Birthday Baby

The day my mother turned 31, I was born. 

Yesterday marked my own 31st year.  I spent the day with my own contractions.  Here's how it went.

Contractions started on Sunday and continued all.day.long.  We took the kids for a hike in the dark Sunday night and told them the baby might come tomorrow.  We put the kids to bed and cleaned the house.  I kept contracting.  Around 1 AM I was no longer able to sleep through the contractions.  I started timing them and was excited to find they came just five minutes apart.  An hour and a half later, I called my midwife to give her a heads up.  We asked Mammie and Poppa to come get the kids.

{Elijah sat up in bed and said, "Oh!  Is the baby coming out?"  Then he climbed out of his bunkbed and prayed for me.}

The children left around 3 AM.  I tried to sleep again - and did, fitfully, for about two hours.

Then I walked around the house and the neighborhood having contractions.  The contractions would space out - but still come at least every 10 minutes - and then pick back up.  I felt like I was riding a rollercoaster, and I was reaching the point of exhaustion.  The tell-tale sign?  Yesterday evening, per our midwife's advice, we were going to run and get some food.  I got ready and then had a meltdown that would rival any of my children's.  The kind of meltdown where you just stare at your kid and think, "Wow.  What happened?  Is something wrong with their brain?"  (Eric was actually giving me that look.)

I've always been jealous of those people that walk around halfway dilated for days and days before their baby comes.  And I've wondered what it would feel like.  Well, it feels just the same as walking around with a closed cervix...only, in my case, there have been a lot more contractions.

Eric is off to work where he can explain to people that yes, we are planning a homebirth and no, you can't get pitocin at home. 

I'm off to pick up the children who I'm sure will have lots of great questions as to how/why/when the baby HAS NOT COME.

12.18.2012