Well, we are getting close! Do you know that the average first time pregnancy lasts 41 weeks and 2 days? With this knowledge I am not sure why doctors use 40 weeks for our due dates from the get go. We would have a lot more relaxed moms out there if everyone wasn’t always feeling like they are “late”. The baby will come when she is ready and mostly I feel patient EXCEPT the last few days my body has started to let me know it is gearing up for labor and that is definitely getting me more excited and anxious for the baby to come!
Andrew and I have hired a doula to help out with the birth. She will be there to support me AND to support Andrew too! Otherwise it would just be the two of us, and our midwife of course…but I think having another woman who has attended so many births there who is just there to help me through, support me, encourage me, and assure both Andrew and I that everything is going the way it should will be incredibly helpful. I plan to do most of my laboring at home and she will also come to the house when we want her to. Her name is Michelle and she is already awesome. She has a very “centered and grounded” personality and a little girl of her own that was born 2 years ago at the same birthing center where we are having our baby girl!
Anyways, she and I had lunch last Wednesday to get to know each other better and then she attended my prenatal appointment with Andrew and I. Prenatal went well, the baby is growing, my belly is growing, heart beat sounds good, my blood pressure is great. I’m still feeling mostly very good and still wearing my wedding band! No swelling, weight gain is thankfully slowing down. I have found myself to be sleeping like a rock lately! I slept 2 hours yesterday afternoon and then 9 hours last night! This is odd for me and my appetite seems to be off the charts but I am just letting my body tell me what to do and figure it is getting ready for a big event and needs nutrition and rest!
Wednesday afternoon I started having a lot of crampiness in my low belly, nothing too major but something new for sure. It lasted all through Thursday afternoon and then just went away with no other progression. Then, Friday night came and sometime before bedtime the cramps started again. I was woken up around 2am with a contraction like I had never felt before. I have experienced very mild Braxton Hicks contractions since about 6 months in but this was much more intense. I didn’t think too much of it and drifted back to sleep but then I woke up again at 5 am with a similar contraction and woke up Andrew to put his hand on my belly and said, Feel this! I let myself get excited and started thinking – maybe today will be the day! Actually it made me laugh the next day when I remembered laying there thinking about Andrew and I bringing the baby home with us after the birth. I kept thinking – what will we do with her? Where will we put her?! ha ha Of course we will probably just hold her in our arms and lay in bed with her and she has a million contraptions to lay in /sleep in/sit in. But the reality that we would be bringing a BABY home with us was settling in and freaking me out!!! 
Anyways, once again today…NOTHING. This is pre-labor so this is good! Next is early labor and then of course active labor and then we have a baby! The disappointing news is that pre-labor could go on for days and possibly even weeks? Not too many weeks of course but every time I start to have those contractions I am so excited and want the baby to come now!
Andrew wants the baby to wait until after Labor Day as he has his fantasy football league draft tomorrow night. REALLY ANDREW? Maybe if he was the one carrying the baby in the tummy he would understand that waiting is not my cup of tea any longer. 
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