P is for Practice Run...and also for Pee

Last night, starting around 6pm, I started having contractions that were getting longer, stronger, and closer together. But they still weren't intensely painful. I mean, they were in no way comfortable, but I didn't feel like I would rather rip out my own eyeballs like I did with the Pitocin contractions for Noah's birth. Geary started timing them and by 10pm they were 3 to 4 minutes apart and lasting about 60 seconds. We decided to have Noah spend the rest of the night Geary's sister's house--just in case.

Around 11:30, after the contractions still had not changed, I talked to the doctor-on-call at my clinic. Even though we both weren't sure it was the real thing he said, "It can't hurt to go in and just get checked out. I'll let the hospital know you're coming." So off we went to Labor and Delivery. I thought, "Maybe my pain tolerance is much higher now...I heard kidney stones will do that to you."

I had a couple contractions in the car and one while we were walking up to the building and then...nothing. They just stopped. I told the nurse I wasn't having any more and she said, "It's okay, let's just monitor the baby for a while and see what he's up to." She was really encouraging and didn't make us feel dumb for wasting her time. "It's better to be safe and second labors can happen really fast. We'd rather you come in for nothing than not come in for something."

After about 30 minutes on the fetal monitor she asked if I wanted to walk around and see if that got anything going again. Geary and I decided we'd rather just go home and go to bed. The nurse was agreeable and finished up her paperwork to release us. Then, almost as an afterthought, she complimented me on something that makes me feel nearly as proud as having a beautiful cervix. She said, "If it makes you feel any better, the lab said you have the best urine they've seen in a long time--so clean!"

Awesome. It really is about the inner beauty.