It took three pregnancies ...

But I finally succumbed to the "false alarm."

After a night of - what I felt like - were steady contractions, Husband and I headed to the hospital. In my previous two pregnancies, my water broke. In my first, I didn't feel ANY contractions till they introduced their evil contraction-inducing drug. In my second, it was an hour before I felt them (but, obviously, with my water broke, I didn't need to count them). So, this whole "counting contractions" thing is new to me. And what a "real" one feels like versus a "practice" one is also new (as I never had Braxton Hicks, a.k.a. practice contractions with my other two).

I was also having some other mild symptoms - nausea (but I'm always sort of nauseated, so who knows) and my body, umm, behaving in a way that it was trying to "clear out" everything. I also just felt a bit off.

It wasn't NOTHING - I had most every symptom for pre-term labor. But they weren't strong enough or consistent enough to warrant keeping me in the hospital. She dropped a bit, and I dilated a bit while under observation but another hour of observation found no progress (and she'd actually shifted herself UP again ... thanks).

They sent me home with pre-term labor instructions and told me to relax. That's SO EASY to do at my house, I asked if I could just please stay there! Nope. I asked for tranquilizers for my boys. Nope.

Things felt a bit more normal this morning. I went to my scheduled OB appointment. She confirmed that 2/3cm dilation and that the baby was still "up." The monitor showed a couple contractions at first but then nothing. That's how it felt.

In the last three hours, though, it feels like things have kicked up again, but you better believe I am not going to that hospital till I can't talk through the contractions OR my water breaks. I will not be fooled twice.

I am 36 weeks tomorrow. I'm told that I can have the baby any minute now ... or not for another week or two. Mother Nature has no fixed schedule, clearly.