The beginning

So Thanksgiving weekend, my parents came and went and baby was still snug inside keeping warm. I found out later my mother sobbed nearly half way home because she was afraid she'd miss the birth (she's in Milwaukee). The braxton hicks contractions began Sunday evening, they'd come and go, come and go... I wasn't getting too excited, my Doc told me I was only slightly dialated and she sounded like we'd have to induce.

The end of the month is a busy time for D, he joked I needed to not have the baby before then. Tuesday night at 3:42pm I wrote down my first contraction. They were steady, I'd been having them for a couple hours so I thought maybe I should start keeping track. 4 minutes later there was another, 5 minutes after that another... D was working late, he called and I told him we may not make it through the night, he asked if he should come home. I told him to stay at work, I was fine, this birth thing takes awhile.

I ran to McD's for my "last meal" of chicken nuggets, fries and an orange drink, I forgot my phone. D called our neighbor to come check on me, I was fine, just hungry. When he got home, the contractions had slowed to between 6-10 minutes apart, we went to bed and I tried to get as much rest as I could because I know I would need it the next day. We got up at 8:21, D took over the writing down of contractions, I made it through 11 of them at 3-4 minutes apart before we called the doctor's office. I was leaking a little bit and wanted to make sure it wasn't my water. It wasn't the huge gush, but I wanted to make sure the baby was safe and my bag was still entact. The doctor couldn't see us until 2:00pm, but they told us to go to labor and delivery to make sure.

I called my dad (my mom was a basket case) to let him know we were headed to the hospital, he purchased a plane ticket for my mom and gave her a call. D and I got ready, packed our bags and headed to the hospital.