Early Labor

Yesterday was one of the hottest days of the year in Portland, and I think the heat wave may have helped kick-start labor. It was too hot to sleep last night, and I was feeling uncomfortable and achy. Around 3am I started having painful contractions (painful compared to the Braxton-Hicks I've been having) which repeated every 8 minutes for an hour, then every 7 minutes for an hour. E Ben hung out with me, got the fan and ice water, and packed his bag for the hospital (mine has been packed for a while now). Around 5 I decided to try to get some sleep and managed to doze on and off until about 8am.

The contractions were pretty regular at about 6-7 minutes apart for most of the morning and early afternoon. We had breakfast, bid farewell to our moms who drove to the beach for the day (we were supposed to go, but decided against the trip at the last minute), then watched a few episodes of "The Wire". Around 3pm the contractions slowed down a bit and I took a nap for a couple of hours. After waking up, we went for a walk up to the Arboretum, had some dinner, went for another walk, then I took a cool shower and spent some time on the computer. Now the contractions seem to be picking up again and getting a little more painful.

I spoke with the doctor on call this weekend, and he said we can go to the hospital at any time, but he'd recommend waiting until the contractions get more intense, so that's what we're doing. E Ben is sleeping for a few hours and I'll probably try to sleep after I read for a while. Hopefully we'll end up going to the hospital sometime tonight, and we'll try to post again before we leave!