Full Moon= Weekend of Contractions

Friday morning I woke up around 6am with some light contractions. They were lasting around 30-35 seconds and were 6-7 minutes apart. There was really no pain associated with them, only a really hard tightening of my belly to where it felt as hard as a rock and would then relax. I was pretty excited at first thinking "okay, I know this could take awhile, but maybe this is the start of it and today is the day!" So, Mike and I decided to work from home and wait it out and see how things went. Every few hours we timed the contractions and they got as close as four minutes apart still only lasting about 40 seconds, but they never grew in intensity or pain. So, by the evening they had really started to wean and made me feel pretty frustrated and discouraged. However, I know that first labors can be over a couple weeks and that first time mom's often have "practice contractions" so we decided I just needed lots of practice. Friday night we turned in for the night still slightly hopeful that something painful might wake me up in the early hours of the morning. ;) (who wishes for pain right?!?!)

Saturday morning rolled around and I woke up and laid in bed for awhile trying to pay attention to my body.... Nothing... Disappointed, but ready to start the day we decided he was just not ready quite yet. Saturday afternoon we joined my parents for lunch at Razzoo's (I chose something semi-spicy because it can't hurt right???). Then we went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and walked around the grounds to see the exhibitors and animals for about 3-4 hours. On the way home I had a few contractions, but nothing consistent. We stopped by the grocery store for a few items and rented a Red box movie "Julie & Julia" (which was really cute by-the-way) and headed home. During the movie I got pretty uncomfortable as I think Ryan is pretty low in my pelvis and felt like he was hitting or head-butting my pelvis bone or something. He wouldn't stop unless I stood up and moved around for awhile, which was a little bit annoying. Anyways, that was our Saturday and off to bed we went.

Sunday early morning about 2:40am I woke up to use the restroom and returned to bed with noticeable contractions that were tightening like before, but also causing my lower back to really hurt and kind of a low menstrual cramp feeling in the front. It was hard for me to really tell when my tummy was relaxing because my back was hurting. Is this the real thing?!? I was also hungry so I went to the fridge and brought some yogurt back to bed. After feeling two or three of the harder contractions I woke Mike up so that I could time them on his iPhone. (We got the contraction master app- def recommend to those expecting) So, he kept the clock and I would just tell him when to start and stop. We timed them for about 40 minutes or so and they were lasting right at to a little over a minute and still right around 4 minutes apart. While this time they were more uncomfortable I just didn't feel like they were too extreme so I suggested we try to get some more sleep and I would wake him up if they got harder. Around 5:30am or so I felt like my back just wouldn't relax and I was feeling uncomfortable so I woke Mike up again to time them some more. They were still about the same and at this point we were both awake and I was hungry again so we decided just to get up. Blueberry muffins and milk we what sounded good so we made those and sat and ate on the couch. By the time I finished eating I felt like the pain in the contractions was going away and I was back to just the tummy tightening. So, at 7:45am we went back to bed to get some sleep. Unfortunately, we slept through my alarm at 9am to get ready for church and woke up right about as service would be starting. We never miss church on Sundays and I hate the feeling of it. Hopefully we didn't worry our Lifegroup too much with us not being there and thinking maybe we were having the baby.

So, the rest of today we've been doing some chores, taxes, cleaning out filing cabinets, and I've been trying to organize the office closet (which has been on my list for a long time). We plan a run to Home Depot and a long walk around the neighborhood later this afternoon. I suppose the moral of this post is the full moon for us has not meant "baby" but lots of "practice for baby". I think Ryan is determined to be a February baby after all. Perhaps tomorrow?!?! Only God knows and time will tell. Please keep us in your prayers and hopefully we will be able to share the exciting news soon!

Love, Mike & Emily