False Alarm

I'm a planner, but babies make their own plans!  I had Autumn 1 day before her due date, labored for 62 hours and never had regular painful contractions until labor began.  I 'assumed'  that we'd be able to stay in Glenwood until 37 weeks without any problems.  I assumed wrong.  Last night, after being in Glenwood only 9 hours, I started having mild contractions at around 12:30. I got out of bed drank some water and sat on the couch.  After about 5 of these I decided to wake Aaron and think through what we should do.  Had we been where our hospital was, we would have relaxed and hoped they went away.  However we were 3 1/2 hours from our Dr. and really really not wanting to get stuck with labor intensifying unable to get to Loveland or having to make decisions in the car as to which hospital we should stop at. We waited about another 45 minutes with me in a warm bath and the contractions continued. So unable to determine if this could turn into real labor or not, we packed all our stuff and hit the road around 2.  We attempted to call the on call OB and the answering service must have written my phone number down incorrectly.  So when we got to McKee we debated if we should just wait until the clinic opened or just go get checked out. I went into the bathroom and had another 3 mild contractions and so we decided - since I'm 36 weeks, we know that she is likely only about 4 1/2 pounds we wanted to make sure that my cervix was holding steady.  Sure enough - no changes - just classic false labor.  They sent us 'home' - after calling our friends who are graciously letting us live at their home (who were expecting us next week after they left for Europe), we took off for their place to rest, nap and settle in.  I was able to take 2 naps and just relax doing computer stuff.  Aaron somehow managed to stay awake the rest of the day, work and go fix a leaking ice maker hose off the refrigerator at our rental.  Autumn was able to stay with my mom in Glenwood, sleep all night, rest and relax today (she had spent all day in the car back to Glenwood yesterday)  and then tomorrow Nana will drive her over to us.  I'm glad she didn't have to endure our sleep deprived-ness today and that we were able to get rest as well.  But I miss her - it was the first complete day, morning til night, away from her ever.

After reading a bit more about braxton hicks vs false labor vs real labor - it seems near impossible to know when or if false labor will turn into real labor or putter out and stop.  I read a few stories of women that had several episodes of what seemed like it was real labor for up to 12 hours that gets your hopes up and then just stops.  So now that we don't have to wonder if we can make it to the hospital in time - we'll hope that she stays in there a couple more weeks and that we are able to discern when it is really time to go to the hospital!