patience is key.

Still no baby.

On Friday I had a doctors appointment, and I was 1/2 centimeter dilated. 70% effaced.
Since I was a day away from being full term, she wanted me to go to the hospital that day to do a non-stress test. So after Joel got home from work we went into the hospital and I got all hooked up to the fetal monitor and the thing that monitors contractions. This test is supposed to take 20-30 minutes.
An hour later, the nurse tells me that I have to wait until the on-call doctor gets there so he can check out what's happening. My contractions were like 4-8 minutes apart, but they weren't really bad at all. So the doctor finally gets there and says that there is a "suspicious reactive strip" in the monitoring (it comes out a like a strip of paper...the intensity of the contractions on one line, and the baby's heart beat on the another). He said that at the peak of the contraction, the babies heart rate would go down...suggesting maybe the cord was in a not good place or that the baby was in "distress."
So he had me stay for a little bit longer, and then decided that I should come back Saturday morning for another non-stress test.

Saturday morning.
During the night, I was having somewhat regular contractions (like 8-10 minutes apart) that were more painful than the ones I was having yesterday, but still very manageable. We go to the hospital and I get all hooked up to the monitors again. The baby was kicking A LOT (which is good) and I had ONE contraction the entire hour I was there. I was so frustrated.
The doctor said the baby was looking great and that I was good to go home and just wait it out.
So all during Saturday I had sporadic contractions that were pretty weak.
Joel and I went on a walk and by the time we got back home...my hips felt like they were pretty much broken. I couldn't even push down on my heel to take my shoes off.
So much for walking to help speed up labor.

And today...here I am...still no baby to hold and kiss.
Since I've been up (since like 6:30) I've had contractions like every 8-15 minutes...and they are much stronger than what I've had before...but I can still walk and talk.
The doctors say that when the contractions are about 5 minutes apart and I can't walk/talk/breathe during....then I should come to the hospital.
Oh so much to look forward too!!!

until then....