another trip to the hospital.....

Okay...I'm going to be infamous for all the trips to the hospital before I really go into labor. Yesterday morning I was having contractions all morning. Kind of sporadic and not too hard. Then around 1, they started coming closer together and settled into a 4-5 minute pattern. So, I called Dewayne around 1:38 and told him what they were doing. He was on his lunch break so he said he'd run back to work and let them know he was taking off for the day/weekend. He got home around 2. He showered and ate his lunch and then we headed into town. We stopped in Peters Creek, so I could use the bathroom and we could see his mom on the way in. We visited for a little while and because the contractions were still regular and coming strong, we continued into the hospital. I called on the way to let them know we were on our way in, so they could have the paperwork ready. When we got there, Dewayne dropped me at the door and went to park the car. Then, when he got in, I opted to just walk into the Maternity Center (it's not far from the parking garage) instead of riding in the wheelchair. We got signed in, which went fast because they had my chart pulled and ready up at the desk. Then, as we were walking back, a very strong contraction hit........I had to stop walking and hold onto the desk. Well, then once I got hooked up to the monitors, I stopped having contractions except for 2-3 small ones, but baby's heart rate was really high and causing a bit of concern. My BP wasn't too bad, 143/84, is one reading I remember. I am now, for sure, 1 cm dilated and almost fully effaced on one side of my cervix, don't know why the other side isn't effaced. We stayed for a while to see if baby's HR would go down and it finally evened out and came into the "normal" range. By that time, they had decided they wanted an ultrasound to look at the baby and make sure the fluid levels, placenta were good. It was so cool to see the baby's head down low (baby has dropped).....we couldn't even see it's forehead and we could see a little fringe of hair waving in the amniotic fluid and his or her little hands and lips, chin and the bottom of his or her nose. We then got "discharged" and we discussed going to the mall to walk around, so maybe I'd start having contractions again but we just drove through Wendy's to grab a bite to eat (a ceasar salad w/ no dressing for me, and a combo meal for Dewayne) and then came to Mom and Roy's and spent the night here. This morning, I was still having contractions but they aren't getting too close together. But Dewayne ran home to get some stuff, because Mom convinced him that it'll be safer if we stay here till I go into labor or we go in on Monday to be induced. So, we'll be "camping" out here till baby is ready to come!! :-)