Braxton Hicks

Contractions. Yup. Well, one that I know of. I tried going to bed a little after midnight today because I felt really tired. The three hours of sleep were awful. I mean, I was sleeping, but for some reason just kept waking up uncomfortable and couldn't tell why. I wasn't hurting, I was just restless.

Finally a little after 3am I said forget it and got up, knowing I'd be up for a few hours, thus messing up my schedule even more. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom and then went into the kitchen to look for a snack. I was incredibly uncomfortable walking around. It felt like my baby was sitting way high up, pushing against the top of my uterus as hard as it could. The baby normally likes to do that while I'm sitting, but this was a bit different. It was more uncomfortable than it normally is.

They say with a BH your entire stomach gets super hard. Well the top was but along the sides and on the bottom it's harder to tell because of the little bit of fat on the sides and then the thicker layer on the bottom of my stomach.

After I sat back in bed the hardness on top continued, as did the discomfort. But after a little bit I realized I wasn't so uncomfortable anymore and I felt my stomach and all around it was much softer. That's when I realized I must have had a BH contraction. It's the only one that I know of, I might have had others because lately my naps and sometimes my sleep at night I'm restless and uncomfortable and just don't know why. I couldn't tell where the discomfort was coming from this morning until I got out of bed so I'm thinking I've probably been having them for a bit now.

I've got 3 more weeks as of tomorrow. I've felt a bit more change in me today, can't explain it though so I'm not going to try, but it's just...different.

And according to the birthing class info, a woman can be in early labor for hours, days, even weeks. They consider early labor 0-3cm dilation with sporadic contractions. I think I had an actual contraction during the last day of the class. Everyone keeps saying an actual contraction feels like a period cramp, starting in that area down there and growing steadily stronger to the peak and then slowly subsiding and your stomach gets hard. I had a cramp-like pain during the last class that did get worse for a bit and then it subsided. I tried moving around a little to make it stop and it didn't do anything. Just had to get through it. It wasn't painful exactly, just super annoying. I mean, I've been through period cramps before that were the same level of intensity as this so I can deal, but it's not fun having them in public. At least it'll be a bit before I experience the cramp feeling like the cramps I during my last period. I've never been in so much pain before. The period lasted 3 days and the first two days I was in so much pain I had to take a vicodin to help. When the pain stopped after taking stuff I wanted to cry it was such a relief. Not looking forward to that kind of pain, but at least this time it'll be worth it.