Wow- what a week!

(...and a lot of "w's" in that title!)

This has been an exiciting and exhausting week. I have so many details to each story, but I will try to stay on track and give you a good overview.

Wednesday night Jesse had four tickets to the Astros' game, so we invited Chase and Rebecca to go with us. About half way through the game, Chase tells us that Rebecca has been having contractions throughout the entire game. By the end of the game, they are steadily about 5 minutes apart. Naturally, as first-time parents, they were alarmed by this, since she is still not officially due for another two and half weeks. When we got in the car to head home, she called her doctor, who wanted her to go to the hospital and have everything checked out. Better safe than sorry, right?

So we went to Memorial City Hospital and they hooked her up to machines and started running tests. The baby's (Natalee's) heart rate was pretty high, so Rebecca drank some water which calmed it down a bit. Her contractions remained fairly consistent, but she was not dialating and her water had not broken. Rebecca and I walked around the maternity area for about an hour trying to get her water to break, and no such luck. Around 3:00am they decided to send her home; she was definately having contractions, but labor was not progressing at a rate for them to admit her. So we all headed across town to go home.

Thursday mornng, I talked to Rebecca and she said she was doing okay. Her contractions were still consistent, but still her amniotic sac remained in place. Throughout the day, she and Chase went on many walks...around Walmart, the neighborhood, etc. I spoke to Chase around 6:45pm and he said her contractions were feeling stronger, but still nothing to get back to the hospital about. I went to sleep.

At 9:45pm my phone rings, and it is Chase telling me Rebecca's water broke and they are headed to the hospital. I know that even at that point it can take awhile, but Jesse helped convince me that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I would be mad at myself if I missed it. So, I put on my clothes, sent some emails to work taking a personal day on Friday, and headed to the hospital.

When I got there, I was the only one there- I just knew his family and her sister would have already been there! I went to their room and it turned out that her "water breaking" was inconclusive, according to their tests (so the families were waiting to hear more- Chase never called me back and told me to wait!). And on top of that, her contractions had pretty much stopped since she "felt the leakage." The baby's heart rate was normal, and the nurses/doctor were pretty perplexed. We waited a few hours and Rebecca started having contractions again, which were slightly stronger than they had been the past 24 hours. Around midnight they ordered an ultrasound to see if the amniotic sac was still in place around the baby.

I have never seen an ultrasound before, and it was simply amazing. As they rolled over her head, you could literally see her little face- it looked as if baby Natalee was looking right at us! She just looked beautiful. I think seeing her like this made Chase and Rebecca feel better, as they were starting to feel pretty frustrated and concerned by this point.

After the results from the ultrasound came back, the hospital would not let her leave. They gave Rebecca something to help her sleep through the night, and said the doctor would be in first thing in the morning to decide what to do. So, I hugged them both and came home (got home around 2:00am).

I have since talked to Chase, and they have gone ahead and induced Rebecca. It looks as if her amniotic sac has a leak (so it did "break," it just did not "pop" and gush out like some mothers experience). With a leak, it would be more dangerous to sit and wait for it to all leak out and could potentially add stress to the baby, so the doctor wanted to induce. They went in and popped the sac for her, and now labor has begun! Unfortunately, the doctor said it would still more than likely be a long process and she probably would not deliver until this evening at the earliest.

Jesse and I are going down there again this afternoon, and I hope to get some good pictures of mom, dad, and baby Natalee to share with everyone! I will keep you posted...