The start of one BIG day

After a nice and relaxing weekend, we went to bed Sunday night and I slept as usual. And "usual", at this point, means I sleep in 1- or 2-hour increments. So, when I awake at 5am w/the sudden urge to get the bathroom it was no big surprise. However, when I couldn't control the dribble as I rush faster and faster to the bathroom, I got a little alarmed. Without getting into any more detail, I just sat there, staring at my soaked pants and thinking, "Oh my gosh... oh my gosh... is this really what I think it is? Oh my gosh... seriously? Oh my gosh...this can't be happening... Oh my gosh... oh my gosh" (you get the point). Finally I called out to Guy and told him that I thought my water just broke. He instantly gets a stressed/worried look on his face and starts making plans for hurrying in to the hospital. At this point I'm still in denial and force him to make sure I didn't just wet the bed or something! I mean, having my water break right now was like the last thing I was expecting! Guy basically rolls his eyes at me and confirms that the liquid is, in fact, not pee. I am just still having an impossible time trying to accept the fact that my water has really just broken and I'm really beginning to go into labor. No pain or anything at this point, but we head out the door after 15 min of getting ready (what an incredible blessing that Grandma Marshmallow is still here and can take care of Adam!)... then it takes us about 45 minutes to get to the hospital. Guy is surprisingly calm in the car on the way and hardly even speeds.

Once at the hospital, we check in at L&D triage where they determine if I really am in labor. I still have no painful contractions to report. However, when they check me, I'm surprised to hear I've already progressed to 5cm (for anyone who doesn't know what this means, it probably means you don't care to hear the story, so I'm just sorry:). They also do an ultrasound to check the babies' positions. They're apparently both head-down, so I'm still ok to continue with our current plan of a natural delivery (as opposed to a c-section). I'm still processing all of this as they move us to a real L&D room. Oddly enough, it seems like as soon as I got into bed on the L&D unit, I immediatly started to experience what contractions really feel like. Wow! Epidural please! Um, now please! Getting the actual epidural wasn't as intense or painful as I had maybe thought. We had some amazing nurses throughout that day, which we were SO grateful for. Here are just a couple of pix from the labor room.
They've got my belly all strapped up here with monitors to make sure the babies' heartrates remain stable, and then one sensor to track the contractions. Still can't believe this is actually all happening!