Week 38!!

38 weeks and 1 day today! 13 days to go... hopefully no more. Who knows. Clearly the Neonatologist felt that it would be unnecessary to induce me on Tuesday. We're going to just let Aislinn come out whenever she decides it's time... which I hope isn't too much longer. I'd like to have at least one more childless weekend with my husband, so if she'd like to make her way out sometime on Sunday afternoon that would be fine.

I had a lot of funky discharge on Tuesday. It seemed more watery than it did mucusy but I didn't feel any actual leaking so I didn't think my water had broken because I was sure that it would have been obvious. It also kind of smelled nasty. Gross!!! So around 1:00 AM Howie made me call my doctor because he felt that it was possible that my water had broken, although Dr. Google said that if it was my water it wouldn't smell bad. The doctor pretty much said the same thing, it shouldn't smell bad, but she'd have me come in to the office in the morning. So, I went in and all three tests that they do to find out if your water has broken were negative. She thinks that I might have a yeast infection because of the funky odor. Last time I had a yeast infection the discharge wasn't so watery, but what the hell do I know. She took a swab to send to the lab. She also did a pelvic exam to find out if I had started to dilate yet (fun!!) and it appears that I have dilated 1 cm. Woohooo! I wish it were more like 4 cm and that I was in labor. I kind of felt let down that it was a whole lot of nothing and that I had to go home and continue to wait for something to happen.

So sometime around 12:30 AM I started cramping. These cramps seemed to come along every 8 minutes. I think I had timed about 4 or 5 of them before falling asleep. When I woke up this morning around 5:15 or so, maybe it was earlier, the cramping/contractions (???) were 3 minutes apart. It seemed odd to me that they were so consistent yet no more painful than they were when I fell asleep last night. Howie wanted me to call my doctor and was rather upset with me when I said that I wouldn't call. I mean, I woke my doctor up early Wednesday morning because I might have a yeast infection. I'd feel silly going in to the office or hospital to be hooked up to a machine that would show how pathetic my "contractions" really are and then be sent home again without a baby. I've had stronger menstrual cramps when my body is only trying to expel uterine lining, I would imagine that if my "contractions" were 3 minutes apart that it would be much more painful than they were. I didn't even have trouble chatting casually during them, my husband wouldn't have even known that I was having them if I hadn't told him. Howie and I got up and took a shower. The stupid plug in the tub doesn't work so I can't take a bath like my doula suggested trying if I'm not sure if I am having false or real labor. I was hoping that taking a warm shower would relax my body and stop the contractions if they weren't real the same way that taking a bath would. I had maybe 3 contractions while in the shower and had Howie time them for me. When I got out I only had 1 more contraction and that was it. So, it seems that it was false labor. The contractions are beginning again right now though, and are slightly more intense. If I go into labor I'll be sure to let you know, but I doubt that this baby is coming out any time soon. I feel kind of silly because I'm waiting for my body to do something and I'm not exactly sure what it's going to be like. Doctors never want you to self diagnose anything, but when it comes to labor you kind of have to. At this point I'm over analyzing EVERYTHING and I don't want to be like the boy who cried wolf. It's silly, and I'm hoping that when it's real I'll be sure that it's real. Whatever, I think that eventually this baby will come out by force rather than by choice, but we'll see.

Anyway, last night Howie and I finished up the baby's room. I put all the larger sized clothes into space saving bags and then into a big plastic tub. We have a rather large space saving bag for 3-6 month clothing, and smaller bags for the 6-9, 9-12, and 12-18 month clothing. As for clothes that she can wear immediately, we went from having almost nothing to having lots of clothes. Very nice! The closet and nearly the entire dresser are filled! I spent about 30 hours this week sketching and painting two pictures for Aislinn's room. They're ok, I'm not Monet or anything. The pictures are a little over simplified and sort of lame, but I made them for my baby. I don't know how I feel about how they look in there, but Howie seems to really love them. One is of sheep jumping a fence which we hung by the glider and night stand. The other is of the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme. There is a square for each character from the nursery rhyme and the words to the nursery rhyme are there too. We hung that one above the bookshelf. We hung up the cute letters that Howie bought to spell out Aislinn's name above the crib and the Celtic cross that my aunt gave us is hanging above the changing table/dresser. I know, kind of confusing, a Jewish baby with and Irish name and Celtic cross. Well, she is an Irish Jew so whatever. The Celtic cross is more of a symbol of her heritage and that's just fine for us. It goes along with her very Irish name. Anyway... moving on. We picked up the cushions for the glider that we had re-upholstered so that they went along with the room better. I love them! So, I will go ahead and post those pictures for you now that the room is complete.