Labor is Really Going to Suck

I mean, DUH! OF COURSE it's going to suck. But I'm getting a taste of it now- and I realize I was in denial.

I've been having those Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks now. They started as nothing. My stomach would just tighten up. I wouldn't have even noticed I was having them if I hadn't rubbed my stomach at just the right time to feel them. About a week ago they progressed. I could feel them. It was like I was doing a sit-up, or holding a crunch. It didn't hurt, didn't feel weird, so everything was good.

Yesterday, they changed. For the worse. For the very, very worse! They have started to hurt! I even woke up 3 times last night. It feels like a superhuman cramp. Like I've got my period & a bad case of Mexican food all at once. Like some huge guy has reached into my stomach and is grabbing my muscles in his fist and squeezing really, really hard. Perhaps it feels like I'm being stabbed.... but I've never been stabbed, so I hesitate to use that analogy. OK, a huge guy has never squeezed my stomach muscles, but that seemed like a good visual description of what I feel.

I've been concerned enough today to google this- and it seems that if you are past 37 weeks (which I am, 38 yesterday), painful Braxton Hicks contractions are not unusual. And since they are irregular and as of Friday I'm still "high & tight," (That's summing up my OB/GYN visit this past Friday. No dilation, cervix still high and in the anterior position.) I'm not concerned that I've reached actual labor.

But damn, if this is FAKE labor....REAL labor is going to be hell! Here I was thinking I would hold off on the epidural for awhile (not to be brave or natural or anything crazy like that- but just because once I got one I'd be stuck in bed with a catheter shoved up my who-ha). Now I may just demand it right away. I may call on the way to the hospital and ask for them to have it ready when I get there. I'd go ahead and get one now if I could!