The day I hit 37 weeks in my pregnancy I stopped doing anything to try to slow down the frequent Braxton-Hicks contractions I'd been experiencing for the previous several weeks. For a couple of weeks I had been drinking chamomile tea (yuck!) and taking a homeopathic remedy to help slow down the contractions that would sometimes occur every 5-10 minutes. The contractions were painless, but I still didn't want to encourage my body to pick up the pace until I was further along; any birth before 37 weeks is considered premature and might require some hospital procedures we'd rather skip.
Finally, I had made it full term and if my baby were to decide to enter the world before her due date she would be considered fully grown and, God willing, be healthy enough to come home after 24 hours in the hospital. I wasn't sure at this point if my body would start picking up the pace or not since I wasn't even sure how much the tea and homeopathics had helped.
For weeks, various people had been saying that I looked big and that they guessed I'd deliver early. I would reply that I would certainly be fine delivering earlier rather than later, as long as I made it to 37 weeks. However, I'd also tell them that I was mentally prepared to deliver late.
Monday, the 25th of Jan., I hit 37 weeks and celebrated with attending the final session of our natural childbirthing class. Wyatt and I saw a majority of our classmates for the last time before our reunion in March. I think all of us expectant mommies felt large, tired, and just about ready to meet our babies. One classmate, who was due only a couple days before my due date, and I chatted about how our babies had suddenly felt lower that day. After class, Wyatt and I went to In-n-Out for burgers and fries, and then we went home for the evening.
Knowing I had work the next day, I really should have gone to bed right away. But no, I decided to work on sending out thank you cards to the women who had attended my baby shower in December. My goal was to get all the thank-yous done by the time the baby arrived. So away I worked while Wyatt was tidying the nursery/office. He mentioned that he'd like help sorting through baby diapers (we had only part of our cloth diapering stash and had ordered the other necessary diaper things two days before), blankets, towels, etc., so after I sent the e-cards I got to work helping him.
I also managed to mark another item off our To Do list; I made a list of items to take to the hospital, and foods to have on hand at home while laboring, as well as foods to take to the hospital. We'd already purchased some foods, but coconut water was something particular that I wanted to have on hand. Wyatt and I weren't figuring that I'd go into labor early, but it helped us both have peace of mind knowing that the list had been made.
Wyatt also humored me by taking my weekly belly picture a bit earlier than usual. While my gestational week started on Monday, we usually didn't get to taking a picture until Wednesday or Thursday. Since my due date was quickly approaching, I figured it wouldn't hurt to take the picture at the beginning of the week rather than wait until mid-week.
Apparently my behavior was a bit odd, and Wyatt even joked around about me nesting. While I knew that nesting and a final burst of energy could be a sign that labor might start up soon, I really was clueless about my own situation. I even told him that if this was me nesting then it was pretty lame, overall. I had next to no energy, and all I was doing was putting blankets in every room of the house, making a few lists, writing a few Thank-yous, and taking a picture. The experience was no where near the cleaning out of pantry or dusting of floorboards that I was expecting nesting to be.
Plus, I was still 3 weeks from my due date, and less than a week before this I had not been dilated at all and had only effaced slightly. I was having the Braxton-Hicks, sure, and they were pretty frequent, but none were painful. My main pain was related to the overly loosey goosey round ligaments and the resulting painful pelvic cradle.
Really, I didn't think anything of my behavior, and I went to bed late, as usual.
What I didn't know is that Wyatt really was suspicious of my behavior and went so far as to charge the camera battery.
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