so mom and i are sitting at indigo grill eating some yummy food (for some reason, i kept feeling like it would be the baby's last meal in utero) and i am sitting quietly, trying to see if baby is moving after eating the way it should. then i felt something really weird - but really light, like a period pain or baby doing some weird acrobatics down below. i also noted a lot of leakage, but it wasn't a steady flow.

about 12:30am i went to the bathroom and all of a sudden more liquid just came out, with the trickle down my leg etc. i remembered joy saying that if i was having an amniotic fluid leak i should check with my doc in case i need antibiotics for the baby. this was pretty signficant leakage which didn't seem to stop so i was pretty sure my water broke. of course, my poor sleepy doc recommended i go to triage to be sure.

so while i'm there i find out that it isn't amniotic fluid (ie no water break), but just a hell of a lot of mucus that apparently gets thinned out (sorry if this is TMI for some of you!) but the nurse is looking at me and finally says, "did you feel that?" i say, "what"? she says, "you're having a contraction right now!" apparently they were coming every 2-3 min, but weren't the doozies that actually pull your uterus (since she confirmed I'm still just 1cm dilated). funny how i didn't even know, now i think i've been having these mini-contractions for a few days and not realized it!

they almost didn't send me home anyway cuz they thought the baby's heart rate was too high ( it was staying ~170s consistently without a break). this whole time vikas has been keeping his hands on me, doing energy work. so when the nurse left, for fun i asked vikas to stop running energy and instead i practiced my hypnobirthing (finger drop!). lo and behold, baby's heart rate began to decrease in the 140s-160s! i knew (s)he liked it :o) interestingly, when i stopped doing it and began talking to the nurse again, baby's heart rate went up. but my doc said 170s was nothing to worry about, so thankfully we went home (at about 3:30am)!

this "trial run" was good, it gave me a smidgen of what to expect with the family, hospital, etc. the best was i had been afraid that everyone would freak out when it was time to go the hospital - but (perhaps because it was so late) both vikas and mom were really chill - everyone took their time, went to the bathroom, drank tea etc ;o) before we took off, knowing it wasn't a major emergency. and i got some practice with my finger drops, curious to see how far they will take me during the "real deal".

so it looks like the baby will be waiting for Nanaji (my dad) since he's coming into San Diego in less than an hour! the craziest thing is not knowing when the real show is to begin - even with these minor contractions (which have stopped for most of today), there is still no telling when true labor will happen. how crazy!