I'm back...

Well I made it back safely from a great visit with family and friends back in Bethalto. Just some of the fun things I did.
1. Go out with Kimberly several times for her birthday!
2. Go to Disney's on Ice with all of the kids, sisters, and mom
3. Have an awesome shower and got tons of stuff for our baby girl.
4. See Kyle's mom, sisters, and tons of the Toti family. (Thanks guys for coming all the way over to Bethalto)
5. Go shopping in Chesterfield...oh how I miss you civilization.
6. Have lunch with my teacher friend Katie
7. Hang out with several other friends (see Joy and her new baby Reese, dinner with Amanda, and hours of chatting with Lauran)
8. Spend a ton of time with my nephew Caden and experience his hilarious antics.
9. Breakfast in bed (crepes and bacon), with my mom and sister, while watching Grey's Anatomy...I know it sounds like heaven, right?
10. Watch everybody jump on Caden's new trampoline, I just got to watch though. No jumping for me and baby.

I had an amazing time but was glad to come home and see Kyle and Bailey, I missed them a ton! We had a great day in Gatlinburg yesterday after dropping my mom off at the airport and then we headed to a friends house to watch the Kansas game, bbq, and roast smores (minus the hershey's part). This morning I woke up and was in the middle of a dream where I was in labor, so I told Kyle I'm 5 cm so I'm going back to bed to finish this thing. I couldn't wake up like that only being halfway done. So I go back to bed and for some reason my mom was there in the delivery room and we were waiting for Kyle. So I had to go back to sleep to see how this thing ended, hopefully with a beautiful, healthy baby. After starting to feel some tightening contractions I wake up and realize that what I was feeling was real...weird. I'm only 26 weeks and I didn't freak out and think oh my gosh....pre-term labor. I just laid there for a while to wake up some more and see what was really going on. Kyle had read about the possibility of Braxton Hicks happening this early so I figured ok this is probably what it is, I'll just see how it goes. I woke up Kyle to give him a heads up and explained to him what I was feeling and he was guessing it was the same thing. This went on for about 30 minutes and I finally fell back asleep. I told him it basically felt like someone was twisting a rag for about 30-40 seconds and then letting it go. I wonder if this is really how a contraction will feel like, I guess I will just have to wait and see. The one big thing I learned from this was if I tensed up when my stomach tightened then it hurt more and lasted longer. If I just relaxed then it seemed to not be as bad. I'm feeling fine now and we're not worried but I am going to let our doctor know about it at our appointment next week. This was definitely a learning experience for me and for Kyle.