Your water breaking is not so cut and dry!

Yes, the title was a bad pun.

Yesterday was one heck of a roller coaster ride. Let's begin by the fact that in one day, I felt like I had lived three days. Allow me to break it down for you:

My day began with helping the husband putting a million round little tabs on a quad fold brochure to mail out...well, not quite a million, more like 1,200. Regardless, it's a lot, and it's time consuming, tedious, and BORING. We finished, the husband drove them to be mailed, the sky got black, and it rained - very hard.

When he was driving back to the house, we decided that we might as well go ahead and drive to the hospital (which is approximately 20 minutes away) to get my shiny new insurance card on file, so as to not have to worry about it when I'm in exceeding amounts of pain and discomfort when I go into labor. I find this to be a grand idea, and we drove in aforementioned heavy rain to go do so.

By the time we had gotten to the hospital, the rain had cleared, and we were once again looking at clear blue skies (and feeling the extreme humidity) - thus, it felt like a second day was beginning at around 2pm.

I went into the hospital and re-pre-registered, all the while I was developing a massive case of heartburn.

The husband and I decided we were going to take (yet another) opportunity to eat a nice meal together, and thought that Julio's (yet again) sounded like the place to do it at. However, my heartburn was killing me, and we had eaten lunch only three hours prior too. Thus, the husband ran into a gas station, grabbed me some Tums, and we made our way to Sam's Club to walk around and kill some time so that my FLAMING CHEST would subside.

We walked around Sam's Club, managed to spend money, and headed down to Julio's at 6pm for a (once again) fabulous dinner. By the way, I ordered the Rack of Lamb with Peppercorn Cream Sauce, while my husband got their delicious meaty Crab Cakes - after a bit of discussion, we asked the waitress/wife of the cook/owner if we could have it plated half and half...she obliged, and a new style of Surf & Turf was born. Since we were smart this time, we skipped on the appetizer (neither sounded appealing to my finally subsided burning throat anyway, as it was either Sausage Stuffed Banana Peppers or a Fresh Tomato Salad) we managed to have just enough room for dessert. I had fresh Tira Missou while the Husband got a Homemade Chocolate Brownie. We left full and content until we walked outside and it was still daylight out. Why, hello day three. (For the record, my husband and I tend to be late eaters. Dinner usually begins around 7:30 or 8:00 for us. So, when we left at 8, the still sweltering weather and bright sun in our faces was quite awkward feeling.)

We (both) waddled to the car, poured our bodies in, and decided that we most definitely needed to walk around for our overstuffed tummies to settle. Somehow, we ended up at Wal*Mart (which the both of us loathe to no end) and did some mild (read: IMPULSE) shopping. While waddling around, I began having some mild contractions. Nothing mind numbing, but discomfort none the less.

I got very tired though, and the husband checked out while I ran to the bathroom (again, for like, the 10th time that day). This is when I started to become concerned. (Warning: Gross, pregnant bodily functions are about to be detailed. Turn back now.)

Ever since having some "show" yesterday, I kept having a mucousy discharge. Said mucousy discharge continued throughout the day, only becoming very thin, and watery. Said mucousy discharge was making me soaking wet and uncomfortable.

I Googled information about your water breaking, and read that it is not always a gush of fluid, but sometimes can be a gradual trickle of fluid due to the baby's head plugging up the hole pretty tightly. Initiate over concern now. I expressed my feelings to the husband, and we decided that we would head home, look up more information in my pregnancy book library, and decide what to do from there.

My books said the same thing. It COULD be my water broke, and if it did, I needed to go straight to the hospital (due to risk of infection). So, we loaded up the car, made arrangements for our tenant to let our dog out, and made our way back down to the hospital again.

Upon arriving to the emergency room at a little before midnight, I filled out some papers, and was admitted. I was then strapped down in the Maternity Ward to some fetal monitors where I laid there for a half hour listening to Xavier's heart beat away. We did a decade of the Rosary. I almost fell asleep (if it weren't for the awkward position the table was in).

The nurse came back in and did a litmus test (of sorts) on the fluid. Negative. The nurse then had another nurse witness her do it again. Negative.

So, no baby was had last night. I didn't go into labor. (I did however, find out from the nurse that Doctor B went to a different facility in the same town. At least I know where he is now. It's kind of relieving.)

So, we drove home a little disappointed. I think the husband is as ready to have the baby as I am honestly. This waiting game is downright painful. Neither of us had too much time to mull it over though, as when we got home at 2:00am we were both exhausted and VERY ready for bed.

(As a side note, if I go into labor anytime past midnight now, I'll be insured. That's fantastic being that when I called the hospital to get a quote on how much a delivery would cost me out of pocket, the best thing they could tell me was "anywhere between $2,800 for a regular VBAC without anesthesia to $14,800 for a C-Section with several complications" and that that they were sorry they couldn't be any more specific than that. Not even how much it would cost to have an epidural, because it might take more than one try and it wasn't broken down in their system.)

Today, I am begging to prepare for my Advertising 215 class I'll be taking. After all, the first day of classes is August 24th...(I can do this, I'm young. I can do this, I'm young. I can do this, I'm young.)