Today was a bit of a whirlwind. I went to work, and the entire time I was at work, the little bean growing inside of me wasn't moving at all. Even when I was sitting down. Now, for some people, this isn't a big deal - but she had been moving SO much the last week or so. Like, I was constantly like "oh, there she goes again". So the fact that she wasn't moving at all was weird for the pattern of movement that we had been experiencing.
So fast forward to after dinner, about 6. I decided that since I hadn't felt her move all day, that it was pertinent to go to the hospital. So off we went to the Labor & Delivery Unit at Utah Valley Hospital (where I will be delivering). They got me all checked in and into a room. I go hooked up to 2 monitors. One was tracking the baby's heartbeat, and that was found quickly, which was a good relief and the other tracked any contractions that I was having. They also checked my blood pressure - that was just swell for me (it was a little high a couple weeks ago).
The monitor showed that the heartbeat was just where they wanted it to be. The one that showed contractions was so interesting to us. Turns out, I was having contractions fairly frequently. But I couldn't even feel them. There were a couple that I figured out I was having one and then I would feel something and my belly would tighten, but nothing that was really painful.
After being in the room for about half hour, the nurse had called the doctor and decided to check me to see if I was dilated at all. She checked and I was dilated to a 2 at 70% effacement. So, for being nearly 36 weeks, that was pretty average. But oh Jonathan's reaction was good. He was all "2! what does that mean? Are we having a baby today?" The nurse reassured him that unless something changed, that ladies can sit between a 2 and a 4 for weeks before going into labor. So I'm just fine.
Since I was contracting though - but PSA, the monitor I was hooked up to doesn't show intensity of contractions, and since these weren't painful, it wasn't a big issue - the doctor had them keep me there for another hour and check again to see if anything had changed. In that hour Jonathan decided that we needed to play hangman on the little whiteboard that was in the room. He picked cute phrases that I was able to figure out quite quickly haha but he got me with "Crumpets and cheese", where he came up with that, I have no idea.
The nurse came back in and checked me again and said nothing had changed, so we were free to go home. That was a relief. So I put my own clothes on again and we headed out (we stopped at McDonald's on the way home, oops).
I'm so grateful for my husband. He is the absolute sweetest and I don't know how I would have gotten through this pregnancy without him. I am also grateful for health insurance, and knowing that because I felt off, that I could go to the hospital just in case. I'm grateful for the nurses and their willingness to be reassuring and to answer the slew of questions that we had, because, heck, I've never had a baby before haha.
So hopefully this little #babyEL keeps cookin' for a couple more weeks at least because although we are so excited to meet her, we still have stuff to do to get ready for her arrival! But we are so blessed that we get to be her parents. It's becoming more real now that she could in theory come anytime between now and a month from now.
So there ya go.
