Greetings from our hotel room in the "city of birth!" I wanted to give you all a quick update on the happenings of recent days.
We had a bit more drama getting here than anticipated, mostly because of some unusually heavy traffic on our way to the train station yesterday morning. We left our house at the time we had agreed on, but then couldn't find a taxi, and once we did get a taxi we got out to the main road outside our house and just sat and sat in traffic. There's been some construction going on (when is there not construction going on in our city?!) on some of the other major roads and so our road was extraordinarily busy. Time ticked on and we needed to run for it at the end, but we did board the train with almost 10 minutes to spare, PTL!
We arrived safely and got checked into our hotel and I was feeling the need to lie down and rest since my frequent contractions were getting rather uncomfortable. The girls took a nap, John unpacked, and I timed contractions--about every 5-7 minutes, lasting about a minute, and definitely a step up in strength from what I had experienced before. We started to think . . . what if the baby comes tonight? We're not really ready! The doctor doesn't even know we're in town yet! Who will watch Clara Anne and Chloe?!
Thankfully, after an afternoon of resting and then a swim in the hotel pool in the early evening, the contractions subsided and we all got a good night of sleep. Of course it would have been nice to have the baby in my arms already, but I'm glad that she did not arrive last night! And of course, this prelabor is still no indicator of when real labor might begin . . . but I do hope I won't have several more weeks of this.
So this morning, we enjoyed the hotel breakfast, then went out for a walk in the fresh springtime. We bought a kite for the girls and had fun flying it, and made a trip to the store for snacks for my labor/hospital stay. I was able to talk with my doctor today and touch base with her--she reassured me that she would come to the hospital whenever I needed her, despite the fact that she is supposed to have the next two days off. All in all, I feel like we are much more ready tonight than we were last night. Now we'll just wait on the Father's perfect timing! Who knows, it could be 3-4 more weeks!
In the meantime, there's lots of things to do. There are several parks in town we'd like to explore with the girls, there's Starbucks just a two minute walk from our hotel, the hotel has a lovely pool that we have already visited twice (being weightless in the water is so refreshing for a nine-month prego!) and we're well-stocked with games and movies, too. John has a few things to do but not his normal workload, so we're all enjoying the extra family time.
We had a bit more drama getting here than anticipated, mostly because of some unusually heavy traffic on our way to the train station yesterday morning. We left our house at the time we had agreed on, but then couldn't find a taxi, and once we did get a taxi we got out to the main road outside our house and just sat and sat in traffic. There's been some construction going on (when is there not construction going on in our city?!) on some of the other major roads and so our road was extraordinarily busy. Time ticked on and we needed to run for it at the end, but we did board the train with almost 10 minutes to spare, PTL!
We arrived safely and got checked into our hotel and I was feeling the need to lie down and rest since my frequent contractions were getting rather uncomfortable. The girls took a nap, John unpacked, and I timed contractions--about every 5-7 minutes, lasting about a minute, and definitely a step up in strength from what I had experienced before. We started to think . . . what if the baby comes tonight? We're not really ready! The doctor doesn't even know we're in town yet! Who will watch Clara Anne and Chloe?!
Thankfully, after an afternoon of resting and then a swim in the hotel pool in the early evening, the contractions subsided and we all got a good night of sleep. Of course it would have been nice to have the baby in my arms already, but I'm glad that she did not arrive last night! And of course, this prelabor is still no indicator of when real labor might begin . . . but I do hope I won't have several more weeks of this.
So this morning, we enjoyed the hotel breakfast, then went out for a walk in the fresh springtime. We bought a kite for the girls and had fun flying it, and made a trip to the store for snacks for my labor/hospital stay. I was able to talk with my doctor today and touch base with her--she reassured me that she would come to the hospital whenever I needed her, despite the fact that she is supposed to have the next two days off. All in all, I feel like we are much more ready tonight than we were last night. Now we'll just wait on the Father's perfect timing! Who knows, it could be 3-4 more weeks!
In the meantime, there's lots of things to do. There are several parks in town we'd like to explore with the girls, there's Starbucks just a two minute walk from our hotel, the hotel has a lovely pool that we have already visited twice (being weightless in the water is so refreshing for a nine-month prego!) and we're well-stocked with games and movies, too. John has a few things to do but not his normal workload, so we're all enjoying the extra family time.
I've probably mentioned it before, but my prayer for this baby is that she would arrive early, and at night. With Chloe it worked out perfectly--I was only starting labor when Clara Anne went to bed in the evening, and by the time things got more intense, it was late and so a friend simply stayed in our apartment overnight. Chloe was born at 4:21 in the morning, and John had plenty of time to help me get settled with the newborn Chloe in my hospital room and return home by 7:30am; Clara Anne didn't wake up until 8:30! She didn't even know that we had been gone. So we're praying for that this time as well. It would be ideal if she would arrive during the night so that our friends only have to come and sleep at the hotel. And the early part of the prayer is just because I am too impatient to wait until my due date! If you feel led, you can join me in those prayers!
Just for fun, here's a few pictures from our kite-flying expedition today. The cartoon characters on the kite are everywhere these days--they're the official mascots of the big event happening here in this country later this year. 
Up, up, and away! [note: what this picture does not show is the crowd of 40-50 people who had gathered around and were watching our family activities with great interest. Cameras were flashing, complete strangers were trying to hold the girls and they were protesting; finally we had to put a stop to it and tried to kindly discourage the excess attention. By the time I took this picture the crowd had mostly dispersed.]
Look, Mommy! Our kite is flying high!
2 comments:
I'm so glad you guys are there & all settled in. I bet the swimming pool does feel so good! I'm glad you're able to get in some family time. Ok - I'm ready for baby girl to arrive so we can learn her name!
Flying kites is so fun! Thanks for the update and the specific way we can pray. Hope you enjoy your stay and have a few Starbucks to commemorate!
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