Birth Story, Part 2

Following terminology discussed further down: mucous plug, bloody show

You've been warned.

In the morning of Week 38, after being up till 1am, then waking up at 3:30 with false labor, staying awake freaking out about being unprepared, I finally slept around 5 or so. Then a bunch of alarms went off at 7 - about half an hour before they should have. Turns out an old cellphone, intended to be recycled, had gotten turned on during the moving process. It took forever to find it and shut it off - and I burst into tears. "I'm so tired," I cried. I was tired, but also terrified. The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe didn't know that part, of course.

Anyhow it was our first morning in our new house, and our first night in our new bed. It was a happy exciting morning anyway. We each commuted to work from our new house for the first time. THCSITU left before I did, and that gave me opportunity to call the midwives. They recommended what I expected: I could walk around "like this" for days or even weeks. Business as usual, but if there were any change I was supposed to call in right away. "Things are moving!" the nurse said cheerily. Ulp, I thought.

After all the moving, I took the lazy way: a longer trip both in time and distance traveled, but less walking. I was hoping not to exacerbate the contractions or send myself further into labor. The contractions came and went all day. My suegra called a couple of times to see how I was feeling, or really whether things were progressing. The thought of impending labor really lit a fire under me to wrap things up at work.

That night, we had a breastfeeding class. Most of the content was review from the breastfeeding session in our great birth class, but there was a "hands on" component with waterballoon nipples and teddy bears that we hadn't had before. Once we got out, we went for dinner. One of two options available in our new neighborhood at that hour: IHOP.

We go in and start talking about first priorities for our new house: which things to arrange, what to do with all the boxes, what we have to buy first, when to paint the baby's room. After we order, I tell The Hottest Computer Scientist in the Universe that I have to tell him something.

I explain that I lost the mucous plug the night before and had been having Braxton-Hicks or false labor contractions or something all day. He first got a little peeved that his mom and I had conspired to not tell him right away. "I'm gonna come home from work one day and the baby's just going to already be there or what?" He was mostly joking though. I figured that if I'd told him, it would've just kept him up and there was no point in that. Since there was no bloody show, I knew it wasn't really labor yet anyhow. He acknowledged that to be true, and got kinda quiet. I think it sorta hit him as it had me in the night that this thing was really going to happen for real. I told him that I felt that way in the early morning when the contractions has started. "Holy shit, I am actually going to have to do this. For real. Go through labor, and be someone's mom. Holy crap."

So that bit of news got some quick re-prioritizing done: get stuff for baby's room and buy the damn carseat!

The next nights after work we were never home before 10pm. And then we would do a bit of unloading the car and rearranging/unpacking in the house. Tuesday I think we got the paint for the baby's room, blue and yellow. Tuesday in the daytime Guillermo ordered the carseat and stroller combo. It was due to arrive the next Tuesday. I teased him, "You feel like gambling, huh?"

Thursday lots of stuff was supposed to happen in our house: the electricians were coming for the last time to fix things in the kitchen and basement. The cable guy would bring us internet access. The guy installing the kitchen would finish painting to be ready for the appliances to come Friday. Huzzah!