Friday morning we rushed to the doctors office to find out why I was having abdominal pains. I was only 27 weeks pregnant and had no pregnancy complications so staff was dubious that the pains we baby related. After running normal lab tests and checking my weight / blood pressure, they did a cervical check and found me to be 1 cm dialated. Perry and I were shocked, scared and worried. We wern't ready for a baby yet! The nursery wasn't painted, the holes in the kitchen ceiling weren't fixed, and we hadn't started our baby classes yet, but we drove immediatly to the hospital. After checking in, the nurse ushered us into a labor and delivery room for some monitoring. Impatiently we waited as I.V.'s were stuck in my arms and heart monitors were strapped to my belly. The readouts showed a happy baby but also minor contractions about every 10 mins. The next 5 hours contained a lot of the same procedures without any answers for me. They put me on Indocin which is a medication that helps decrease contractions, although they would only allow me to be on it for 48 hours because Indocin decreases the fluid of the amniotic sack which would take away its natural protection. They also shot me with some steroids for the baby's lung development just in case we would have a premature delivery.
Amidst the beeping of machines and the thump-thump of the baby's heartbeat, I drifted in and out of sleep. Several times during the night, nurses came in to check on me, refresh my I.V. and refilled my glass of water.
Although it was hard to have an appetite, the food from the hospital was great and was delivered from a menu straight to my room. Morning came and went but the contractions continued well into the afternoon. We had plenty of questions that seemed to have indefinent answers. How much longer would the contractions last? When could I go home? Would we be ready for a baby if we had to deliver and how big would he be?