Surprise!

This past week has been full of surprises. Tuesday night I had several contractions and lots of nerve/back pain, leading me to think I was going into labor. Despite the pain lasting throughout the night and into the day, I held off calling my midwife until Wednesday evening when the pain still hadn't subsided. Thankfully, our midwife came out and did an exam to make sure everything was okay and it was... we just found out we could have a baby a lot sooner than our due date!

Samuel is already around 8lb. 2oz. and my body is just preparing for labor. This is a new experience for me; with Luke, I had no warning signs that I was going to go into the labor (in fact, the night before I felt so good I took a two mile walk with some friends and family!) but with this pregnancy, I've been having clear indicators that "it's time" could be any time now.

Since we're only at 36 weeks as of present, my midwife has put me on bed rest and given a prescription to take as needed if contractions rouse back up. The goal is to hold off labor/delivery until Wednesday, if at all possible, so that Little Guy gets an opportunity to "cook" in there until 37 weeks gestation. I know there are risks of preemie complications when having a baby sooner than 37 weeks, but then again an 8+ pound preemie sounds like an oxymoron. I'm convinced our due date is off (because we had had a miscarriage the month before we conceived again) and he's really closer to nine months than we once thought. Nonetheless, I think there are some legal constraints on having a home birth before 37 weeks as well, which means I really hope he waits until Wednesday (I really don't want to have to go to a hospital system to have him when I've been under the care of someone else the entire pregnancy). We love our midwife and I've been romanticizing the notion of having a water birth (something I still want to do). So hopefully we'll still get to have one.

Timing has been so funny with this situation. After mentioning all that, it would be best that I not go into labor for another five days. However...this next week is crazy for our family. My mom is turning 50 and my dad and I have been planning a huge 50th surprise birthday party for her that's supposed to be on Friday. All of my work on decor, rentals, catering, music, power point, etc. will have to be passed on to someone else to take care of if I can't be there after all. Perhaps the biggest stress would be if Samuel came a few days before that and my mom wanted to come down on Friday to see him... because then her party that we've worked on would be a bust. Also add to the mix that Nick's parents have planned for months now to be out of town this entire upcoming week, working a trade show in Vegas, which would mean they wouldn't even get to see Samuel until possibly days after he's born. While it wouldn't be the end of the world, it would just be different than it was when we had Luke (everyone was able to come in and see him immediately after he was born).

I know it will all work itself out and thankfully the most important thing is (as much pain as I'm in now) Samuel is safe and healthy. Our church family has been such a Godsend throughout this situation; yesterday, Katie Metcalf brought over an amazing Italian dinner (how she had time to do that while taking care of a one year old and being seven months pregnant herself is beyond me!!!) and today I'm eagerly looking forward to the baby shower the ladies in our small group have put together. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people surrounding us during this season of our lives and I look forward to posting very soon about our newest addition!