Kevin and Angela Duggan: 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced...long way to go

Well Kevin and I had nice relaxing weekend that was capped off by a false alarm last night! It was pretty embarrassing to say the least, but the Dr. assured me they "see it all the time!" To spare you the intimate details, I thought that my water had possibly broken or I was leaking fluid of some kind so after a constant and significant leakage all day Saturday and yesterday, I called my Dr. just to ask. The Dr. on call wanted me to come in right away to be sure. I asked if I could just stop in Monday morning on my way to work, but he was not amused and insisted I come in immediately in case my water had broken or I was leaking amniotic fluid.

Kevin and I showered, packed a "just in case" bag and headed to the hospital. We got there and did a few tests, one of which was INCREDIBLY painful and had me re-thinking why I ever wanted to try natural childbirth. The tests revealed that my water had not broken, but that Baby Duggan had dropped and completely flattened my bladder so I am just incontinent.

Awesome.

He is putting so much pressure on my bladder, it feels like I am carrying a bowling ball in between my legs. The Dr. took a brief look at the ultrasound to check for fluid and he has enough and his heartbeat is strong so there was no cause for concern. I am 50% effaced and one cm dilated so the process is beginning, but unfortunately I could stay this way for the next 4 weeks, or I could have this baby today...there is no way to know. I am going back on Wednesday for the ultrasound to measure the baby and they will check me again for progress so we should know more then.

What I know now is that the baby is kicking me like crazy and I feel so much pressure and sometimes pain in my lower abdomen and pelvis. I really hope things progress and I am still not waddling around like a penguin with a load in its pants in 4 weeks. I am ready NOW. The false alarm did provide us with a pleasant hospital experience and was good practice for the real thing! I’m sure it also provided the Dr.’s on call a good laugh at my expense. I wonder how many women a week go in to the ER when they wet their pants;)

Luckily the rest of the weekend was drama free, and we celebrated Kevin’s first Father’s day. I’d like to give a shout out to my dad, HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY!

I miss you and I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks. Obviously I couldn’t be in Atlanta yesterday so I hope you had a great day and got some fishing in.

Kevin and I celebrated by taking a nice, scenic drive to Lake Elmore, VT. Lake Elmore is somewhere Kevin has wanted to check out and we had such a beautiful day yesterday we figured why not. When Kevin called to talk to the Park Ranger, they said they allowed dogs and they could swim in the lake at the boat launch. She neglected to mention however, that the boat launch was not even in the state park, but on the other side of the lake completely. Hmmm, thanks a lot lady. We visited the beautiful beach with the manicured grass, snack bar and bathrooms,

but since we had Lily we then left to go to the boat launch...

Oh well, it was still so beautiful and we made the best of it!

This is as far as my swollen fankles made it in the lake...

It’s a little blurry but I think you can still make out the killer black flies biting me and drawing blood. I sat on the rocks at the edge of the lake and suddenly got attacked by a swarm of black flies. I guess they must have a thing for swollen, pregnant ankles!