9.17.2012

False Alarm

Imagine the night before Christmas and the feelings you felt as a child: excitement (ohh, presents!!), anxiousness (have I really been a good girl/boy?), eagerness to get the cookies and milk set out, and as you lay in bed sugarplums aren't really dancing in your head because you can't sleep with your heart pounding!

Now imagine waking up Christmas morning to find that Santa never came, no presents are under the tree, and someone tells you Christmas won't be coming this year, you'll have to wait another 365 days!

Haha, very funny, but seriously, what happened to Christmas? That's how Travis and I felt this morning...

It all started last evening around 5 pm. We were headed out to celebrate my birthday a week early. My birthday isn't until this Friday, the 21st (mark that on your calendars :) Our hope is that Juice Drop will be here before my birthday so we thought we should go ahead and celebrate. We went to the mall first to walk around, you know, trying to naturally induce labor. Well, it actually worked! As we were walking I began to notice I was having contractions every 20 minutes or so. We had forgotten the mall closes at 6 on Sundays so as we were rushed out by the mall employees, we continued counting contractions and they seemed to be pretty regular and averaging 15-20 minutes apart. Since we knew it wasn't really anything to write home about just yet we decided to stick with the plan of eating out so we headed over to Mama Ricotta's for an amazing Italian meal (if you know anything about me, you know that I LOVE Italian even though I don't have an ounce of Italian in me). Throughout the meal the contractions continued. Our entire dinner revolved around this baby and ohmygosh is this really happening? We could have a baby by tomorrow!!! After we finished we walked around the river walk to see if the contractions would go away; I had read that if they were false contractions then they'd go away if you walked. Sure enough, they kept on coming, some contractions 8-10 minutes apart! Ohmygosh this really IS happening! We're about to meet our baby girl! We rushed home so we could straighten the house a bit and pack our bags. After we realized we probably wouldn't be heading to the hospital that night, we took our time getting ready, continued counting contractions while I sat on an exercise ball, and called our family to prepare them for what was to come. Around 9:30 pm, my contractions got down between 7-10 minutes for an hour! As I finally laid down for bed around 10:30 I couldn't contain my excitement, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as if my heart jumped into my head, and I knew I needed Travis to pray for me. As Travis prayed I felt a peace rush over me, I felt God more present than ever and Him telling me that He will be there in the delivery room just as real as Travis and my OB and nurses will be. I imagined holding my baby girl for the first time and experiencing a love like no other. I felt so much peace and I thought I'd have an amazing night of sleep. Well, I was wrong. I couldn't fall asleep because I realized the contractions were dying down. They weren't as strong and weren't coming as frequently. I would stay awake just so I could feel the next one come. I went in and out of sleep throughout the night and when I woke this morning my heart was deflated knowing that I was not in real labor. I was so upset, discouraged, frustrated, disappointed, and hopeless like labor will never come and I'll just be pregnant forever (can that really happen?!) Christmas was taken away from us and now this rainy day is calling me back to bed. Yes, it's noon; yes, I should go get groceries for the week; yes, I should go about my day like usual. But when you have it in your mind that today you're supposed to be in the hospital having a baby it's kind of hard to get motivated.

Don't worry about us, we'll get out of this funk in a few hours. Pity party will be over, I'll continue my day like usual and go get groceries remembering that God is in control:

"But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently" Romans 8:25. Thank you, Lord, for always knowing what's best for us and being in control of all things! You are the creator, I am not, and am so thankful for the beautiful gift you have blessed us with! Our baby girl must be happy as a clam in there because she's still moving like crazy this morning. Our anticipation of meeting her is almost more than we can take! Christmas morning will come soon, I know it will!

2 comments:

  1. I found your blog when I pinned your banana oatmeal muffins:) As a explored...I discovered so many similarities! I'm due this Friday the 21st, with a little girl. That was my first intrigue of course. And then I kept reading...my husband and I have been married 6 years, this is our first baby, both my husband and I work in ministry, I love Jesus, I gained 3 pounds in one week (uggh), I so desperately want a natural birth, I forget I have a belly and bump into counters...and it just kept going. I found your blog again this morning, cause I thought, "hey I wonder if that girl had her baby yet?" I just want to let you know that your recent "false alarm" post has been an encouragement to me and my husband. There are SO many emotions as we're waiting for this little one to arrive, and there's this weird comfort for me that's there's another couple, going through the same exact thing, right now. Asking for God's grace as we approach parenthood for the first time. SO incredibly excited to meet this new addition to our family, but with so many questions. When is this going to happen?..Will everything be ok?...Will we know what to do when we get home from the hospital? Thank you for your honesty. I look forward to reading more...

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    1. Hi! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts about your own pregnancy. It is a crazy and wonderful thing we're going through and I hear it's even better on the other side :) We really do have so much in common! I would love to hear more about what you and your husband do in ministry, where you're from, and about your little daughter once she comes. Do you have a blog? Thanks again for commenting and I wish you all the best in labor and hope you don't have to experience false labor! :)

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