Waiting for Baby Marian

October 6-11, 2015

This week has been an uncertain one.  I have had two days where I thought I was in labor - then it fizzled out.

The first time, on the 6th, we even woke Jody up, went to Uncle Lynn's, and spent the night - just in case I went into hard labor that night.  But alas, nothing. Then days went by with no contractions at all.

Then on Sunday, we kept Jody home from church because she had a cold. Mom, Jody and I walked the WHOLE time. That put me into pretty constant, more crampy contractions. So again we went to Uncle Lynn's.  And this time we also went to the midwive's to get checked to see how far I was dilated.  I was still only a 4+. So they said to take a long walk. But they were sure (like me) that I was in labor - so they expected me to be back soon.  So we left all our stuff there - clothes, computer, toothbrush etc. Bad call.  Soon the contractions fizzled out again.

On one of our walks. She rides in style!

The next morning, October 12th, Lance and I woke up early to see if the contractions would start up again. We had to decide if he should go to work or not. He ended up staying with us, because once again I was having pretty regular (4-6 min apart) contractions.  I was still able to talk and walk, though, so it wasn't imminent.  But this was getting frustrating.  I just wanted to be in real labor!

While we waited, we went with Lynn to the Bean Museum at BYU.  Jody loved it, and it was a good place to just walk and keep up the contractions.  We had a great time!

She LOVED the giraffes!

The animals were pretty amazing!

She loves her grandma!

That afternoon around 1:30 we went back to the midwives to pick up some of our stuff, and I asked to be checked again to see if I had made any progress. I hadn't, which seemed really discouraging with all the contractions I had been having.  So we asked if there was anything we could do to speed up the labor at all.  She gave me this concoction of 2 TBS caster oil, 2 TBS almond butter, 1/2 cc lemon verbena, and a half a can of mango nectar. Shake it all up and drink it within the first 15 minutes. She said it should kickstart labor if it's teetering on the edge in about an hour and a half, and to call in 4 hours to see what it had done.

I drank the foul stuff then went on another walk.  Luckily it really kicked labor into gear! I was having contractions that were much more painful now and much more regular. I couldn't do much during the contractions but focus. Finally - this was a sure sign of labor.

A side note to all of this - I had Aunt Ann check me several times so that I didn't have to go all the way to the midwives to get checked.  Thanks a bunch Aunt Ann!!

Jody and Racoon helping mama go through contractions. 
They are definitely starting to hurt!