To Each His Own

Well, I've been saying all along that this baby is huge and I'm going to have him early. So why should I have been so surprised when at my 35 week appointment my Dr told me that I'm two centimeters dilated and that my cervix is 80 percent effaced? For anyone who finds this jargon foreign language, it basically means I'm already in the stages of pre-labor and this baby could come at any time.

Literally...any minute.

Or it could be a few days.

Or weeks.

See that's the thing about pregnancy and birth and babies. They do what they want and every woman's body is different and each pregnancy is different, which is why mothers love to sit around and tell their labor stories over and over again even if you have heard from your friend a million times about how her 30 hours of labor which lead to a C-section was worse than anyone else's, you will absolutely hear it again as soon as anyone you know has a baby or even hints about becoming pregnant. Trust me, I'm not hating on birth stories. I love telling my own. It's probably the most exciting, terrifying and life changing thing that any woman will endure, so why not brag a little? I did just bring a human life into the world if I want to reminisce for a few minutes I will.

The thing with having my second baby is that for the past eight months I kind of assumed that the labor process would be similar to my first experience.  I woke up one morning--my water literally exploded--and then contractions ensued. Everything was extremely by the book and I was lucky to have a fairly quick--but not totally painless--wonderful birthing experience.  This time, I'm walking around for days with dull contractions that sometimes come consistently every two minutes and then taper off to twenty to thirty minutes between them. I know it is just the process of preparing my body for what is to come and that's cool. But I guess I'm a little anxious to know...if the beginning of labor is so different with my little #2...what is the rest of it going to be like?

More to come. Of course I will have to share my birth story on my blog...and then re-post it several times...in case anyone forgets what I've been through is so much worse than you. ;)