No Baby Yet...

So, I'm 39 weeks today. No sign of when Baby Girl will make her grand entrance into the world. On Friday, I started having contractions. They were very different than Braxton Hicks! I'd always read that BH weren't painful, and I found that to be untrue. However, in light of hours of real contractions, I quickly realized the difference. BH are very uncomfortable and there is a lot of pressure, but it's not painful. Not truly anyway. Real contractions are obvious when they start (whereas my BH sort of dawns on me). Also, you have to concentrate or breathe or stop through a real contraction. BH you just sort of wait for the annoying sensation to go away. Anyway, I monitored them by writing the duration and length apart that they were for about 2 hours. They came between 4-7 minutes apart, and lasted from 25-35 seconds. I would have to concentrate through them, but could talk sometimes and I'd smile when they were done. If any of you have read the Bradley book on labor, you'll notice all these signs indicate I was still only in stage #1 of the emotional roadmap of labor (the 3 stages of labor are: Excitement, Seriousness, and Self-Doubt). At the time I didn't know where it was all leading, but by 11pm (they started near 11am) I went to bed, knowing I needed a good night's sleep anyway. By the next morning they were tapering off. I got out the Bradley book and re-read the chapter on labor out loud to my husband and it helped us immensely. We were able to identify where I was and where I never got. It should make next time much easier with this fresh in our minds after the real thing. I don't call this false labor, it's basically my body readying itself to get the baby out, but taking its time.

The good thing about all that too was that we finally got serious about really being ready! My bag and the baby's are all packed now, the car seat is ready to go, her clothes are all washed and ready to wear, we have newborn diapers at last (I had tons of size 1's from showers, but no newborn ones), and the room is ready (it's devoid of decorations on the wall, but everything functional is there)!

My appointment yesterday wasn't that great. I had a +3 protein level in my urine, but minimal swelling and my BP is its steady 100/60. So pre-eclampsia is something they're watching for (asking me to watch carefully for blurry vision, swelling of face/hands, headaches) and to monitor my BP over the next few days. I also went from measuring 36cm at 38 weeks to 35cm at 39 weeks. Not good. I'm always 2cm behind, but the baby's always been spot-on for gestational age. So they ordered an ultrasound for this Friday to check the baby's growth and amniotic fluid level. At first I freaked out and cried and worried (once I was in the privacy of my car), but now I'm just going to pray and not worry. The fact that they didn't make me do it right then and there shows me it can't be that urgent. (Right?) I know I'm small and maybe the baby just dropped more. She was at a minus 1 station last week.

Anyway, assuming I make it to Friday, I'll hopefully have some good news on the baby. At this point, I'd rather meet her in person than get an ultrasound. :)