So we're home again after 2 extra unplanned hours at the hospital. Now that I'm on my regular computer, I can give you more details of our crazy day!

It all began at 5:50am this morning, when Sayla Grace decided to go ahead and start her day. Owen and I both woke with her (since her Grands had to work). We fed her breakfast and her bottle, and played and played and played. We both had breakfast, and I showered to get ready for our 10:30a regularly scheduled doctor appointment.

By about 9:15a, we were all getting restless, so we decided to leave early at 9:30a. Since we're only 15 minutes away, we got there lickity split!

They actually worked us in, and we got our ultrasound first. Avery was looking great! Still head down, she has gained 10ozs and now weighs 5lbs 11ozs! We got some more pictures and even got one of her smiling!!

After that, we learned that Dr. B. had to go on a delivery, so we had to wait another 45 minutes! After what seemed like forever, we had our appointment with the doc, and decided to stop all medication that has been keeping me pregnant up to this point.

She then informed me that because I'm diabetic, it is standard procedure to monitor the baby's heart rate beginning at 35 weeks. This is just to be sure that the baby is not in any distress or lethargic due to the diabetes. So off we went into a different room, I got hooked up to the monitors (baby and contraction), and were told it would only be 15 to 20 minutes.

30 minutes later, Dr. B. came in and checked the strip. She commented that the baby was "sleeping" and we needed to wake her up. Her heart rate was good, but very "stable." I was thinking "stable" was good, but apparently they need to see that the baby can pick herself up if her heart rate drops, and if it rises, she should be able to calm herself on her own. And it should naturally rise and fall on its own...Avery's heart rate was not doing either.

So she grabbed this contraption, and pressed it to my belly and it vibrated/buzzed. Didn't hurt at all. She did this in about 4 or 5 different places on my belly, in an attempt to wake Avery.

Avery woke for a moment, but then went back to sleep fairly quickly. Dr. B. left to allow me more time to monitor to see if Avery would perk up. After about another 30 minutes, Owen went looking for her to see if we could leave. She explained that normally she would say yes, but given my history, she wasn't comfortable letting me leave.

Since I had not had lunch, she instructed me to go down to the Bistro and grab a bite to eat, and then head to Labor and Delivery for more monitoring. So that's what we did!

Once in the triage room, they hooked me up to the monitors and we began what turned into our (thankfully) brief stay. At first I was "contracting like crazy" according to the nurse. I actually felt 2 of them, and they were actually kind of painful. But since we had decided not to stop labor at this point, we just kept on monitoring.

After my lunch had settled, the baby started perking up, and the contractions slowed down. It took another hour or so, but finally the nurse came in and said we got the ok from the doc to leave.

She didn't have to tell us twice! We gathered all of our belongings - we actually brought our bags just in case!! - and high tailed it out of there! On the way out, Owen joked with the nurses that we would see them tomorrow (because everyone thinks I'm going to deliver on Sayla Grace's first birthday tomorrow!). But hopefully we won't have to go back until next Wednesday for our regular weekly appointment!

Time shall tell!