I was in labor... or so I thought!

Friday at about 1:30, I started having what I would call the normal braxton hicks contractions that I have been having for weeks (constantly). When they continued and became timeable, I decided to go walking to see what would happen. They still continued and were 3-5 minutes apart. They weren't really painful yet, so I wasn't sure if maybe they were just timeable "warm up contractions." I decided to call my midwife and see what she thought. Because they had been timeable for SEVERAL hours by that point, she told me to stop walking and take a bath, then lay down (so I don't have a baby before she got here). She got here at about 9:00 and I was still having timeable contractions, and they got a little more intense. But, I was waiting for them to really start hurting (like they did with Karis). She checked the baby and he was doing great. She checked me and I was only dialated to a 2 and 75 % effaced.

We just waited them through. She told me to try to get some rest while they weren't real painful so that I had energy. They continued and at about 2:00 am started feeling the way they did when I was in labor with Karis, so I thought I was really going to have a baby soon. I got so tired (after all of the walking, etc that I had done all day) that I doze off for a little while. When I woke up, the contractions weren't as strong... They continued for SEVERAL more hours, sometimes more intense and "crampy," sometimes less intense. They eventually dwindled to just tightening again and spread out. My midwife checked me and found that I was 100% effaced and 3 cm dialated, but decided to go ahead and go home because the contractions had almost stopped. She gave me strict orders to call her as soon as they became "stronger, longer, and closer together" because she thinks it will then go really fast. She said that my body has already done a lot of work (and it wasn't that hard!). So, now we just wait... She thinks it will happen in the next few days (I think yesterday she thought it could have still happened over night), but I haven't had a contraction since last night before I went to bed. So, we'll see! I LOVE that I was able to labor at home and have a midwife tell me what was going on. Homebirth is AWESOME!