36 Weeks

Week 36 turned out to be a semi-exciting one. The latest pain that I've had to deal with is finger pain. When I wake up every morning, it hurts SO BAD to bend my fingers. It gets a little better throughout the day, but never completely goes away. This morning, I had two fingers that were so stiff, I had to use my fingers on my other hand to uncurl them. Apparently, this is from extra fluid in my fingers, and it will go away soon after the baby is born.

The exciting part came Saturday morning. I lost my mucus plug (sorry for the "gross" information). It made me nervous because it's so early. I was worried about the baby being born too small and having to be in the NICU. Since I was so nervous, I called the doctor's office on Monday. I talked to a nurse, and she said not to worry. She told me that 37 weeks is often considered full term, and I'm only about a week away from that. She said that the baby will be fine, and it will weigh enough to be healthy if it is born now. She also said that the baby will probably come early. In most cases, babies are born within 2 weeks after losing the mucus plug.

On Tuesday, I had some more excitement. I stayed after school to grade some papers, and I had a contraction. I wrote down the time, just in case. It was 4:12. I graded some more papers and had another contraction. At 4:20. Then another at 4:28. And then at 4:36. I called Mom to tell her I was having contractions 8 minutes apart. I was so excited! Scott was out of town, so I called the doctor to see if I needed to tell him to come home right away, or if I had some time. She said the contractions could get closer together and more intense, or they could go away completely. I called Scott, and he said that he was only an hour away from home. When he got home, we went to eat, and the contractions did get stronger. And then...they stopped. Around 9:30, I had the last one that followed the 8-minute pattern. I ended up having two painful contractions in the middle of the night, but no more major excitement. Yesterday and today, I've had some sporadic contractions here and there, but for now, the baby is staying put.

So instead of having cute little baby pictures this week, I still just have pictures of me.