Laborish

 That's right. I am officially in labor. Early labor, not active quite yet....but labor non the less. And yes it hurts. On Wednesday I started getting contractions that were about 6 minutes apart all day long. I didn't go to work, but made it to my drs apt at 4:30 where she checked me (still at a 1 80% effaced) she decided to send me to the nurses triage where they hooked me up to monitors for baby A's heart rate and my contraction levels. It wasn't 5 minutes after the nurse left the room, that she came back in and said, " you're contracting every minute..Do you feel those?!?" ha. Well yes, yes I did. She checked me I was still at a 1 80% effaced, so she sent me on an hour walk to try and jumpstart some dilation. Luckily my inlaws showed up and Margaret had her walking shoes on ready to go! We came back and got hooked up again, I was still contracting up a storm but was still only 1 cm yet slightly more effaced. More monitoring occurred, and then the shuffled me into the "whirlpool" aka room with a bathtub for me to soak and help dilate me while Brandon sat in a chair next to me playing jimmy buffet of his laptop and updating the Facebook world all about my labor process. He claimed he was blogging for me since I couldn't. How nice of him, bloody show and all. Ha. After the whirlpool I had progressed to a 2! Whoohoo! Unfortunately I stopped dilating and so the on call dr sent me home to labor and expected to see me back later that night. They also sent me home with an ambien, even though I hate taking any form of drug, my dad and Brandon talked me into it, saying I need my rest. Knocked me out cold. Woke up the next morning at 6 and forced my aunt jolynn (who had come up that night) to go walk with me. And then Brandon at 8. Since contractions were about 3minutes apart all day, we decided I better go in again to be checked around 5pm also known as rush hour. Greaaattt idea....after being monitored and seeing my crazy contractions on the chart, I was checked again. No progress but baby was not happy, so I had to turn on my side to improve her heart rate before I could be discharged.  The nurse said that this early labor could last for a few days with a first time mom. Not that I'm counting...but today was day 2....

Wednesday before being sent for monitoring.

Top is baby's heart rate, bottom are my contractions.

Suffering through back labor

Don't let my smile deceive you, I actually wanted to punch someone.

So as of now, I'm continuing to labor at home, in pain, waiting for either my water to break or severe contractions to start. Let's hope things get going soon, because this is no fun.