I had a bit of a scare today. Not to be too graphic but I woke up, got Dax out of his room, grabbed a couple of his books to read downstairs and as I started walking toward the staircase, I felt a small gush of fluid go in to my PJ bottoms. "No, no, no" I said out loud, this can not be my water breaking, I'm only 36 weeks along. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough, there was more moisture there than usual. I started to cry and Dax seemed very concerned. "Are you sad mama?" "Yes, I'm sad Daxie." "You crying mama?" "Yes, I'm crying." I changed into something dry to test the wetness again, scooped up my little guy and we read a few books together. We read "Pouch" about a baby kangaroo who every day takes a couple more hops from his mama's pouch to go and explore the world but every time he goes out of his comfort range, he hops back to his mother's pouch to feel safe again. It's the cutest book ever. I stood up from the recliner nervous that if there was amniotic fluid, it would have pooled and gushed again. This time, dry. "Ok, ok, this is good." Meanwhile, Tim is still sleeping and hasn't a clue about how stressed I'm getting about the situation. As I start cooking up a weekend-style breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and cinnamon rolls, my father calls. It's only 7:30 a.m. but he knows I get up early. I tell him I think my water may have broken and he thinks I should ring the doctor on call right away but at the same time, his voice remains calm, which I what I need at this moment. We hang up and I make the call and am put right through. She explains that if it only happens once, it's likely not my water breaking. Wait a bit and call me. I call in 45 min. and tell her there's been no more gushes or trickles but could I still come in and be checked? Dax was born at 37 weeks and it all happened this way the first time. A light trickle and I thought I was incontinent. I ignored the moisture and saw my doctor 24 hours later. At that point, the risk of infection was already high. I didn't want to take any chances this time. She agreed. In her office, she did three quick tests and I think I held my breath until she came back to the room where I lay with my feet still in stir-ups. "Well, it looks like . . ." it took her so long to get the words out it seemed she was talking with mud in her mouth, "all three tests have come back negative." "So my water didn't break," I ask? "Yes, it seems that way." I left her office feeling like I had just gotten a second chance at keeping this baby inside me a little longer. As my father said this morning, "Every 24 hours, the baby is that much further along." That's a good way to look at it.