Our first trip to labor and delivery

       So... apparently I was so excited about the nursery that it put me into labor. lol

       To preface, when the baby's body moves to one side of my stomach, that side gets all hard because the baby's there. So in the last 2 weeks or so, I would notice a swelling/hardening sensation that seemed to take up my whole stomach instead, so I thought that the baby was just choosing positions that took up significantly more room; thus making me more uncomfortable. I actually would tell sam that I think our baby liked to try to breath through my belly button, because she would surface like a whale every so often to breath through it and make my stomach hard and uncomfortable because she was too big now to take up so much room.
       So, my baby whale was doing this move all day yesterday, making me very uncomfortable at work. Around 7 or 8, it actually started to hurt me up top and I just started complaining "Ow, the baby's too big... she's choosing positions that hurt me and isnt stopping!" Then finally around 10 pm, I came-to from my naive stupor and realized that I was probably having contractions, as opposed to my previous belief that my baby was trying to breath through my belly button. This realization made me feel rather stupid and lame... but how was I supposed to know? I mean really. We started timing them and they were 7 minutes apart or so. I drank a lot, laid on my side, took a hot bath (all the things you do to tell braxton hicks contractions from real ones) and they only got closer together, and more uncomfortable. It felt like I was being boa constrictored from the inside out. We called the midwife and she said to go to labor and delivery, so we did.
       We got there at midnight and got checked in. By that point the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and very easily seen on the monitor. She checks me out and tells me that I'm between 1-2 cm dilated and about 70-80% effaced. The baby's head is low and engaged, and my cervix is soft and flexible. I'm at 34 weeks, so this isn't horrible news nor is it too uncommon... but we definitely want the baby to keep cooking longer as long as she can. I got a whole lot of "Well, these are all great signs... not too out of the normal, but we definitely want to do what we can to prevent birth as long as the baby will wait". I definitely concur.
       They did a fetal fibronectin test which indicates the odds of a baby being born in the next 2 weeks and it came back negative, so that's good. My system totally checked out, no urine problems, I'm totally healthy. The baby seemed healthy and as kicky as could be.
       So, at 1am they gave me a shot of terbutalin which stopped the contractions immediately, which also made me feel like a crackfeind who was searching for my next hit to satisfy my jitters. That worked for about an hour and twenty minutes, but then i started contracting again and it hurt more than before, so I got another shot. I was also given steroids shots to help build up the baby's lungs just in case. By about 3am everything had calmed down and I was doing well, so they let me go home and recommended taking it easy today.
       So I woke up around 10:30 this morning to more contractions, and now they're hurting down low. My midwife just called me back and said it's off to Labor and Delivery with me again! So... sam's coming home from work, I'm going to take a shower, and we'll go see what's up.
       In conclusion... the baby's slowly making its way! I definitely hope she stays in there until at least 36 weeks, but babies come when they come and I'll just pray for the best. We have the internet and sam's laptop at the hospital, so we'll try to keep you all informed.