37 weeks

Today I have reached the point where they will not stop labor if it happens. Which is great. I had a labor stopped, once, and the medicine made me so doggone jittery, and cranky... I'd hate to see myself trying to parent 2 preschoolers on it.

I really wondered if it was going to happen last night... We spent a large portion of the day picking up the chaos all around the house for the birthday party. I was really exhausted by midafternoon, but too busy to notice. Last night I was having Braxton Hicks (non-labor contractions) every 3 minutes. I didn't even bother to try and stop them at first, knowing I was only hours away from being considered full term. Plus they were just tight - didn't hurt at all - so I was only half convinced that they might mean anything. Drinking a bunch of liquids didn't make them go away. Sitting down didn't make them go away. Lying down made them less frequent. But they were still there. I got up and took care of a couple of things (packed camera & video camera, mostly finished packing hospital bag, etc.) that I would regret not having done if I did go into full labor. Eventually got back to bed and immediately fell asleep, but then kept waking up all night long, sometimes from contractions, sometimes from bladder, sometimes from dreaming of pushing out a baby. By the morning, they were gone, though.

At least until my feet hit the floor. :)

Have been having them on and off all day. Pretty much every time I stand up. And other random times, too. Some of the ones today I have even felt (1 or 2 on the pain scale, rather than just a noticeable tightness). So for all I thought the baby wasn't coming this week... I may have been wrong about that. Of course, I have been saying all along, I think he's coming before the end of the year, until 2 weeks ago when I got checked and found out all those contractions had done nothing... We'll just have to wait and see. I know his MawMaw will be very sad if he doesn't wait until after she gets here on the 7th. It will also make things a little difficult for US if he comes before she gets here. Especially if he comes in the middle of the night. Last night the plan was, if I had to go in, to have my brother drive me in for triage, and then if I stayed call the Daddy and have him bring the sleeping kids in. (We did not think they would react well to waking up to no mom or dad.) Not the best plan, but it would have worked...

Oh, and it was sooooo sweet last night! I asked Sammy, if we had to not have his party because we had to go to the hospital to have our baby instead, would that make him sad. He said, "No, mom! I'd be excited!!!" :)

Okay, I really need to go find and plagarize a good natural birth plan online, because I can't find the one I did for Sammy anywhere... (And didn't get to use it for Katie because I was induced.)

(Speaking of induction, Pitocin sucks!!!!!!!!!! Just thought you ought to know how I really felt about it!)