Baby On The Horizon!

Labor has begun! Contractions started around 4:50am this morning no real pattern just some good strong sporadic ones. Things started changing on this past Friday, my body was giving me some signs that labor was around the corner and I had dilated a bit more to about 5cm. The contractions this morning were strong, but bearable and I was able to get a little more sleep until around 6am when Sophie woke up. We continued about our morning routine with contractions still coming but not really regularly, while Neal made waffles, I decided I should call the midwife and let her know what was going on. I called her at around 7 am, left a message and by the time she called back at 7:18am my first bag of water had broken, only a small trickle at this point. Talked to midwife for a bit and we both decided we would give it a little bit more time before she headed out our way. So we continued about the morning, at this point we were still thinking we might try and head to church, however when I got up from the breakfast table there was a huge flood, my second bag of water broke at 7:45am and I could not get to the bathroom fast enough! I called midwife back and let her know what was going on and she said that she was going to get things rolling on her end, get her ducks in a row and head on over. We called Neal's mom to come down and help keep Sophie occupied for a bit while we got our ducks in a row and while we waited for my parents to get out of church to let them know what was happening and so they could take Sophie up to their house. The midwife and her assistant arrived within minutes of each other around 9 or 9:15am, midwife listened to baby's heart beat and said everything was good. They ran out to grab some breakfast, while Neal and I wrapped up a few lose ends around the house, I got a shower, my parent's arrived and we said goodbye to Sophie and headed out to Harris Teeter to do some grocery shopping since we were way low on food and I wanted some specific things while I labored. While walking around the grocery store my contractions were now about 2 minutes apart. That was a very speedy grocery trip, but I/we got what we wanted.

When we got back from the store I had my snack that I was craving (Havarti cheese, Kashi crackers and cherry tomatoes), midwife checked the baby's heart rate again (140 beats per min) and then I had her check me. At around 1pm, maybe a little before, I was around 5-6 cms but she was able to stretch my cervix to 7 and she could clearly feel the baby's head. That is where we stand right about now. We are going to head outside on this overcast, but pretty fall day and take a walk just to keep me moving and help my body do it's thing. I will do my very best to post updates as things happen and progress so check back periodically and see if I have posted anything new! Please keep us in your prayers as we journey through this miraculous event!

Watching my sweet girl walk away was a little sad.