The Big Day Finally Arrived!!!

So, you read in all of the pregnancy books about women being worried they wouldn't know they were going into labor. The books provide the reassuring mantra that "you will just know." I took this at face value and felt very reassured. Well, in the early hours of the morning on June 9th, we had a big thunderstorm come through. The night before we had been at a carousing dinner at Daddy's where those who were drinking imbibed heavily and there was much hilarity. We returned home late - after 11pm - and fell into bed. Queue storm at 1:30am and our nervous dog Zebby who doesn't like thunder and ended up sitting next to me shivering like there was no tomorrow. This woke me up and I lay there thinking - oh great, not going to be able to get back to sleep now - what with the dog and the storm. Now, in hindsight, I did have a thought pass through my head about "wouldn't it be funny if the babe were born on the night of a storm." But I didn't think much of it. I was more concerned about the fact that I had only been asleep for an hour and a half and had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before - because of waking up and not being able to go back to sleep. However, this time, I was lying there thinking, I feel a sense of pressure in my lower abdomen, maybe I need to pee - a state that is common in late pregnancy. Well, I get up to pee and low and behold there is blood. (Sorry if this is TMI. :-) ) So I call my OBGYN. She says that whilst this is probably nothing, I should go in and get checked out at the hospital. But that we should be prepared to come home again if need be. So at 2am, Dan, my mum (Who had arrived Thursday morning - yay! :-) ), and I pull together the planned provisions - bag for the labor room, bag of provisions for post labor, the bag of snacks for those that would not be in labor etc - and get in the car. It wasn't until we were on our way to hospital that it occurred to me that the "sense of pressure" I was feeling was coming at regular intervals. So we do the thing they trained us to do in the labor and delivery class - to time it. Turns out, they could be contractions! So I am not sure about always knowing. It didn't feel anything like I thought. But at least we were headed to the right place. When we got to Sibley - the same hospital that I was born in those many years ago - the nurse took a look at me and said "Yup, you are in labor." The Big Day had arrived! Yay! :-)