I have a very comfortable womb...

and the baby seems to want to stay there. Still contracting hard, but not quite regular enough to bring in the doula or go to the hospital. I'm going to rest a while and see what happens.

still here

It's been a very long day of irregular contractions. My mom just arrived and I think we may go on a walk soon to see if that gets things going.

We're dorks

Like kids on Christmas morning, Tom and I had to be sent back to bed. We called Deidre, our doula, at 6am and she kindly informed us that we still had a looooooong way to go, so it would be best to try to get some more rest. We took her advice.

The contractions are strong, but short and have not yet established a regular pattern. We plan to take a walk to see if we can encourage labor and then will rest at home for a while longer.

My mom currently making the drive up. Tom is trying his best to be patient. And I'm hanging in there.

This is it!

I woke up a 4am with strong cramping and began to have painful contractions. I woke up Tom and told him about the contractions and said, "but you can go back to sleep, honey." He was quiet for a few minutes and then said, "I can't sleep; are you kidding me?"

We're both up. He had some eggs and coffee. I had a shower. We plan to call the doula soon and eventually head to the hospital. The hospital has wi-fi, so we'll update as soon as we can.

This is exciting (and scary and painful!).

Big, big belly

There is something very surreal about how the body is transform so significantly during pregnancy. Sure, it is a slow evolution over nine months, but I'm still startled every time I look in the mirror. I seriously feel like I'm defying gravity.

Want proof?

This was taken last night and, no, there is no trick photography. It's no wonder people blatently stare when I go to the market. Who can blame them? I'm pretty much a freak. And I have to wonder, how much more can my skin, back, body, take?

Plans

Though most of the time I seem scattered, I'm actually a bit of a planner. I make lists; I rely heavily on Post-it notes; I organize my days. Not knowing what to expect and the unknown in general makes me anxious. As a kid, I always visited a school before classes started to find my locker and classrooms. I still do this as an adult. When I was hired at DeAnza College this spring, I made Tom join me on a dry run of my route to work, parking in the faculty lot, walking to the classrooms and locating the nearest bathrooms. Neurotic? Yes. But being prepared gives me peace of mind.

Well, you can't plan a birth. This may be what's most difficult for me. I have no idea when or how labor is going to start. It could be tomorrow; it could be in two weeks. My water may break in a dramatic gush like the movies or I could just have increasingly painful contractions. Even if I did try to make plans for the birth, a million different factors can come into play that will take my plans off course.
So here I sit, waiting (somewhat) patiently for my body and the baby to do its thing.

The kitties

There is a lot of information out there about how to introduce a new baby to the family dog, but not as much about cats. Most cats would probably be pretty unfazed and just go about their business. But Tom and I don't have normal cats. Our cats are very neurotic, needy creatures (only to be outdone by my mom's dogs, who win the most insane pet award hands down). Take a look at Billie with Tom.

Clearly, she thinks Tom is her human. I keep telling both cats that very soon their ranking in the household hierarchy will drastically change, but they are in denial.