The Week Before

The week leading up to Halloween I was pretty sure I was going to have this baby.  My concern was that he would come on the 31st and I really didn't want him to have to share his birthday with Halloween and trick or treating every year.  I had a Dr. appointment scheduled for the 29th, but was worried that if I waited until then and had Dr. Oxford strip my membranes then for sure it would be on Halloween or just a few hours before.  I decided to call the Dr.'s office and see if I could get an appointment earlier in the week.  It turned out to be a good thing because there had been a mistake with scheduling and they had it in the books that the appointment on Friday would be the 40 week ultrasound, but I was not yet 40 weeks.  I wanted the appointment Wednesday, but Dr. Oxford was not available that day so I took an 11am on Thursday.

Tuesday I woke up with a burst of energy and decided to paint the kid's bathroom.  As soon as I got set up, I walked to the next room to help Trey get set up on a computer game and heard a crash.  Scotty appeared and had paint on his back and feet.  He had somehow flipped the paint stir stick off of the can, meanwhile getting paint all over himself and then all over the hallway carpet where the stick finally landed.  I had to fight him clawing and scratching to wash his fur, and then needed a bucket full of water to get the paint out of the carpet before it dried.  I was wondering if it had been a bad idea to paint the bathroom after all.   But by the afternoon I was pretty close to done.  I just needed a roller, which Jake picked up for me on the way home from work, and in a few hours I was finished.

 I even let Scotty back in to see it.

On Thursday October 28th, I went to my appointment.  When Dr. Oxford Checked me I was 5 cm. dilated and 80% effaced.  I asked if she would strip my membranes, so she did.  She said that it doesn't always work, but if it did it would be in the next 72 hours.  I felt discomfort for the rest of the day.  Tamsyn had a dermatologist appoint at 1pm, so I waited in Renton for Jake to bring her to meet me.  I had lunch at Subway and felt like it was probably my last lunch pregnant.  Just before 1pm Jake dropped  Tamsyn and Trey off and we went to her appointment.  We headed home in time to pick Natasha and McKenna up from the bus stop.  I taught McKenna an art lesson about pointillism and continued to feel uncomfortable.  I had called Brigette that afternoon to tell her that I had had my membranes stripped and that baby might come soon.  She was at the store looking for Halloween costumes.  I told her we had some fun outfits for little girls from all over the world if she would like to borrow anything she was welcome to come take a look.  She came by after dinner and Kaiya chose an Indian outfit with mirrors on it, and Brigette took a couple other outfits home for Megan to choose from.  I am pretty sure she realized by looking at me that I would likely be calling her sometime that night.

We put the kids to bed and went to bed early.  I woke up every hour on the hour with a hard contraction, but then went back to sleep until 1am when the real deal began.