Day Eight Overdue: Birthday Baby Fake Out

On the evening of July 8th, Brett and I went to hang out with a couple of our friends. We watched the new movie How Do You Know? and ate ice-cream crepes. Through the evening I had some good strong contractions that were about 20 minutes apart. For the most part I just tried to ignore them and not get too excited. We got home late and went straight to bed. By 3:00 am I couldn't sleep through them and I started timing them. They were between 8-10 minutes apart lasting about 45 seconds each. At about 5 am I lost my mucus plug (I wish there were a more delicate way to say it. The term 'mucus plug' is definitely one of the most disgusting terms in the English language). Anyway, I was really excited because that meant I was dilating. The contractions started getting more intense as the evening went on. When my contractions started getting closer together (6-8 minutes) I reached over and whispered to Brett excitedly, "I think we're going to have this baby today!" I couldn't think of anything I wanted more for my birthday than to have the baby.

The contractions kept on coming like clock work but I forced myself to stay in bed till 8:30am and not get my hopes up too much. I called my Mom to tell her what was going on but to keep things hush hush in case things didn't continue to progress. I got up, showered, went over to my sister-in-law's house so she could give me "labor hair" (gorgeous french braids gathered and pinned to my head in an elegant mess). My mother-in-law made us breakfast. My mom dropped by a birthday cake and Jamba Juice for Brett and me.

At around 10:30 am, twelve hours after they had started, the contractions stalled. I still felt little pangs through the day, but nothing regular that I even felt the need to time. I went for a walk, bounced around on my birthing ball, took my homeopathics. Nothing.

Brett jokes that we got "Jimmered by the baby." It's true, it was the ultimate fake out. By the evening I realized it was my birthday and I didn't have anything planned because I was planning to be in labor. We went over to my mom's house to decide what to do. My mom and Brett suggested all sorts of activities: a drive-in movie, chocolate fondue, going to the park, swimming, a barbecue, an outdoor concert. Each suggestion fell flat. Nothing sounded fun.

This is when I told Brett, while smiling, "Do you think I can just cry? I think I just need to cry."

He smiled and said, "I think that would be good. Do you want me to hold you?"

"Yes." I curled up with Brett on the couch and just like that the tears came.

"I woke up this morning thinking I was going to have a baby. How can I plan any activity for my birthday that can remotely compare to that?"

He agreed. So I cried for a good five minutes.

Finally, my Mom said, "It's true, nothing will compare. But lets just go and do something."

So we went and got frozen yogurt at Top It.

Just as we were scraping the bottom of our cups from Top It, my brother called and invited us to go get a dole whip (whipped pineapple frozen yogurt) from Farr's. We figured we may as well go for round two.

I ended up having a really enjoyable evening visiting with my family. After our double course of dessert we decided it would be a good idea to eat dinner. We ate at Outback Steakhouse and told stories and laughed. And at the end of the night they brought me a birthday dessert.

Three rounds of dessert can't make up for not having a baby. But it certainly didn't hurt.