Wednesday, September 24, 2008

It's all in my head

At least, I think it's all in my head....I hope it's all in my head. I've kind of got baby on the brain, more specifically, labor and delivery of a baby, on the brain. What with all the craziness that Sara's been going through lately, and going to visit Dan's cousin Kathleen (who just had her adorable baby girl Elara!) in the hospital, and reaching that all important milestone of "full term" myself, and the fact that my 2 pregnancy books are now focusing not on baby's development, but on labor and delivery, I've been a little preoccupied with the thought of Nate, and his upcoming birth.
And I'm remembering things. Like the fact that Devon came 22 days before his due date. And Nate is now 21 days from his due date. And that the two to three days before Devon was born, I was miserable, and I couldn't get more than a couple hours of sleep at a time. And that the day before Devon was born, I had horrible achy cramps in my lower abdomen all day long that got worse and worse, but didn't feel like contractions, just cramps. Besides, according to what I'd been told, real labor contractions would be more in the upper abdomen and work their way down, and false labor contractions would be in the lower abdomen/groin area. But I had them..ALL DAY LONG, and let me tell you, that in and of itself was not pleasant, but the fact that I was having that particular experience at the Madison Street Jail, while trying to bail someone out....well, let's just say that didn't exactly help matters.
That's only really significant because right now, at this very moment, at 2:58 am on a Wednesday morning, 21 days before my son is due to be born, I can't sleep. Not a wink. And for the past 3 hours, I have had horrible, achy cramps in my lower abdomen that are fairly consistent, but spike to more uncomfortable levels occasionally. And as I read my pregnancy books, and go to the online pregnancy sites that I like to visit, I've been looking at the lists of signs and signals of real vs. false labor, and the early signs of the first stages of labor.
Like I said, it's probably all in my head, but I can pick out a bunch of signs that make me sit up at night, worrying. (tee hee, I'm sitting up at night right now....but that's mainly cause my tummy hurts) As I said, it's probably a psychological thing, since Sara's been making threats against my life all week, if I go into labor and have Nate before she has Madeline on Friday. And since I'm at the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy and I'm ready for it to be done so I can meet my son.....Wow, I just arched my back and rubbed my stomach like I was doing the day before Devon was born; it's the only thing that relieves the discomfort.
Hmmmm, well.....I'm off for a 3am snack of raw veggies, water and fruit so that just in case we do end up headed to the hospital, (not likely) when they ask when/what I ate last I can tell them something that will impress them and make them think I've been a good nutritional monkey. After all, a bell pepper, apple slices with peanut butter, and a glass of milk at 3am sounds a whole lot better than some cranberry juice and sherbet at around 11. And it would probably be more productive to unload the dishwasher, or finish packing my hospital bag, instead of subjecting the world to my sleepy ramblings in the middle of the night.


*****yes, it was all in my head; 17 hours later, it's back to regular life. But not until after I scared Sara and Mom!

4 comments:

Sara L said...

I will destroy you if Nate comes first. So is that bad when you eat ice cream and soda for a midnight snack?

Coree Adams said...

Hang in there Rachel! You are so close!

Sara L said...

I am tired of all your lies... Faking labor for attention?? Seriously? J/K love ya Rach

rachanderson said...

At least mine was on an online blog, and I said over and over and over again that it's not really labor, it's just in my head. I'm not the one the ER nurses see coming and shake their heads. I only involove medical personel for real labor, instead of making people drive for hours, and tying up valuable medical resources.
J/K, love ya Sara