A Unique 4th of July

We had a very memorable Fourth of July this year. We spent the majority of the day up at Melissa's parents home for a nice lunch and good conversation. Plans were hashed around for our afternoon plans, but with the rain we decided to do a nice dinner out in Peoria and attempt to catch the fireworks show there as well.

Melissa had complained of an "achey" feeling throughout the morning and just about the time we were ready to leave for dinner, some side pain really kicked in. We got in our cars and drove to Peoria for dinner anyway, but on the ride down the pain brought her to tears and we decided to call Dr. Gibson. He directed us to go to Labor & Delivery at the hospital. So we went, a little worried.

We arrived at the hospital at about 6:50 P.M. and were immediately directed to an exam room where Melissa had to strip and was attached to two heart rate monitors for the babies and another one to pick up contractions. How love to hear the girls' heartbeats! All was well with them and they seem to be in constant competition already. The pain had subsided but apparently she was contracting every 2 minutes! They called them "irritable uteran contractions." Supposively it was false labor and her uterus is just about stretched to the max. She was given two vaginal exams, one at 7:00 and one at 8:00 and both times, still only dialated to a 1 and now 80% effaced. Since she wasn't in true labor (thank goodness), we patiently waited for the word of when to leave.

We were released from the hospital at about 9:00, and with that news decided to catch a good view of the Peoria fireworks from the hospital parking deck. We hope you all enjoyed your fourth of July events, despite the rain and cooler weather!