All this talk about going early, and here I am having to make another week's entry. It has been a trying weekend. On Saturday, Jan 27, I went into the hospital to have what's called a "Prostin" treatment. This is where they put a special gel on your cervix to try and get it to dialate. After suffering some of the worst cramping I've ever felt, alas it faded away.

They told me to come in on Sunday and they would start induction with Pitocin, a chemical that normally would be produced naturally to bring on labor, except for women like me who just seem to want to do things the hard way. I was on the IV from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. - with absolutely no results whatsoever.

I wasn't prepared for how disappointed I was going to be. I didn't expect to come home without a baby. I had to keep reminding myself that he was ok and that eventually he'd have no choice but to come out, but it didn't stop the tears or quell my feelings of inadequacy. It's hard not to feel like you've failed somehow, especially knowing how frustrating it was for Csaba.

Today, Monday the 29th, I called the doctor and told him that our efforts had failed. He began to detail about the next treatments available, all of which are expensive and uncomfortable. I was even more dejected after the call. But that was soon to change. I guess Joshua overheard us and decided he'd better come out on his own.

Within 15 minutes of the phone call, I had lost my mucous plug and my water had broken. I called back the doctor and he had me come in. They made sure my water was broken by performing an amniotic test (they swab some of the fluid and look at it under a microscope. If it has a "feathery" texture, that shows that it is amniotic fluid, which is salty in nature.) He determined I had a slow leak, not a full break. This is why I hadn't yet begun strong labor.

So I began my walking. I walked the mall all afternoon, I went back after supper to walk around WalMart until I couldn't walk anymore because my back labor was getting intense. As I sit and write this, I am having contractions, but they are still a bit far apart to go back to the hospital just yet. If they don't get at least 5 minutes apart by morning, I will go back to the hospital and they will put me back on the IV. If after a few hours that doesn't put me into full blown labor, they'll have no choice but to do a C-section. Once the water has broken they want to get the baby out in the next 24 hours or so to cut down on the risk of infection.

It looks like we finally have a light at the end of the tunnel. It will probably be a few days until I get back to this obviously. But the next time you check back, I should have all the info about the birth. Thanks for checking in and being a part of this exciting time in our lives.