Wow, it's been a whole year!

One year ago today I was reveling in the joy of new motherhood. At 4:30 a.m. I awoke and thought I had to go to the bathroom. I got up and went to the guest bath so I wouldn't disturb J. I was feeling pretty awake when I was done and thought I would sit in the nursery for a bit and dream of my baby that was due in just 15 days. Was it a boy or a girl? We had decided that we wanted it to be a surprise on the day of the birth.

Lovely. The cat left a pile of sick on the nursery floor. I cleaned that up and then felt like I was cramping again and probably needed to visit the bathroom again once I was done cleaning up. After a second trip to the bathroom, I was still feeling uncomfortable and was beginning to wonder when the last time I felt the baby move was. Had it been yesterday at work? Maybe I should play some music for the baby and see if baby would do a little dance for me. As I lay on the floor by the stereo, classical music played through two tiny speakers pressed against my stomach, I realized that these cramps were coming every two or three minutes. I thought, "Perhaps I should write this down." Sure enough, half an hour later I was having regular pains.

I decided it was time to get in the tub - I HAD to shave my legs. If this was labor, I was not going to the hospital with a week and a half of hair growth on my legs. Not only would people I didn't know be seeing my legs, but who knew when I would have a chance to shave after the baby was born?

At 6:45 J's alarm went off. I went in and he asked me if I'd had trouble sleeping. I said, "Well, I think I'm in labor." J's sleepy reply was "Really? Tell me about it." I called the doctor and was told that I should head to the doctor's office at 9 a.m. to have them check me and tell me if it was the real thing. J showered and dressed, I dressed and put my make-up on. I decided that I should eat something because once you are in the hospital; they won't let you eat at all so my breakfast was a bowl of grapes. Light and refreshing and full of natural sugars. I called my office and J called his to let them know that we were going to the doctor and we would let them know if we were going to be there that day.

We got to the doctor's office and sure enough, I was three centimeters dilated. They put me on a non-stress test monitor, but the sweet nurse forgot to put the part on that would measure my contractions. But it was great to sit and listen to the baby's heartbeat for 15 minutes! My doctor gave me the good word: go to the hospital! She would let them know I was on my way. But she was going out of town; I would have the on-call doctor, Dr. C. At least it wasn't Dr. P. I was worried about him.

I told J we should head back to the house and get the lunch he had packed for work that day. He didn't want to leave if something important was happening to get a bite and hospital food is both icky and expensive. On the way to the hospital we called work to let them know that one way or another, the baby was coming - I think we'll take sick days.

**This has been a crazy birthday party day and I'm beat. I'll blog tomorrow with how my birthing experience turned out. I promise it will be a happy ending!