they put us in the same room as before and I knew they were going to send us home. Despite all the contractions, there was no progress. After an hour and still no progress, they sent us home. Again. Apparently they aren't allowed to do anything to help until 39 weeks, in case they are responsible for delivering a "premature" baby without a medical reason.

I slept better last night than I thought I would, but woke up a lot. And today I'm still contracting every 2-3 minutes, most of them rather painful, and my back is killing me. I was supposed to take my final for my stupid class this morning, but I rescheduled it. So at this point I have no idea what's going on or when to go back to the hospital. But I have a doctor appointment on Wednesday, so unless my water breaks before then, I'm guessing that's the next time I'll get any information. I'm kind of glad I didn't have my baby yesterday though, because the doctor on call was rude.

Anyway, that's where we're at currently. Hopefully I'll be able to take my exam sometime this week. And it's our anniversary on Wednesday, so that should be fun. Until then, I'm taking it easy, if that's at all possible with a toddler. I know I'll have this baby eventually, but I just wish it wasn't so painful/confusing until then. Hopefully we'll get some progress sooner, rather than later. 

*fingers crossed*