False Alarm

We had a false alarm yesterday.  We got so excited because we thought that you were telling us that you were ready to be born.  As first-timers, we are not experts on this process so, not surprisingly, we are jumping at every little twinge and hoping that it means that you are ready to come out and meet us.  I was having contractions all day yesterday, and started to time them around lunch time.  At that point they were about 5 minutes apart, but not at all painful.  We decided to run some errands and keep busy for the rest of the day and see what happened.  At around 10pm I decided to start timing the contractions again as they were coming closer together and getting a little bit stronger.  They were consistently 2 minutes apart for a whole hour.  Like I said, we don't know much about this process, but I did know that 2 minutes apart was pretty close.  I wasn't in much pain, but still figured it would be better to get things checked out than to miss the window on getting to the hospital.  We headed in and they hooked us up to a monitor.  I was having consistent contractions but they were not very strong. The nurse and doctor were super nice, and did not make us feel like the rookies that we are.  They had us walk the very short labor and delivery hallway for two hours to see if that would help things progress.  After the long hours of walking my contractions had gotten significantly stronger which was exciting news, so they decided to let us stay for a while.  They told us to try and rest and as I fell asleep the contractions disappeared.  At around 5:30 they decided that we should head home as this could be a long process and there was no telling how much more work these contractions had to do to actually start meaning something.  We were sad to be coming home without you here, but the more I thought about it I was grateful that you did not come out before you were ready.  I am hoping that next time we go to the hospital it will be the real thing, and that we will get to meet you very soon.  We cannot wait!  We are praying that you continue to grow strong and healthy, and that when you are ready to come out you will make it clear to us.