Guess what!?!!?!

So today was a busy day for us. This morning we woke up and went to visit our friends who just had their new baby. Emersyn and Stella are two months apart and now their little siblings will be about 4 days or so apart.

After we met precious new Emma, we headed to the airport to pick up MiMi! I'm REALLY glad that she got here this afternoon. More on that later......

After we grabbed some lunch, we went to get Emersyn's first hair cut in honor of her becoming a big sister. Her hair has been kind of a struggle to work with lately because it's so thin and she hates it when I comb it. I thought that with Everett coming, now is a good time to chop her hair and let it thicken up a bit. I cannot believe how big it makes her look, seriously.

After Ems got her overpriced sweet children's salon hair cut, we took her and my mom home and then Brett and I headed out to an old friend's wedding. I was a guest book attendant and it was record high heat here in Portland, 94 degrees! It was the first day in 2011 to break the 90 degree mark, which is a record in and of itself I believe.

At the wedding I was definitely having contractions but go figure, I was standing in 94 degree heat and I am almost 39 weeks pregnant.

The wedding was short and sweet and we headed home to pick up my mom and Ems for some dinner. We decided Burgerville sounded good since Ems is such a cheeseburger fan. We even listened to the "cheeseburger" song on her Veggietales DVD on the way there because it was just too silly. :) After dinner we went to the grocery store to get some basic groceries but not too much food since I am was going to be induced on Monday.

Got home from the store, relaxed for a bit and the headed to bed. When we got into bed I noticed that I was having more frequent contractions so I decided to time them. It turns out they were coming every 3-5 minutes or so but weren't very intense. I timed them for about 40 minutes and then decided to call the nurse at the hospital. She said to give it another 30 minutes or so and then decide what to do. After I got off the phone I had a couple more painful contractions and decided that we better head into the hospital and get checked out. We hadn't even packed our hospital bags yet, isn't that awful??? So we packed our bag (and Lord knows if I remembered everything...probably not), I snuck into Emersyn's room and packed her bag and also packed up the bear that she made for Everett. Brett gathered the camera, laptop, etc. I was 90% sure this was a false alarm BUT I just had a friend who didn't get to the hospital in time for her epidural (she was already at a NINE) and I decided to learn from her experience and take a more cautious approach.

I got to the hospital and we felt silly rolling in our mini suitcase but it had our laptop in it and I didn't want my car randomly getting broken into and having that stolen while in the hospital. They got me into a bed and started monitoring me. I was having contractions pretty regularly but they weren't very strong so my nurse wasn't overly optimistic. She monitored me for about 15 minutes and then checked me. She said I was at a 3 still and just about 50% effaced, same as I was at my appointment on Thursday. I was a little disappointed but also relieved because that meant I still had time. I wasn't really emotionally prepared to give birth tonight!!! She said that since this isn't my first baby, they weren't going to send me home yet and that if I wanted I could get up and walk around and they would check me again in an hour. I walked around for about 20 minutes but was tired (at this point it was almost 2am) and headed back to the room. They hooked me up to the monitors again and my contractions were still coming regularly but this time they were painful. Before the contractions were just tight and uncomfortable. Now I could feel them down low and they HURT. The nurse went to check me again and her face changed and I just knew. She said that I was at a 3.5 and 90% effaced. She said I am going to have this baby today. Holy.Cow.

My thoughts: I am thrilled that Everett's birthday is that much farther from Emersyn's. I'm happy I didn't have to be induced and go through pitocin, although I didn't think it was *that* bad but I know inductions can have higher c-section rates, etc. I'm happy that my mom got here just in time. I'm happy I was able to go to my friends wedding this evening and that was really the last big milestone I wanted to accomplish before having my little man. Other thoughts: I'm feeling very nervous this time around just because I know more what I am getting into and because Everett is measuring SO much bigger then Emersyn did. I totally have not wrapped my mind around having my baby today. I had plans to go to church tomorrow, go to lunch...enjoy the last day as a family of three on Monday and maybe do something special with Ems....but it's really okay. I am happy that I went with my instincts to come to the hospital AND I totally had instincts about him coming early too which turned out to be true. It's kinda funny, here I am in labor and I can't even tell anyone because it's 4:45am and everyone is sleeping. I know I could text them all but it's going to be awhile and they might as well sleep. After I post this I am going to try to snooze. My nurse thinks the baby will be here around 1pm today. The kind of cool part is that Brett's brother is down from Seattle for the weekend and also his dad is off on Sundays so he can be a part of the birth (like in the waiting area, you know what I mean).

My plan is to call my mom (who's home with Ems) at 7ish and let her know what's going on and tell her to head on in whenever she can. Hopefully Brett's brother can go hang out with Ems while I'm here and then once Everett's born they can all come up. We'll call Brett's parents at 7ish too. I already texted my brother and his wife and I suspect they will call me once they wake up. :) David is supposed to be documenting this process again but since this took us by surprise, Brett has been taking some video on our little Flip camcorder.

I cannot believe that today was my last day as a mama of one and I didn't even know it. :)

My dear sweet Everett, I cannot wait to meet you. I have a feeling you're going to be a stinker and I love that about you already. Your big sister turned out just like I thought she was going to (for the most part) based on what I got to know about her while I was pregnant with her and from what I know about you, I can tell you're going to be a busy and active little boy. Your sister is going to love chasing you around and playing with you and we all just can't wait to meet you. Go easy on mama today though, okay? No freaky positions coming out, no hands by your face, no giant head, okay? I love you I love you I love you already. I hope you're just like your daddy because I just adore him too.

Wish me luck friends.....I'll keep you posted.