Our Almost Father's Day Morning

Not to be too graphic, but yesterday morning I saw it was "show" time. (girls, you know what I mean) I went about my daily schedule having irregular contractions that increased during the day. Last night they became pretty regular, but I decided to try to sleep a bit through the night and if I woke up then I'd consider going to the hospital. I woke up at around 2:20 this morning feeling much stronger contractions and when Ben and I timed them they were about 4 1/2 to 5 minutes apart. We decided we'd err on the side of caution since today I am 6 days overdue and just go in to the hospital.
When we got to the hospital we went in and explained why I was there... what an awkward moment for me since I've never done this thing before. Then they told Ben and mom to go into the waiting room while they got me situated. A nurse took me into a room and whispered "are you abused?" and when I assured her I wasn't she asked if I had an STD which I also replied in the negative. She then rattled off instructions for me very fast... "take off your clothes, take this cup, we're going to get a strip on you (I later found out that meant monitor me and the baby), put on the gown with the ties in the back and leave the waist undone, need a clean sample so wipe wipe wipe and then use the cup and then wipe wipe wipe. She left the room then and I thought.. "now how many times do I wipe?" When she came back I was standing there not knowing if I should sit down on the bed or what. She asked me why I wasn't in the bed and I told her I really didn't know what I was doing and she laughed and asked me my due date. When she found out I was 6 days over she looked at me and said "get your butt into that bed."
They monitored my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. Before I left home I was really hungry and asked mom if she thought it would be ok to eat a piece of toast or something before going. She said she didn't think they would like that so I didn't eat or drink anything. The baby's heartbeat was fine, but they decided to give me something to eat to perk it up a bit. She asked me if I'd like a fruit cup and I emphatically said "yes!" She asked me if I wanted peanut butter and crackers and again I said "yes." Ben said I'd better enjoy that fruit cup cause it probably is an $80 fruit cup, but with our insurance it is a $70 fruit cup. That fruit cup never tasted so good. The baby's heartbeat picked up after that and they said everything looked great with the baby. My contractions were coming regularly, but they were small. They felt pretty intense to me. I happened to see the other people's charts that they were monitoring and their contractions looked like the Swiss Alps. Mine kind of resembled little mole hills. I told mom that if I had one of the Swiss Alps I think I would be having an out of body experience about then because of the pain. They checked me and I was still at 1 1/2 cm. I couldn't believe it... I thought for sure I was beyond that. They also said the baby was floating. They had me walk around for an hour to see if it would speed things along. Ben and I were in the waiting room doing giant squats and breathing through my mole hill contractions. They hooked me up to the monitors again and nothing had changed. So... they decided to send me home. I thought I'd be super emotional about it, but I wasn't. I asked if there was any way they could keep me and the nurse said "there is no room." I heard my mom in the background say "no room in the inn." The doctor on call this morning was named Dr. Vandenboom. That would have been awesome to say "boom baby" all day...but alas. We decided to go out for a grand breakfast after that at a place called "The Big Biscuit." In retaliation I ordered a meal that included pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage and potatoes. Of course, I couldn't get through half of it, but still. We're all exhausted now and at home. I thought I'd unwind a little and write this all out before I forget it all. The baby is kicking me, I'm still having contractions and I'm going to try to sleep anyway. I really think that this baby will come before my scheduled induction on Tuesday night....but we shall see. The little stinker... it likes being in there I suppose!