Its not all Rainbows and Unicorns, but still good.

The great news is I am still pregnant! Hard to believe but true and slowly closing in on that golden "full term" of 37 weeks. I will be 37 weeks via ultrasound and our dates on Tuesday, but not until Friday according to the doctors via their dates on things. By next Saturday, a week from now I will be full term... I hope, pray and really, really, wish that we make it there.

As far as the Rainbows and Unicorns, well it is real life here. We have a toddler with stomach flu, and a uterus that is pretty much angry all the time and a body that is tired. I am very excited underneath it all but man these contractions have gotten old.

It always surprises people when I say, "I had a hard night of contractions". They look confused, or startled. Then sometimes they say nothing, or they ask blankly, you have contractions? I discuss my medications I can take and general stuff. But of course I am thinking, of course I have contractions, why else would I have been home from work since 23 weeks and spend the majority of my days on the couch.

I know everybody has different reasons for being on bedrest, and there are people out there that have minimal issues. The process though typically doesn't put healthy people without issues on home confinement, and then being on such rest makes your body have issues too. Of course, they have medications to help ease the discomfort and stop the contractions but they aren't exactly perfect and really in my humble opinion have almost worse side effects then the contractions.

For me, I have gotten used to some patterns of predictability with the contractions. They are always worse in the early evening to evening, this is due to hormone levels and the end of a day being tired. They are worse with dehydration, gi upset or high blood sugar. They are worse in certain positions. Of course the further along I've gotten the more intense they've become.

The part that is unpredictable is the days it will occur, I may have 3 days without them and then have two days where they are unbearable. I've gotten good at medicating, and other things that will ease them. Now that I am further out, I at least don't panic all night and have all the stress that I had between weeks 23 and 34. I don't call the doctor very often, more just ride them out now. But, never knowing if you will or won't be in pain for a good part of your day is hard.

I am pretty hard to read as a person too. Though I tend to be very emotional, when it comes to a variety of things, to make it weird I also have an odd way of also covering up how I am feeling (when I figure that one out, I'll let you know). Part of it is the doctor training, you can't break down in front of people and people also don't like to see their veterinarian fall apart in a crisis. Oh, yeah spending 3 months in an intensive care unit with your child makes you a bit hard too. So I suck it up, and do what needs to get done. I guess this would be why people don't always know I am contracting, or how painful some days are.

This was a long day, a more cheerful post will be coming. I know it will be, because I get my last shot at the doctor on Tuesday and we are coming to the end. Soon I will not have to worry about contractions, blood sugars, pain and calling the doctor. I will make it to full term with a happy healthy baby girl, and all these hours on the couch and stressful nights will be worth it.

Every winter ends, that is the beauty of life and the coming of spring.