False Alarm!

37 Weeks, 5 Days

At this point I am not sure if my belly is getting any bigger, and I am not sure how much it matters if it does or doesn't! I do know that Baby Sanchez is supposed to continue gaining weight at 1/2 lb a week, though!

So early Friday morning was fun; we had our first "false alarm!" I woke up around 3:45 with contractions ranging between 6 and 7 minutes apart. Eventually I woke up Fred. He said, “I’m not ready; my desk is a mess with jobs.” I told him to stay calm, that enough time had not gone by to know if this was the real thing or not. We kept timing them and Fred got out of bed and started adding some of his clothes to the bag I’ve already packed for the hospital. I kept thinking this can’t be for real yet, because there are too many things left to do and our house is a mess! Not only that, but I ordered Harry Potter Book 7 to keep me distracted in the early stages of labor, and it hadn’t arrived yet! (it came Friday afternoon) The cramps were uncomfortable, but the contractions were more annoying than anything, so I decided to get up and walk around to see if they’d go away. They seemed to start spacing out a little more as I wondered around the house and doted on Miss Maddie. A warm shower really helped , and the contractions spread to 10 minutes apart. Around 5:30 I decided to try to go back to sleep. Though a few more contractions woke me up, and continued irregularly through the day, I realized that Friday wasn’t going to be “the day.”

How much of this stuff can a girl take? I decided that I was over exhausted from keeping way too busy (between Cafe Catholica, baby showers, other social nights out, working on the nursery, doing last minute pre-baby errands and working 5 days a week, I haven't been getting much rest). So I cut down my weekend activities to rest. Now I have a manageable number of contractions in a day :-)

Some of the added problem: Baby Sanchez decided to flip from head down to either transverse or breech (i can't really tell). Seriously, that is a way less comfortable position for him to be in and he needs to hurry up and flip back!

On a fun note, Connie and Jeannette hosted a diaper shower for us yesterday, and we had a great time! They put all kinds of work into it, and we had a wonderful time seeing friends we don't see very often. Look at this super cool diaper cake Jeannette made for us! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends to help us prepare for this great adventure we are about to begin. The gifts we've received from our friends, at showers and not, have been so incredibly awesome and thoughtful. (Susan hand made us a precious baby blanket - I will post a picture of that when I can!) Everyone's kindness has touched us so deeply!