I guess I'm 'one of those'!

Pregnant women are known for being irrational beings. We apparently can't see reason. This has been used in movies and is usually the backbone of the best stories at baby showers. The best have to do with labor and/or contractions. For instance, my mom was 'one of those' who refused to admit she was in labor. She went for a job interview, having contractions the entire time, and then when her water broke at home, she yelled at to my dad, "I just peed myself!" Thank goodness my dad didn't buy the, "I just peed myself!" explanation and took her to the hospital, where she gave birth a couple hours later. Talk about denial!

There is the other end of the spectrum of the woman who thinks she's in labor at every twinge and rushes everyone to the hospital a few times, sure this is the time, only to be sent back home. (See: Father of the Bride 2). So even though we've read about it, heard an enormous amount of stories about it, no one really knows what labor truly feels like until it has already happened.

Last night I was having a hard time sleeping. Around 2 am I got up from my bed because I couldn't find a comfortable position to lay down. In fact, it was downright painful. In my mind, Jude was in a ball and pushing against my stomach, making everything very hard and semi painful. Sure, he would relax and it would be fine, but then he would tense right up again! I started walking around the kitchen. I considered eating, but food didn't seem appealing, especially with the way that my back was hurting. Why was my back hurting?

After about 45 minutes of pacing around, trying to get Jude to stop putting so much pressure on me and trying to relax, I decided to call my doctor and talk to an on-call nurse. The idea in itself made me feel foolish, calling at 245 am for an irritable baby and a backache, but I did. When I got her on the phone, I explained how Jude was acting like a bowling ball in my stomach. She was not the nicest lady, and seemed very irritated with my phone call. I told her that it hurt, and my back was also hurting, and that I just wanted him to relax and my back to ease up so I could go to sleep. Then I got the question:

"Sweetie, is this your first pregnancy?"

Um, yeah. Why?

"Well, it sounds like you're having contractions. How far apart are they, and how long do they last? How painful on a scale of 1-10?"

?!?!?!?!

I explained how I wasn't keeping track of what I thought was my baby being a jerk, that I didn't think they were regular, and that they hurt at about a 4. Enough to keep me awake, but I was walking and talking during the feeling with little difficulty. She told me to relax, drink some water, and to keep track. If they're 5 minutes apart and regular, go to the hospital. Thanks for calling and good luck!

And then I was alone. My friendly on-call nurse had done nothing to ease my mind or my discomfort, and I was completely freaked out. All I could think was that I was in pre-term labor and that Scott was unreachable. I called his phone anyway. Straight voicemail. I started pacing and crying, not keeping track of the contractions at all, resenting my husband for being in the army, resenting everyone else for being asleep at 3 am. I walked to my aunt's room to wake her up, and then walked back. (I hate, HATE waking people up.) I did this a couple more times until I started having another and got scared and woke her up, positive that I was in labor, hating to be alone, but wanting to make sure that even though I was crying, even though I was scared to death, and that even though I was waking her up at 3 am, that this was not a big deal.

She was great. Asked all the right questions and told me, "This is what Braxton Hicks contractions feel like as you get closer to the birth. Painful and more real, but very irregular," (and they were, as we started watching the clock) "But completely harmless. Just a practice for the real thing." She talked to me and calmed me down and gave me half a glass of wine. After an a hour, they stopped. After another 30 mins, I was ready for bed.

So I had the two extremes. The complete and utter denial of contractions and then the jumping to the conclusion that I was in labor. Glad to know that I'll be reasonable when the actual labor starts!