If This is PRE-labor...

I finally lost my sense of humor about the aches, pains, and general discomfort you'd been causing me at about 5:00 p.m. on April 28. I could not find a comfortable position to sit, stand, or lay because of the pain in the front of my big ole belly. I'm not convinced they were contractions, and I can't even describe how it hurt. My sides ached--kind of towards my back, not my belly. I was nauseous, freezing (which I didn't think was possible for a pregnant woman), and couldn't eat or sleep. The least painful position I found was laying on my left side, and after 12 hours of trying to lay that way, that whole side of my body was sore. I had a headache that started in the middle of my forehead, stabbed me in the left eye, and traveled down that side of my neck, shoulder and upper back.

Since I didn't think I was having contractions, my water hadn't broken, and I wasn't bleeding or anything, I didn't feel like I had any real reason to worry. I just kept reminding myself that I was nine months pregnant and was bound to feel some pain from time to time. But I'm sure the nagging fear that something might be wrong made everything even worse.

By 6:00 a.m., it was like it never happened, but I was exhausted. I felt horrible, but I stayed home from work even though I was starting my maternity leave in two days. I called my doctor's office as soon as they opened, and the nurse said it sounded like pre-labor. (I'm guessing pre-labor is any symptom during the eighth or ninth month that doesn't fall in the Braxton Hicks category, but I'm still not sure. Maybe it's the same thing.) She said it was just my body getting ready to give birth, and she told me to take it easy.

Now, I hadn't been REALLY scared about giving birth until that moment. And I remember thinking to myself... If this is pre-labor, I'd really like to reconsider this situation I'm in. I don't think I can handle the real thing.

Please understand that your mom hadn't had any surgery to speak of or broken bones, never spent the night in a hospital, and the only serious pain she'd ever had were from migraines. Now, migraines are no joke, but I couldn't take a couple pills and a nap and make this pre-labor stuff go away. Let's just say I was a few big jumps beyond concerned!

We made it a little over a week before this happened again--another 12 hours of it. And a few days later, on May 10, it lasted 24 hours. And I was done with it...