sara without an h

taking it easy.

no baby yet, but i'm still feeling awfully strange. i woke up this morning and felt suddenly very nauseous. i've had no real contractions to report today. i have, however, had my (TMI ALERT) bloody show and a fair amount of menstrual-ish cramping. my head feels both clear and hazy at once, and my mood is exceedingly calm. i'm still trying to take it easy. we did run a few errands this morning and it felt good to be up and walking. i sat in our apartment ALL DAY yesterday and drove myself a bit batty doing so. my mom is here now, so i feel a lot more comfortable venturing out. travis works tonight and tomorrow night and it would be just my luck for things to get started while he is out of the apartment. we'll see what happens. for now i'm content to watch television and continue my carb-tastic eating habits. thank you so much for all of your sweet comments on yesterday's post. i'm so excited to see how things progress over the next few hours, days, or however long it ends up being!

dream labor.

i had my first labor dream last night and it was RIDICULOUS.  it all started out at tomorrow's midwife appointment.  she did another internal and sent me immediately over to the hospital without telling me anything else.  later on in the dream i asked her how effaced i was.  her answer was "250%".  HA.  she also baked a GIANT jam-filled cupcake for sylvie's birth-day.  consequently travis and i spent much of my dream labor arguing about whether or not the cupcake was done in the middle: travis:  but it's gooey in the middle! me: it's filled with JAM, travis. JAM. and so on and so forth. in all of the cupcake craziness, i forgot to call my own mother!  sorry, mom!  i promise that won't happen in real life.  i called her at 4:05 pm and told her to get on the 6:00 pm flight.  HA again.  i never got to the actual birth.  my alarm went off when i was 2 centimeters dilated and 300% effaced.  what?!  i told you it was ridiculous. as far as my impending non-dream labor goes, things seem to be progressing. according to askdrsears.com, i currently have 6 of the 8 "signs that labor is near". those signs are as follows: 1. the baby has dropped. check. she is engaged and rubbing my cervix with every step i take. 2. frequent urination. check. i got up to use the restroom a whopping 5 TIMES in 7 hours last night. 3. low backache. check. this one comes and goes, but today i had a hefty contraction accompanied by a backache. 4. stronger braxton hicks contractions. check. i am getting them constantly and they have definitely gotten longer, stronger, and begun to hurt a little bit. i had one today that lasted for over 2 minutes! 5. diarrhea. CHECK. TMI ALERT: i have had it every single day for the last week. i have also had a fair amount of diarrhea-like cramps not accompanied by the actual act. the hormone that causes this to happen can also cause nausea. i have been nauseous intermittently and actually threw up the other night. 6. TMI! TMI! TMI! increased vaginal discharge. check. enough said. now for the signs i haven't yet experienced: 7. the bloody show. not all women experience this sign, so i'm not sure how reliable it is. 8. the infamous water breaking. again, not all women have this before the onset of labor. in fact, the number of women who do hovers somewhere in the 10-15% range. so my question for all of the mamas out there is this: WHAT SIGNS DID YOU HAVE RIGHT BEFORE THE ONSET OF LABOR? i know it is different for every woman. i'm just curious to see if anyone's experiences line up with mine. our weekly midwife appointment is tomorrow afternoon and i can't wait to see if i've made any progress *ahem* down there. i'll report back.

THANK YOU.

this has NOTHING to do with anything baby related. i just wanted to personally thank the person who took the time to compile this video. THANK YOU. you've made this uncomfortably pregnant lady very happy. bless you. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXqY8EZ21-g&feature=player_embedded] nothing big to report today. i'm still experiencing a lot of low pelvic pain and pressure, some mild cramping, a bit of quality time with the toilet, LOTS of little kicks in the ribs, and head butts in the you-know-where. we're really getting to the end! i'm chomping at the bit to meet this baby girl.