An interesting few days...

Up to 39 weeks and 5 days now - something to be very proud of! Things have been very interesting round here. At about 1am on Monday morning I woke to a kind of uncomfortable feeling, much like period pain.

Yippee, I thought, we're on the way! These pains, plus pains at the small of my back, continued - and there was the odd contraction thrown in for good measure. At 4am I took some Panadeine, mainly because I thought I should get some sleep if at all possible. Then at 6.30am I got up, thinking 'today might just be the day'...

We made plans for E to be elsewhere and Shaun ducked into work for an hour or so then came home. By which point there wasn't much at all going on.

The 'step up' to proper labour just didn't happen. And I have to admit I was disappointed. If it had come that day, the baby would have been born on the 24th - which is 4 years to the day E was due. Oh and he/she would also have been 4 days early. Considering the huge importance of the number 4 in my life (I think I blogged about this a few months ago) I was simply expecting it to all kind of fall into place.

Never mind!

I'd had a fetal growth ultrasound booked for 12 so Shaun and I went along to that, thinking it would be good to check how things were going anyway. It showed the baby's head is super-low and looking ready to go. And the growth of the baby is 'normal' - it's hard for them to estimate but somewhere between 2.9kg and 3.8kg. This is fabulous (E was 2.4kg at birth).

While I was at the hospital they did my blood pressure and ran a CTG on the baby - all good.

Today I was back at the hospital (I swear I deserve a reserved car parking spot - ha, if only!) for my clinic appointment.

Again, the BP was sitting nicely. I saw one of the obstetricians and she decided to give me a 'stretch'. It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but it was certainly quick (phew). The good news? Those pains I had in the night seem to have led to a soft cervix. Now it's a matter of waiting to see what happens.

They've asked me to come in again on Friday for monitoring, so I was waiting in line to make that appointment when E decided today would be a great day to whack me in the stomach. Right where I'd just had the strip and stretch. People, I cried. It HURT. Still annoyed that he did that. The whack itself was only a light one, but right on where that had just been done .... aaaaargh.

Anyhow, everything is looking reasonable for something to happen. My due date is Friday ... maybe that's the day?