Weird Labor

It's officially 2009. I'm officially 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I've had well meaning people pray for a fast, pain-free labor more times than I can count. I was finally able to get myself to acquiesce to the possibility. Joshua's labor was such a shock to my system in more ways than one that honestly I just couldn't believe for the fast and pain-free kind - and it didn't bother me. Yet here I am on the verge of actually experiencing one (I think...) and it's nothing less than weird.

On Thursday the 1st I had some "bloody show", meaning that my cervix started dilating and/or effacing, causing some blood cells to rupture and parts of my mucus plug to come out. After that, I started having "contractions". These contractions are nothing like the Joshua kind which took my spine from the very start and twisted it into pretzels. These contractions were simply muscle spasms. They feel good in comparison. Weird.

That's been going on now for several days, these irregular muscle spasms that cause me to dilate more and more without pain. With Joshua I had horrendous painful contractions for 6 hours straight before I even dilated 1cm. Big difference. Today I started having regular contractions every 10 minutes and was sure they would get stronger and more frequent, only to have them completely stop. They call that "false labor"...but it caused more blood tinged mucus to be released - meaning more dilation/effacing.

In my temptation to get completely frustrated and impatient, Pierre asked, "Do you want Joshua labor?" lol. Uh, NO. Frustration gone. Yah is actually doing this gradually and beautifully without my help. I'm not even due for another 5 days. I might actually have a pain-free labor at this point. What a concept!

Behold old things have passed away and all things have become new. Happy New.