Yesterday was SUCH a lovely day! It wasn’t stressful or overwhelming, but rather totally enjoyable! I really liked it! I had company throughout the day, including morning coffee with a friend, a wonderful mini photo session with Cher, my mom came over and helped us with some baby party decor, and Brady painted my toe nails after I genuinely tried the other day and failed hard. It was a productive, super fun day! Brady and I proceeded to stay up too late, watching shows and having snacks. It had been such a wonderful day.
And then sleep did not come easy for me. I was in quite a bit of pain, but managed to fall asleep maybe around 11:30, maybe later, but I woke up at 12:30 that just seemed to be it. Do you all know what “lightning crotch” means? Its when the baby keep smacking against your cervix and it sends these wild painful zaps through your body. There is not gentle version, and there is no work up or warning. It comes out of nowhere and takes your breath away. Like it hurts. BAD. Baby girl is never awake for especially long stretches of time, but I lay in bed for hours waiting for her to let us, and she was not having it. I was awake and in solid pain until sometime between 3-4:00. It was a pretty horrendous night.
We’re off the school schedule, but my body disagrees, so I woke up with a start around 6:45am and panicked that I had missed an alarm or something. When I realized that we didn’t have to be up so early and that the kids were still quiet, I was so relieved and decided to try for a bit more sleep. Except miss Bambina was already awake and violently head butting my cervix!! Gah!!! I lay in bed for a while, hoping for her to relax a little while I watched some YouTube and gathered myself. Meanwhile, I was having braxton hicks contractions one on top of the other without any let up. Call it what you will, but for me, thats what labour feels like. I don’t feel the pain of the contractions until much later, so often, braxton hicks feel about right. I lay still in hopes that they’d quit, but they didn’t, and eventually it was time to go get the kids. So I pushed through it, knowing I had a prenatal that morning. They’d be able to tell me what was going on.
We brought the whole crew today for the final appointment. We all piled into the exam room and the kids actually tried really hard to be on their best behaviour, it seemed. Thank you, sweeties! I spoke to my student doctor about the night before and educated him on the technical term “lightning crotch,” which he put in his notes, lol! It was funny 🙂 He spoke to Dr. Guselle and I agreed to a cervical check. Not a sweep, just a check, to make sure I’m not in my weird secretive level of active labour.
Full disclosure. There is nothing comforting about the doctor stepping out for a minute because the medium and large gloves in the room are too small for him. Sigh. So that was a thing, but I lived through it, and thankfully, my cervix is sitting at 1 cm, and I am not secretly in labour at all. Woot! I want her sweet little self to be born in the hospital, therefore meaning I’d prefer her to hang out on the inside for another few days.
Once the messy stuff was over, Dr. Guselle invited Brady and the kids to head on out for some stickers so I could get dressed on my own. She’s such a mom, haha! She totally gets the relief in getting dressed without an audience. So I did that, exited the room, and was greeted by my four happy kids, all with stickers in hand, waiting patiently. Dekker also had my wallet, phone, and new sheet of prenatal info. I have such a wonderful family!
Now, we wait and see what induction falls! If it comes on our preferred date, GREAT! If she comes earlier, fine, and if we get bumped, I guess thats fine, too. I’m just so eager to have her in my arms, healthy and well. Somehow this still feels like a serious test of my faith…