The Early Labor Record

As many of you know, I'm getting pretty close to having my fifth child. My due date is officially this coming Sunday.

Unlike any of my other pregnancies, I've been experiencing lots of Braxton Hicks contractions and prelabor signs. Really, I can't remember having any contractions at all until I'm in the hospital being induced for 3 out of the 4. The other one, my first, started at home and ended at the hospital but my memory of it is clouded by the fact that it was 7 years ago.

During dinner time last night, I was having some pretty consistent contractions and while I didn't really have the patience for doing so, my husband and I began writing down how often the contractions were coming, how strong they were, etc.

My contractions were coming between 2-10 minutes apart and we had listed some of them as "mild", "moderate", "stronger". You get the idea.

Daniel took one look at it and said, "Early Labor Record?! I'm going to make one, too!"

He brought this to us a few minutes later:

Really? "Ninja like" contractions?

(This made Bob and I just about fall down laughing, except that I was having a contraction and holding a sleepy Josiah).

And he wasn't done...


Pray for us as we enter into this time of superheroic measures of contractions!

Names, People!

I went in to see my OB today.

I'm about 35 weeks along in this pregnancy.

My due date is Sept 13.

He asked some of the standard questions:

Him: Is the baby moving?

Me: Yep.

Him: Any contractions?

Me: Not really any I've been concerned about. Maybe a few.

Then he says something like: Well, no need to stop 'em at this point. If you do go into labor, that's fine. I think you'll have this baby before Labor Day anyway. Be ready. I think you'll have the baby in about three weeks.

!!!

What?!

First of all, my firstborn came on his own but about 10 days late. With our second, I was eight or so days late when I kind of went into labor, stopped being in labor, and then was induced the following morning. And every child after that has made his or her appearance after being coaxed out by an induction.

So I'm thinking: Ha Ha, Doctor! Yeah, right.

After going over our conversation with my husband this evening he pointed out that if I did have the baby in three weeks, I would be within the 2 week span of time surrounding the due date. And really the due date is just a guess. Delivering 2 weeks before the due date or 2 weeks after (although that late sounds awful) is considered "on time".

Well, whatever. I know my doctor doesn't really have inside information on this pregnancy. He doesn't know when this baby will make it's appearance. But there are a few things that trouble me as I think about the short time we have before he or she will join us.

One of them is this:

Where are all these people going to sleep?

Bob and I keep coming up with "solutions" and then I go back to the drawing board because I just can't see how it's going to work.


Another is the name question.

We have two names, sort of. One for a boy. One for a girl. And I'm not wild about either of them. I want to be excited about our baby's name. I need some suggestions, you guys, just to get the juices flowing. I'm tired of the names we have and I want to think about some new ones. So leave your ideas in the comments, please!

And, no, I can't share the names we sort of have. It's just the rule.

I know there are more things that have been on my mind that belong in the "before baby comes" category but I can't think of them right now. I just don't feel very ready and putting all my not ready thoughts down here is maybe helping?

I'll come back and write down a more complete list of things to do when I form one because I think that will help too.

Bath time and pregnant time

Just a quick post for the record. You know, the record I'm recording.

None of our kids get baths very often right now but this clearly shows that Josiah is enjoying the benefits of one.


A little soaphawk...


Me, at about 24 weeks, I think. This was a few weeks ago so imagine me bigger if you want to.


Standard poses from my non-standard kids.