37 weeks and hoping to be done soon!

Well we've reached full term! Ava, that means you can come any time now...please...
I went in for my normal weekly check up on Monday. The nurse came in and did all her normal stuff including the Doppler of her heart. She paused when she did this and of course said the non informative answers when I asked why it sounded different. Dr. Kennedy came in with a Doppler too so I knew something must have been up. She listened and said it sounded just a little lower than normal. They were going to send me down to testing to hook me up to a monitor just to see how she reacted.
This was a little different than we were expecting. Usually you walk in, get a really fun exam, then walk out with a "see ya next week". We had joked before we went to the appt "what if she says 'Well you are going to have a baby today!'" so when this started happening we kept thinking wow what if that REALLY happens?!
We went down to testing and were the only people in there so had some fun conversations with the tech. Ava was very uncooperative and went into a deep sleep or something RIGHT after being incredibly active in the dr. office. Of course. So her heart rate was down and the tech said they needed to monitor how high it got when she started moving around. She tried giving me a soda, pushing on my belly - no results. Stubborn girl. The tech then brought out this 'buzzer'. It looked like one of those little handheld fans you see people carrying around at amusement parks, just without the blades. The top of it vibrated - she said "Ok she might jump when i do this..." and as soon as it touched my belly Ava JUMPED the hardest I've ever felt. It was hilarious. Said the increased heart rate looked good, it was just the baseline that looked a little low, but nothing too low.
Dr. Kennedy decided to admit me and keep me overnight just to monitor everything and be safe. We went down to Labor and Delivery and it was so weird! I just kept thinking this is where Ava will be born! We got in the room and I got to put on one of those lovely one-size-fits-all gowns. Grand.
One of our friends in our small group works there so she came in and talked to us and helped us be at ease a little more. I hope hope hope she is working when I go in for the real thing!
Got the monitors hooked up and then I got to sit there in the bed. We called mom and dad to bring us some food (Moe's!) and they got there a little after 7 and I was starving!
Chad left to go home and pack some things (toothbrush, paste, shampoo, etc and laptop so we had something to do ha) and when he got back they ended up moving me upstairs to the high risk unit (don't freak out, they just needed the room in L&D so I got moved). The room was bigger, the TV was bigger, the bathroom was bigger- so I was fine :) Chad and I watched some episodes of House and then went to sleep try and go to sleep. Chad had a couch thing that kind of pulled out that he slept on. I really don't know how much I slept. I was very uncomfortable but wasn't expecting much haha. Nurses came in about every 2 hours too.
In the morning Dr. Kennedy came in and looked at the papers. Said the heart rate looked great all night, and she wasn't worried about anything. She then said 'you were having a lot of contractions though'. I was? I had no idea. At one point a nurse had come in (about 4 AM or so) and said "are you not feeling any contractions?" and I hadn't been but then saw when they would print out - I was having some crampy feelings which I guess are contractions! Who knew! Now I do ha
Dr. Kennedy proceeded to say "You aren't going to wait until 2011 to have this baby are you?" Chad and I semi-laughed then looked at her serious face, then looked at each other. Wait, what? Really? No I wouldn't wait another second if I didn't have to haha. She then said it could be any time but didn't have a way of really knowing when. She did say she thinks she'll come before her actual due date of Jan 16 though. Talk about getting my hopes up. The entire pregnancy I've been trying to convince myself Jan 16th was the date, no earlier, and its worked. I haven't been expecting anything...until now. 2011 is THIS WEEKEND!! That means next week we would be parents. Nesting hadn't really kicked in until that moment. On our drive home I listed out all the things we needed to do: install car seat, pack bags, finish nursery, clean, etc etc etc. Poor Chad :)
SO I've noticed a little more contractions since I know what to expect now. Had several last night and some today too. Guess we will see what Ava wants to do!