Sign, sign, everywhere a sign!

 Today we are 40 weeks and 5 days pregnant. In my last post I mentioned that at the last Dr. appointment he said I was 2cm dilated, 80% effaced, and Eli's head was in the perfect position. I know this doesn't mean much but it is nice to hear of some progress. It is enough to keep a positive attitude and know he won't stay in forever.

4 days overdue!

4 days overdue!

About 2 days after my appointment, for the first time, I really got my hopes up and thought that "tonight might be the night". I had a very busy day at work and did way more physical activity and lifting than I probably should have but in my head I was thinking "the worst thing that could happen is it brings on a baby, and really, that would be great". Mark was closing that night so after work I picked up some Chinese food, got home, and sat down on the couch. 

I had been having some pretty strong contractions at work but I am so used to the braxton hicks contractions I didn't think much of it. Sitting on the couch was not very comfortable so I sat on my exercise ball and watched TV and finished eating. Contractions continued and so I thought I might, just for the fun of it, start timing them. They were coming and going between 5 & 15 minutes apart lasting a minute or more. I went to the rest room and (TMI alert) lost my mucus plug. Timeout...could they come up with a nastier name for that thing. Can't we just call it a plug?! I got all excited because it was another sign but thought "Who will I share this information with? No one wants to hear about a mucus plug. GROSS."

Anyways...so that happened and I couldn't help but start to get my hopes up even though I also knew losing the plug does not mean immediate labor. I continued to time my contractions and for 45 minutes they came and went with no more than 5 minutes between them and all of them lasting a minute or more. I started getting anxious and excited. Mark called and I shared with him all these signs and he too got excited. I didn't pull him from work because I was still trying to tell myself it was nothing even though all the signs seemed to point in the right direction and I was secretly thrilled!

Shortly after our phone conversation I had a 10 minute lapse between contractions....then a 12 minute lapse...3 min...15 min...8 min...and then....then I gave up. I don't know what happened to the 5 min apart contractions but they left me. I decided to stop timing, perhaps I was jinxing myself.

Mark came home a little bit later and was very excited. He thought that night would be the night as well. I woke up several times that night, a couple of times with a strong contraction and Mark was awake asking how I was feeling each time.

The next morning we were both off work and I didn't have one single contraction all morning. I couldn't help but feel really disappointed all day. We made the most of our day and our time together. We tried to give each other positive words of wisdom but I know we were both really disappointed.

From that experience of "false labor" I can tell you that I will not be doing any more timing of contractions "just for fun" until those suckers are on top of each other! I have since gotten over it and am back to just waiting and knowing he'll come when he will come. Also I know we only have a short amount of time with just Mark, Giedo, and me so we might as well enjoy it while we can.