Second labor scare

There is so much talk these days about the baby and when the baby's coming and how I'm feeling and if I'm feeling anything ... it's a little hard to think about anything else. Not that I'm interested in thinking about anything else, but I hate all this nervous anticipation. Because how I'm feeling turns into if there's any chance I'm in labor, which turns into needing to get more sleep before we go to the hospital and how our families are going to coordinate driving down here and who's going to watch the dog. It all makes me very nervous.

Last night, Bill's parents and brothers came down for dinner, and then we all made a trip to the Pop Shop for dessert, which we know is the happiest place on earth. For me, anyway. (Let's not talk about how this was the second three-scoop sundae for Bill and me this week.)

After all the deliciousness, the Pavlous left us and Bill and I got back to the house and put together the baby's bouncer seat (Thank you, Megan and JP!), watched some TV and went to bed a little after 11 p.m. (After I took some Tums for some heartburn.)

Well, I was up by 1 a.m. with horrible stomach pains, and more intense heartburn. On top of that, the baby was kicking and moving like crazy -- literally nonstop. I went off to the bathroom for my nightly pee break, but waiting to either throw up or deliver the baby. Neither happened, and about 20 minutes later, I made my way back to bed, curled up in a ball and managed to fall back to sleep. But the whole time I was just waiting, thinking, Well, I'm definitely in labor, because everybody has a story about how they went to sleep for like, an hour, and then woke up in labor.

Around 4:30 a.m. I woke up again, having to pee again (of course), and feeling very wet on my inner thighs. I pushed myself out of bed and went to the bathroom to realize it was just sweat. Gross, I know, but at least the mattress isn't ruined. I laid back in bed and thought some more about going into labor, but again fell back to sleep.

I made it to this morning and again feel nothing -- no contractions, and only a normal amount of kicking so far today.

I really think that labor is going to be kind of like getting sick. Follow me here: When you get sick, you usually start to feel it at night, after dinner, or just before bed. You get tired and achy or your nose is running and you have a cough and you start thinking that you have no desire to get up in the morning and go to work. The next morning, you wake up and you're all clogged and sore and feel horrible, so you call in sick. You go back to sleep, wake up a little later, sit on the couch a bit and then take a shower. After the shower, you feel a lot better. If you were being honest with yourself, you probably could've gone to work. But then, after dinner, you start to feel crappy again and think you might just need another day off.

That's how I feel about this labor business. Most of my contractions and anxiety and Is this labor? thoughts come at night, or in the early hours in the morning, when it's still really the middle of the night. That's why I keep feeling like maybe I'm going to miss it. Like I'll go to the 40-week appointment on Tuesday and Dr. G will say, "Uh, you're 10 centimeters and the baby's head is visible. Haven't you noticed?"

Realistically, I know that will never happen, and once my contractions start going -- really going -- I won't be able to do anything else but feel them. I just know, in my gut, that this baby is not coming out yet. I've been saying August, and while it might not be quite August, I don't see this baby coming before next week. More specifically, I don't want the baby to come out before Tuesday, because then I'll have to go back to work before Oct. 22, and we all know I don't want that.

Having said all that, the baby probably will come today. Happy Birthday, Angela.