Week 29

Another week of pregnancy has come and gone, and now (as of tomorrow) I'm out of the week 20s and into the 30s. Wow, where did the time go? It seems like it won't be long at all until our littlest fish(er) is hatched!

I'll start with the humorous part of this week because sometimes you just gotta laugh at yourself. Every night recently--in the middle of the night--sometimes several times in the night, I have been meditating on airplanes. Why airplanes? Well, because of a conversation I had with Josiah about how airplanes fly; and although I'm not at all technically versed in the mechanics of flight, I understand enough to try to explain how airplanes are affected by opposing forces: gravity v. lift, for example. One force is pulling in one direction, and the other force is pulling in the opposite direction...and whichever one is stronger will win.

You're probably wondering what in the world this has to do with pregnancy or night wakings or anything maternity-related at all. I'll try to explain it, although I think it's one of those things that only makes sense in the middle of the night and when the light of day comes, you think, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Anyway...

At night when I wake up, I too experience opposing forces. On the one hand, my bladder is stretched to maximum capacity and is urging me to quickly go to the bathroom. On the other hand, as soon as I stand up, shooting pain races down the right side of my back, forcing me to stand still until the kinks in my muscles ease themselves out...or until I can muster enough courage to take a quick step on my right foot, knowing that the pain will be intense for a second until I can get the weight shifted back to my left foot again. As I continue writing this, it sounds sillier and sillier to me...but I can assure you that it's a real predicament! Do I listen to my bladder--or my back? How long can I allow Baby to shove my over-full internal balloon around until it pops? How long will it take for my back to work itself out so I can take a step with only minimal pain? Which opposing force will prove itself stronger?

And so every night, the phrase "opposing forces" echoes hollowly around and around in my brain--and I think about airplanes.

Several times recently, I have been sitting on the edge of the bed, recovering from one of these strenuous night excursions to the bathroom...and Jeff will wake up and ask, "Are you OK?" Hmm...short answer: yes. Long answer: well, no time for a long answer because invariably Jeff is asleep again already. :)

Did I mention last week that I can't do all that I'd like to be doing? Well, it's still true. This is the time of the year when there are last-minute outdoor projects that "need" to be done before the winter, and it's just about driving my mother and I crazy that we can't do them all. We keep trying to put each other on virtual bedrest: I tell Mother she needs to slow down and put her feet up because of significant pain/damage in her knee which is actually forcing her to have it operated on the end of this month, so obviously she can't be spreading mulch, carrying in wood, moving tomato stakes, etc. On the other hand, she thinks that I shouldn't be doing those things either! I've actually been feeling a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions during this pregnancy than I ever remember having in a previous pregnancy, but I sure hate to mention them because I know what my mother will say the next time she sees me trying to lift something heavier than a Q-tip! (Hmm..today I carried 3 gallons of cider at the same time; I wonder how many pounds that is?)

Speaking of good old Braxton Hicks...I had read about these mysterious contractions during my first pregnancy but was NEVER aware of having them. Whenever I asked someone what a contraction felt like, they gave me the stock answer: "Oh, honey, you'll just know it when you have a contraction." But I didn't. In fact, two days before my due date, I was in a Denny's restaurant in San Diego with several close friends, and we were talking about this same topic. I remember asking several of them who had children about how they knew when they were in labor, and of course they sort of laughed and rolled their eyes and assured me I would know it. Little did I (or they) know, I was actually in the early stages of labor at that moment! But it wasn't until I got home, tried to sleep, felt pain, and realized the PATTERN of it that it dawned on me that I might be having contractions and might actually be in labor.

So, I agree that at some point in labor, a woman realizes what is happening and becomes aware (quite aware) of contractions. But to tell her that she'll just know when she's having a contraction is about as helpful as saying "you'll just know when you're in love" or "these directions are so simple that you can't miss it." The only thing those kinds of comments do is make the person feel stupid when they can't figure it out!!!

OK, let me climb down off my soapbox now.

So, as I was saying, Braxton Hicks did not exist for me during my first pregnancy (at least, in my mind; maybe I had them and never realized it). And in my second pregnancy when I obviously had a little more experience, I occasionally felt a contraction during the later weeks of the pregnancy...but really, that happened fairly rarely (say that 10 times fast). In fact, the day that David was born, I woke up early in the morning with a contraction, totally convinced myself all day long that it was false labor, and didn't even admit it might be the real deal until we were at the airport outside of Tel Aviv picking my mom up who had just arrived in the country. That wasn't really a great place to make that discovery. Fortunately, in the end, it all worked out amazingly well...but that's another story.

Now, with baby #3, I do find that I'm more aware of what is going on with my body, and I occasionally realize I'm having--at last--this phenomenon that women talk about all the time: Braxton Hicks. Two pregnancies ago, when I first read about them, that they are essentially painless contractions, I thought the writer must have been off his/her rocker (probably "his," because what kind of woman would write about a painless contraction?) because I had never experienced a contraction that wasn't also accompanied by pain--or what writers of inspirational childbirth books like to euphemistically call "pressure." But you know, now I get it! Sometimes I too will feel a funny sensation and will think, "Oh, there goes my baby kicking again." But then I'll feel my stomach and it is TIGHT. "Aha," I'll think, "this must be a Braxton Hicks contraction. Finally I've arrived in the secret sisterhood of women who know what Braxton Hicks are!"

Now, if you are in the group of experienced mothers who is reading this and thinking that I'm way off base as far as this Braxton Hicks stuff goes, feel free to set me straight. I guess I'll be OK if you burst my bubble. But I really thought I'd figured it out...gulp...and knew what I was talking about...sniff, sniff...