Stubborn Baby

Well, I can't tell you how annoyed I am to be sitting here, still pregnant. I thought yesterday was it for sure...

I woke up feeling crampy (normal after my internal exam), but somewhere around 10:30 a.m. I started having contractions. Real contractions are distinguished from cramping or Braxton Hicks by several different factors.
1. Your upper abdomen (uterus) tightens for a minute or so, and then relaxes. This happens in Braxtron Hicks, too, but not in cramping.
2. Real contractions generally start in your back, neither B.H. or cramps do this.
3. With cramps and BH, it's hard to time your pains, they sort of ebb ad flow, fading away and coming back just as gently. Contractions are intense pain that starts abruptly, gets worse, and then lessens to nothing. It's very easy to identify their starting and stopping points.
4. The biggest difference between BH and contractions is that with BH, if you change positions or get active, they go away. If you're having actual contractions, activity will make them worse (which is why Drs often have women in labor walk the halls to get closer to that magic 10 cm dilated).

Well, my contractions fit all of these characteristics. I also had two other symptoms (which we'll put into the category of 'too much information' for now) that made me believe labor was just around the corner.

I didn't worry about timing my contractions because it's not neccessary to call the Dr. until they are extremely painful. Terry came home from work and we went to dinner and then for a walk to try and speed things up.

When we got back from the walk, my contractions were harder and I was breathing through them. Kind of how you tense up and squeeze your eyes really tight when you've got a leg cramp or something. Terry began timing them. They were lasting about a minute, 6 minutes apart. My Dr's instructions are to call her when they get to 1 minute long, five minutes apart, for at least an hour. I knew it would take us a while to get that far, so I suggested we try to get some sleep around 10:45, in case we had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night.

We set out clothes and everything. I told Terry I wouldn't believe it was true even once the Dr. told us to come in to the hospital. I would remain skeptical until someone in a white coat examined me and told me it was the real thing.

Well, good thing I didn't have my hopes up. My usual insomnia woke me several times in the middle of the night, and each time I was extremely aware that I wasn't having any contractions at all. When I woke up and it was light outside, I was even more dissapointed.

Today, I've had all of three contractions all day long. I haven't been in the best of moods, to say the least. The last two weeks I've been so full of energy and prepared to go into labor. I've been keeping the house clean and taking care of chores to ensure that at any moment, our house is ready to be empty for a good 3-4 days. But, these last three days I've been wiped. My mom had to come over and do dishes for me. I can barely muster the energy to put on some mascara, much less obsessively clean the house. So, now when I think of Micah being here, it's less about excitement and more about "where will I get the energy??"

Hopefully this lull is just a short phase and I can come out of it soon. I want to be well-rested when it's time to welcome Micah, that stubbor baby who seems way too content to just stay inside me.

*A Special Message to Auntie Em: Micah and his mommy love you and you are on our minds and in our hearts and prayers constantly. We have faith.