38 week appointment came a day early

Well we weren't supposed to have an update until tomorrow but due to some things that were going on we called the Dr and they asked us to come in this morning. About 3 days ago we noticed that the contractions were starting to change and seemed more "real." One the first day they were about 10-12 minutes apart. After coming home from work though and laying down, they seemed to calm down and spread out to longer time frames in between. Yesterday they picked up again in the morning and by the end of the day were anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart and getting really painful. We started to think that this was it. Again though after getting home and laying down they spread back out to 20 plus minutes in between. The added difference with yesterday was that there was what seemed to be more of a constant cramping and then lower back pain. This morning the contractions started again from 20 minutes apart and started getting around 10 minutes apart. Ben encouraged Gabrielle to call the Dr's office which they then asked us to come in as soon as we could so they could hook her up to the monitor and watch the contractions. So we left work and headed in.

They did our normal exam first and we learned that we are now 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. So yay progress has been made in a little under a week, which is good. They then hooked her up to the monitor and sure enough the machine was showing contractions. They were coming in anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart. The Dr came in and told us while they are close they want to see them more consistent....currently they are one four minutes later, one 6 minutes later, etc. So we wait. They did decide to pull Gabrielle from work early so her last day at the office was today. This actually came at a really good time since she was getting very uncomfortable and this was something we were talking about possibly doing ourselves, the good thing is that with the doctors orders we don't have to dip into our time off early, we get additional :)

They went ahead and scheduled our appointment for next Wednesday but mentioned that is if we make it to that appointment. So if things continue to progress we may see them sooner. So here is to hoping.

So that is the current update as to where we are. We will continue to keep you all posted. More to come soon.

Hope all is well!

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle