The Vacation That Almost Was...But Wasn't

We departed on Sunday morning for the Frio River with some friends. We were going to rent a cabin for several days, tube on the river, explore a nearby state park, and enjoy each other's company. Seemed like a great idea.

We had a great drive there and unloaded the cars, then went to dinner to celebrate Father's Day. The kids were remarkably well-behaved all day considering they'd been cooped up in the car for so long.

We put the kids to bed, then finally turned out the light at around 10:30 pm. I woke up at 2 am, having Braxton Hicks contractions. I knew it wasn't real labor, but eventually they were coming non-stop. At 4 am, I woke Gary up because I was still having them. By this point, I was really stressed because we were staying in a place that had no landline phone, neither of us had cell phone coverage, and the nearest hospital was in a small town (i.e. no NICU) 30 miles away. Not a good combination. By 6 am, they were still going strong but I was able to finally go back to sleep for a couple of hours.

When we woke up around 8 am, Gary made the decision that it was time to pack up and go home. I felt so badly - but I agreed with him. I was nervous that the contractions wouldn't stop and that I'd end up having the baby way too early. So we left - after being there only 17 hours.

Since we've been home, I've been taking it easy, drinking lots of water, and the contractions have become almost non-existent. And my stress level is much lower knowing that we're back in a place that has phone service and a hospital nearby in case we need it.

I think the Frio River would have been a lot of fun if we'd (a) been able to stay, and (b) the water level had been higher. We're in the middle of a huge drought right now and the river level was so low that you couldn't even really swim in it. Apparently there are years that the water level is so high that some of the cabins are flooded - but you don't know that when you book the cabin the previous September, so it's hard to know what will happen.

Nevertheless, we've decided to make the best of it and do some fun things here at home, and we're having a great time.