You’d better take a breath.
I’ve been just a little crampy and very tired all day, but no signs of labor. I’m trying to reset my aim for Sunday. If I don’t convince myself of that, the next few hours/days could feel like eternity!

But I feel sure it wasn’t all for naught. The nature and intensity of the contractions I was having last night felt too real. I think I’m just having a nice long break.

Maybe this means I’ll have a bit of a headstart once labor starts again.

The question is when it will start again: today? Thursday? Sunday, my sister’s birthday? Next Wednesday, my mom’s birthday? The day my sister has her baby? There are so many possibilities!

I have to say that in a silly way I’m a little relieved to have another shot at hitting someone else’s birthday. I jokingly told hubby last night, “But I can’t have the baby tonight. That would break tradition, to have a plain single birthday!”

Labor has stopped.

I’m going to work and fencing.

Kim will be a bloggin’ once she wakes up I imagine.

Pc3

Mr. C. here

I’m doing yeoman’s duty since Kim doesn’t want to get up off the bed – she finally got comfy.

She called the midwife to let her know that she is pretty sure that it’s is the early stages of real labor. Very early but the contractions have been persistent. Nothing terribly regular, but she’s starting to feel them deeper. They had subsided a bit earlier when I was running the chain gang of conscripted painters (4 of her sisters, 4 of my daughters, 2 of her brothers and my brother Ben) and they came back full strength as soon as things settled down around 11:30.

No predictions yet when the baby will arrive…we’ve seen 30 hours of labor and we’ve seen 4.

One thing has been fairly consistent. Once the contractions hit about 5 minutes delivery usually occurs within an hour.

Well something tells me I’d better grab a few Zzz’s while I can.

Ciao

Contractions are back down to normal Braxton-Hicks type since I ate and hubby got home with more paint and several of my sisters came to help.
I’m still thinking that maybe it was early labor that will kick up again once things calm down tonight…just wait and see…

My sister’s visit to the midwife (70 miles each way) was inconclusive. No signs of labor yet. They decided to just wait and see what happens, and keep in touch via phone.

…I’ve been painting all day (5 gallons and counting!) and haven’t remembered to eat or drink much. That’s a common cause of false labor, so take this with a grain of salt, but:
“Ow!”
I’ve had several good contractions in a row.
hmmm.

And my sister, who is due with her first baby next Monday, thinks her water broke during the night. No further signs of leakage or labor for her yet, but she is on her way to the midwife to see if it really was her water and to see about some natural induction techniques.

What fun if we should have our babies on the same day!

Hubby just reminded me that I “live-blogged” part of Becca’s labor before the days of blogging. We used a Yahoo Group. Her labor was short and sweet so there’s not much, but here ’tis.
We obviously had no clue that ‘Becca was on her way!
We also came across her birth story that I wrote 2 days later, while the details were fresh in our minds. I haven’t yet compared it to the one I posted in November.
Maybe I’ll put that up if I don’t come up with a new birth story soon.

Sat Aug 18, 2001 12:45 pm
we have a new record!!!!

1 full week over due!!!

ok, i have *no* premonitions, so mine is a wild guess too.
1. Date: I’m going with Tuesday, August 21
2. Time: 3 AM
3. Gender: boy (I have to say that. It’s a guilt thing)
4. Labor length: 9 months – no, wait, I mean 9 hours
5. Weight: 9 lb. 3 oz. (umm…no, that’s *not* wishful thinking. this
things’s already a week overdone.)
6. Length: 21″
7. Hair: definitely hair. after 5 with full heads of hair, if it’s
bald i’m gonna be in trouble.

is it real? nahhhh…
not holding my breath (yet)

did i mention i have false labor for the last 4 months of every pregnancy?

still having some contractions…
we’ll see. still nothing noteworthy, but here’s hoping.

is it real, or is it clairol?

night, all.

hey, can I change my bet?

not a record yet though….my grandpa had 7…..well this one went quick…..2 am she said she had contractions…….3:20 we called the midwife …and 4am she hollered while i was crushing ice…..i got back up there in time to see kim catch the baby!!
yup she delivered by herself ….i’m still in shock….
well we don’t have a name yet (it really bugs kim) but i’m not worried. the inspiration will strike eventually:)
well i’m off to bed ….thank God for His mercies!
Pc3
Ps. pictures in the morning

I’ve had that “imminent labor” feeling ever since Hubby finished sanding early yesterday. I feel like I could go into labor any time now.
In case that sounds exciting, let me elaborate: for me, the “imminent labor” feeling is closely related to the “desperate to deliver” feeling (see Unresearched hypothesis #2).
In my case, that means I am very likely to have the baby within the next 2 weeks.
Surprise, surprise.

Lots of contractions today and tonight, but I don’t think Baby is going to make a showing soon. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I really feel like I have another week or more. I’m just way too content with the state of pregnancy (see Unresearched Hypothesis #2 ) to be going into labor anytime soon.
Besides, Hubby is making spectacular progress on the house. Thanks to 4 helpers from church today and Hubby’s brother this evening, the walls and vaulted ceiling are nearly all sanded and ready to texture and paint. It’s not normally how I would ask him to spend Father’s Day weekend, but what can I say? He’s a good one.

I’ve mentioned that I nearly always start labor on a Thursday (but not the Thursday before my duedate), and I think I know why:
Thursday is my “safe” day: it’s close enough to the weekend that I know I can have Hubby home for at least 3 days.
What about you? On what days have you started labor in the past? Do you have any idea why?
I’ve set up a new poll on the sidebar. Please vote to represent each full term uninduced labor. You can choose more than one answer, but I couldn’t make it let you vote more than once/day. If you started labor more than once on the same day (like I did!) you’ll have to come back and vote another day to represent that child.

Except Braxton-Hicks contractions around the clock, some of which can hurt. Just thought I’d say so since my page views are way up, but unique visitors are about the same as always. I’m not sure, but I think that means that I have 4 faithful readers who are checking every 90 seconds all day to see if I’ve started labor yet.
Does anyone want to ‘fess up?
Anyway, I can’t go into labor yet. Tomorrow is my sister’s baby shower, here at my house. And Friday we will have friends helping Hubby sand the walls. And maybe – just maybe – we will be able to texture some of the walls and ceiling Saturday. You get the idea. I need to just breath til at least Sunday.
Really, I’m hoping to go 8 days overdue. This will give Hubby another entire weekend, and land the baby’s birth right on my own sweet Mom’s birthday – along with my precious little nephew John Ryan, who was born on Mom’s birthday last year.
I still hope to live-blog as much of the labor as I can. I’m hoping that blogging will be distracting enough to help with early and mid-labor pains. After that, maybe Hubby can post frequent updates. This will be a fun record for us to have, and fun to share as well!
Speaking of keeping records, does anyone know an easy way to back up a blog? Mine has become the entirety of my long term memory, and I would really hate to lose it to a tragic Blogger moment of stupidity or incompetence.

updated to add #4 and #5

Like the philosophers of old, I have been thinking deep thoughts and hypothesizing without any scientific grounds whatsoever.
Tell me what you think, or what you think you know. Better yet, share some of your own untested and unresearched hypotheses!

Unresearched hypothesis #1:

I spent much of the last week doing chores that rarely get done: I scrubbed down the couches and the kitchen cabinets. I did the doors, the stove (even the drawer on the bottom); the front of the refrigerator; the dishwasher, which isn’t hooked up yet but stands in the kitchen and therefore needed to be wiped down, etc. I sent the children outside and did all the jobs that require bending and squatting and crawling about on all fours. The jobs that I usually tell them to do.

Why do women feel such a need to clean and scrub before the baby arrives? Why does the nesting instinct so often manifest itself in chores that require a pregnant body to do things that pregnant bodies just don’t do well?

My thoroughly unresearched conclusion: I think it’s more than a desire to get ahead on housework and greet the baby with a clean and sanitary house. Midwives and birthing books have long recommended exercises that require these very positions and movements to help coax the baby into the optimal position for birth. I think this God-given instinct to clean serves the less obvious and perhaps more important purpose of positioning the baby for birth.

Unresearched hypothesis #2:

Has anyone else noticed that women tend to start feeling desperate to deliver about 2 weeks before labor kicks in? I wonder if the pregnancy hormones start declining at about this point. The mother would progressively feel less and less pregnant, and therefore less content with the fact that she is, nonetheless, extremely pregnant. Maybe after about 2 weeks, the hormone levels would be so low that the body no longer believes it is pregnant and expels the baby.

Makes sense, right? Does anyone know if it’s true?

Unresearched hypothesis #3:

This one is courtesy of my sister. I like it too.

Have you ever thought it strange that a baby who has been sucking her thumb in the womb since 10 weeks can’t seem to get it into her mouth with any regularity for the first several weeks after birth? What about the comical way they flail their arms about?

My sister’s theory is that they are far more coordinated in the womb. Remember what happens when you pick up an empty milk jug, expecting the weight of a full jug? Your arm and the jug both go flailing wildly through the air – like an infant.

Maybe the baby needs time to adjust to the reduced resistance of air rather than water, and to the open space outside the womb.

Unresearched hypothesis #4:

Do babies cry in the womb? At first, you have to wonder why they ever would. They are always warm, always full, always being held. What more could a baby want?

But they have a sin nature from the start; surely they can find something to complain about. And I think they do. Have you ever noticed how a baby in the womb will sometimes do a hard, rhythmic kick for 10 or more motions? Doesn’t that look suspiciously like the little tantrums they have after they’re born?

Unresearched hypothesis #5:

We all notice that our babies seem to have a talent for waking up hungry just as we sit down to a meal. I think I know why.

It is well established that babies get a blood sugar boost soon after the mother eats; in effect, they get to eat, too. So maybe they learn the schedule – or even the routine and the noises. After all, they can hear from inside the womb. Maybe they get hungry on our schedule because they have already become accustomed to eating on our schedule.

My sister’s scale is good and true. It spoke the truth to me, unlike my own memory. I really did weigh just what it told me, but last month I was actually 3 lbs. (not just 1 lb.) away from that Greatest-Ever Personal Weight Record. This month, I gained…ummm…3 lbs.
I’m there. I am at that Number Which Ends With Zero, which I have only seen once before. Teetering on the brink, with 6 weeks to go. This had better be a boy.
Or twins. Twins would be good.

Other notes from my prenatal checkup yesterday:

• Baby is finally head down, with very little room to maneuver. This is good news, as it means Baby will likely stay head down. This is particularly good news since Baby stayed so stubbornly head-up ever since Baby had a findable head and a stated preference.
• There is really, truly only one baby. No twins. At least, no reason to suspect twins.
• Baby is very active and very responsive.
• I am now measuring precisely on schedule, thanks to Baby being head down. Head-up babies cause bigger measurements.
• My iron level is very good, and I didn’t faint when she stuck me. The children were sadly disappointed.
• Gas is so high that every prenatal visit (plus the 17 miles-further sister visit that follows) now costs nearly $30 at the pump. I’m so glad that my pregnant sister can carpool with us, and that we have 2 more sisters who live (with their husbands and 4 collective children) just 17 miles from the midwives.
• I might, just might, only need to make the drive once more. In 3 weeks I go again; 2 weeks after that the midwife will do a home visit to make sure she can find our house. Then I will have just over 1 week left to my duedate; if I’m no more than 2 weeks late I’ll be home free!

Just for the record, I nearly always go into labor on a Thursday. Then baby is born late Thursday or early Friday – except for our millenium baby who started on the traditional Thursday and didn’t arrive til after midnight, Saturday morning. And I’ve never been more than 8 days late: on average, it’s closer to 1 or 2 days late.

So…I’m penciling in New Baby Coghlan for June 23. Is that good for everyone?