Last night we had our last childbirth preparation class. Figures that finally during the last class people actually started talking to eachother. I had predicted to Tom several weeks ago that someone would give birth before classes were over. This was an easy call since two of the women are due the 25th and 27th.
Sure enough we all got there and we were missing a couple. Except it was a woman who was a week behind me. Her water broke this weekend at 32 weeks and she ended up being sent to a hospital with a NICU. She had a vaginal birth and the baby is okay.
So with that news we watched our movies on postpartum recovery and newborn care. At the break, the couple who are due on the 25th left. We were all going up to the labor & delivery ward so I was guessing they were just going on ahead. Nope. She was having contractions. Had been having them all day and now they were 3 to 4 minutes apart.
When we got upstairs she let us all in the room while they hooked up the monitors. We watched the baby's heartrate and watched her go through three fairly long contractions. I couldn't believe they were nice enough to let us be there. The floor was hopping full of babies that were on their way or had just arrived. The lullaby played to let us know that another one had popped out. After a few minutes we left our classmates to their privacy and went into another room to play with more positions and equipment. Our instructor put the doppler on my belly and we all heard Peanut's heartbeat. She said that my belly was a great size. Before we went home I saw the couple walking the halls which is exactly where you will find me when I am in labor.
It was so amazing to see everything in action. I really feel even better about my upcoming delivery. I had been taking it for granted that I have 6 more weeks to get ready. Reality check. I could go into labor at any time. Eep! So I started typing up my hospital packing list and gathering together my music CDs. Wow I'm going to have a real baby, real soon.

PS Found out the hospital has state of the art security. Baby lojack, alarms, bands, the works. This will rid me of my "switched at birth" and "stolen baby" fears.