On: Being Perpetually Pregnant

Okay, to be fair, my due date isn't until Wednesday, so I'm not even technically 'late' or anything. In fact, even if (when) I go past my due date I'm not technically 'late' until 42 weeks. (yeaaaah like I'm gonna last for 42 weeks.) That being said, however, I will say this: I've just discovered that the most obnoxious event in a first time mother's journey to delivery is: false labor.

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling strange. Slightly nauseated, a little dizzy, just generally 'off'. I didn't think much of it until we got to church at 9 and the feeling of 'offness' increased greatly. At 9:10, I started having contractions. No biggy. I get them all the time. Sometimes I get them one on top of the other, sometimes they're few and far between, but I get them every single day at least 4 or 5 times; usually more. But there was something different about these contractions. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but for some reason, they felt like they were somehow accomplishing something significant. So at about 9:25, after I'd had three in what felt like a consistent amount of time, I started timing them. Sure enough, every five minutes like clock-work I was having a contraction that lasted for about a minute.

These contractions weren't super painful. They were just 'uncomfortable'. So, I kept timing them, but tried not to get my hopes up. For the next hour, they stayed steady. Shem and I decided to head home after sacrament meeting because I still wasn't feeling 100% and the contractions were consistent enough that I wanted to be able to go home and start walking to see if I could get them to come stronger.

We came to my parent's house (air conditioning. It's the stuff) and I paced a little. For another 20-30 minutes, they remained consistent and a couple of them were even border-line 'painful'...but I knew they were nothing like what I'd be feeling in active labor.

And then the pattern shifted. The contractions were longer and less frequent until finally...nothin'. 18 minutes of nothin'. I was so depressed. They never completely went away. They stayed all day long...sometimes non-stop...but they were never regular again. I walked and walked and walked and walked and contracted and contracted and contracted, but I knew at that point it wasn't the real deal and that this boy would be staying in me for another little while. Part of me still held hope that I'd go into labor in the middle of the night since I'd literally been having contractions for 11 hours...but no such luck. No contractions even woke me up. (yay for good sleep! boo for no baby) And so far today? My uterus is the epitome of calm.

Daaaaang. Dang.

BUT! I will say this: though they didn't send me into labor and delivery, the contractions seemed to have helped move my little Luke down a considerable amount. There has definitely been progress made. I don't think that means he'll be here today or even tomorrow...he might be stuck in there for another week for all I know...but it does mean that things are moving and progressing and that my body works. Hooray! Here's hoping we get to meet him in the next couple of days!!