Birthday Party!!

I bet you're all excited to hear my story (probably not as excited as I am to tell it lol). Here we go!
P.S. Unless you have a strong stomach, don't eat while you read this. I'm going to go into detail for my lovely family because they can't be here with me :(

Yesterday morning I had a doctor's appointment at 9:45am. I asked my doctor to strip my membranes seeing as it was my due date and I really wanted to get things going. She happily obliged. Once that was done she sent me home with the usual....go to labor and delivery when my contractions are at least a minute long, 5 minutes apart, and consistent for an hour; if they start taking my breath away or I can't walk/talk through them; or if my water breaks.
Well, pretty much as soon as I got home I was having contractions that were about 5-10 minutes apart but weren't too consistent. They were a little painful but nothing I couldn't handle.
Sean was scheduled to work from 2:30 to 11:30pm. Since they weren't consistent enough to worry about (and my doctor said to expect some cramping because she was "aggressive" during the procedure) I told Sean to go ahead and go to work but come home during lunch and we would re-evaluate then. Basically, he could take his 2 week leave any time he wanted, but he didn't have the option to miss a day and go back if there was a false alarm. You can imagine the extra stress that caused me. I didn't want to go in if it wasn't time.
Fast forward a few hours....
Around 4 I decided I wanted to take a nap but I was in too much pain with my contractions (still) to fall asleep. I texted Sean and let him know what was going on but not to come home until his lunch break at 6:30 because I still wasn't sure if this was IT.
By the time he got home, I was pretty certain that it was time to head to the hospital. He ate a quick dinner while I finished packing our overnight bag. I gave the cat some love and extra food and water and we headed out the door.

When we got to the hospital they kept me in Triage for about 2 hours.
First, I was dilated to about 3 1/2 cm but I had keytones (sp?) in my urine. [[I was told that meant my body had used up all of it's stored sugars and was now using fat reserves for energy which can cause painful contractions.]] This tidbit of info about broke my heart. The first thing that came to mind was "Oh great, because I haven't felt well enough to eat today I'm having false labor pains and Sean has already started his time off. Crap." The nurse gave me apple juice, Sprite, and graham crackers to try to get my levels back to normal. As soon as I drank the apple juice I started feeling nauseous so I couldn't even touch my Sprite. After an hour, the nurse checked me and said I had dilated to a full 4cm. She called my doctor and since I was having painful contractions, albeit still not super consistent, they told her to keep me in Triage for another hour and they'd reevaluate then.
Fast forward an hour. No change but still in pain. They decided to admit me!!

I have my own room with a pull out bed for Sean. He says it's super uncomfortable so I told him tonight I want him to go home and sleep in our bed so he's well rested for when baby and I come home (plus, I feel bad that Ashes is home alone).
Around 11:00pm my nurse asked if the contractions were very painful...ie if I wanted an epidural so I could get some sleep. I said yes please! The anesthesiologist showed up around midnight and got right to work. I was expecting a lot more pain considering there was a needle being shoved in my back. It was uncomfortable but not too bad. The triage nurse putting in the IV hurt worse, actually. (But she wasn't the most gentle at any of the things she did...)
Once that lovely epidural started to take hold, I felt instantly better. In fact, my contractions started to get closer together (which apparently isn't too common....go me!) I ended up not being able to fall asleep until close to 5, and even then as soon as I started to fall asleep my stupid blood pressure monitor would kick on and wake me up. Ugh. It's okay, though. I got a few patches of sleep within 2 hours or so and I actually do feel rather rested this morning (oddly enough).

And now it's morning. My nurse called my doctor around 6:00am and asked her if she should start Pitocin (the contraction causing medicine). Doc said go for it, and it was so. It officially got started around 6:30am.
Then, my doctor came in around 8:00am. She broke my water (haha it was funny, as soon as she said I'm going to break your water Sean woke up immediately :P) and upped my dose of Pitocin. She also put an internal monitor under the baby's head to monitor my contractions (apparently they're more accurate). I was dilated to about 5cm at that point and the nurses said they'll be in every hour or two to check on me. Since it's a little after 9:00am now I'm half expecting them to come in any time.
Oh, did I mention my doctor says we'll probably be having a birthday party around noon unless I progress faster!? Because that's the plan!

So, to update my current status in a few final words....
I'm numb from the waist down (and it's the weirdest feeling ever to barely be able to move my legs). I'm really hungry but I have to stick to ice chips....which isn't too bad. I really like ice. I've got internet access (obviously), my cell phone, and cable tv to entertain me while I wait. My water is broken and I'm sitting in a big puddle of it (which isn't that bad since I can't feel it :P) Everything is looking good and, according to my doctor, my only job at this point is to continue dilating.

Sorry I don't have a final pregnancy picture. I have a few that Sean took when they gave me the medicine to relax before my epidural...but I'm not going to post them on here because my computer battery is about to die. Stay tuned to see them eventually though, I looked high as a kite lol.

To my family: I love you all and I wish you could be here...to see Mia when she decides to make her grand arrival. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of her too :P

Wish me luck, this is it!!