Feh. And more argh.

Argh!

I think I might be in early labor. I know I wrote this a week or two ago, but this time is very, very different.

I think I lost my mucous plug this morning, or part of it. Well, something weird was going on. I've had painful contractions since about 7:00 this morning (it's now 10:40). At first they were 6-18 minutes apart--not promising. Now they're 8-11 minutes apart and seem to be holding to that pattern. And they hurt. All the way around to my back.

It's certainly too early to make any phone calls, and it's too early to throw a bunch of stuff into my bag that I'll possibly need to just take out tonight when we go to bed, still babyless.

And then I double check the differences between real and false labor, and they don't really help.

False labor: irregular, far apart; true labor: regular, getting closer together. Well, how fast do they get closer together if it's real?

False labor: painless or mostly painless, most tightening is in lower abdomen; true labor: pain from lower back to upper abdomen. Well, does a kind of belt around the lower torso count? My upper abdomen doesn't really hurt, but my back sure does. And it's hard to breathe normally unless I'm very intentional about it.

So. I don't know. I'm just sick of waiting and seeing.

---

(later)

And more argh:

It's 3:30 pm. They slowed down to once every 15-20 minutes around noon, but they aren't going away. They're just hovering. In fact, they're more spaced apart, but they seem more regular. If this is false labor, why isn't it going away? And why does it hurt so much? If it's real labor, why aren't they getting closer together?

I've been up and moving constantly since I posted, drinking water, cooking, doing laundry, gathering junk together, tidying up, and that didn't make them go away (another sign of false labor is when doing that stuff makes them go away). I even took a shower and shaved my legs. If it turns out I shaved my legs for nothing, I will be so angry. Do you people know how much I hate shaving? I really hate shaving.