Pre-labor

June 4th:

At 41 weeks pregnant, I was starting to feel like my body forgot how to go into labor!  However, when I woke up on Tuesday, I had some mucus with red streaks in it.  I literally said "FUCK YEAH" and fist pumped!  I hopped in the shower, and had a pretty strong contraction that started low and wrapped all the way around to my back.  Excited that something was happening, I finished getting dressed.  J was driving me to my check-up at Deb's office, so we dropped Little Toots off at daycare and headed out.  I had a few more contractions on the drive to Deb's, and I noticed that they were coming about every half hour.  Woo hoo, consistency!

Since I was technically past my date, Deb wanted to hook me up to the non-stress test monitor, just to make sure that everything was okay.  It was such a change from the NST at the hospital!  Deb sat on the floor, and J was next to me.  We talked about GMOs and fracking, the state of the USA and how medicine is standing in the way of families having great birth experiences.  The baby must have been sleeping, so J fed me some gummy bears...except that they had melted and congealed into this passive gummy bear steak.  One bite, and the baby started moving!  It was really funny.  After about 20 minutes, everything looked good, and we decided to come back on Friday if she hadn't arrived by then.  The great thing about Deb is that she trusts my body to do it's job, but she's still medically professional and monitors accordingly.

Since it was kind of late, J decided to just take the rest of the day off from work.  We went out to lunch, and then walked around Barnes and Noble.  I was still have surges every half hour, and more lovely mucus.  I went about our evening routine, dinner with Toots and some TV.  Contractions picked up to 12 minutes apart until I went to bed.  I fell asleep after watching some classic Doctor Who in bed.

June 5th:

During the night, a few contractions woke me up.  I went to the bathroom, and had so much mucus that I figured it must be my plug.  I hadn't turned the light on, but from what I could see, there was a lot of brownish-redish in it.  However, surges really slowed down.  I got out of bed at 7:00am, and took a shower.  I asked J to stay home with my and Toots, because I just didn't want to be alone if something happened.  We took Toots to story hour at the library, where everyone was like "You're still pregnant?!  When are you getting induced??"  I just smiled and said "Well, we're doing a home birth, so we're letting nature do its thing".  I had a few more surges during (a very loud) story time.

Contractions tapered off again, and I went to bed early because I was just feeling beat.

June 6th:

Little Toots screamed in her bed at 4:30am, and I rushed to her room to see what was wrong.  Turns out, her blankets fell on the floor (heaven forbid...)  but that little jolt caused a really strong contraction.  They started coming roughly every 10 minutes.  After I woke up and took a shower, I started really timing them.  They stayed at 10 minutes for over an hour, so I called Deb.  She told me to rest up, and call back when they were 5-7 minutes apart, or if my waters break.

For some reason, though, they seemed to slow down again.

Now I'm sitting here, feeling like a failure.  Why can't my body just do it's job?  I've gone through the "signs" of labor, yet I'm still not really laboring.  I've made my poor husband take 3 days off from work, wasting his precious vacation time.  My dad is nervous, people keeping calling and texting, and I'm just sitting here, 9 days late, with nothing to show for it other than some contractions.  Knowing that this could go on for hours, days, weeks...ugh.  I feel like I'm going to crack!

I have to drive all the way back to Deb's tomorrow for another NST if the baby doesn't come today.  Please, baby, please come out!!!