One More Night

I'm sitting in birthing suite 3 at the Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia as I type this.
Today started out as the past two weeks have, with me looking at Steph wondering if today is the day or not, but I could tell by how her eyes were shut that this morning wasn't going to be the morning. I showered and went to work just like any other day.

While I was at work Steph called me after meeting with her midwife. She said that there hasn't been much progress since last week and they gave Steph two choices. The first option would be to wait until next Monday and if the baby hasn't been born we would need to induce. The second option would be to give her a medication called Misoprostol. Misoprostol is suppose to help a woman dilate which ultimately allows her to give birth sooner than she normally would have. After discussing our options we decided to take the second option.

At 8:20pm we began packing and loading the car up. We already had the "emergency" bags packed. We grabbed a few additional items: pillows, our toiletries and a few things to drink. At 8:35 we were on our way to hospital. It was weird to me not feeling rushed as we were on our way to the hospital. I was secretly a little sad that we didn't have that "rush". I've been practicing my best NASCAR driving and everything for that moment.

At 9:00pm we were checked into our birthing suite and have been here for the past 2.5 hours. At about 9:55pm, Steph received her first dosage and started receiving more intense contractions about 20 minutes later (she's been receiving light ones through out the past few days again). At about 11pm we walked for about 20 minutes to see if contractions would intensify and ultimately lead to labor, but instead it was just a great time for me to take a few pictures.
As I mentioned earlier, we arrived at the hospital slightly before 9:00. That means that the front entrance of the hospital is closed and you can enter only through the Emergency entrance. I parked and we entered, but the lady at the ER desk let us know that we needed to move our car within a few hours since we technically weren't Emergence parking, (seems like a detail to me). After getting checked in and settle I went out to move the car. On my way back in I stopped by Holiday for a little treat. Grandma's Double Chocolate for Steph and beef jerky for myself. By the time I arrived back to the Emergency entrance it was flooded with people (and by flooded I mean a dozen or so). Either way there was only one nurse for everyone waiting to see their loved ones. One girl I was talking to was waiting for her "stupid" boyfriend (I'm going out on a limb and saying that relationship doesn't last). I waited over 20 minutes to be let back into the hospital. Luckily nothing exciting was happening in birthing suite 3 as I was on my 45 minute adventure.

As the title of this post states "One More Night". I fully expect to be a dad by tomorrow. That's when the fun tales begin.