The weekly cervix report

I'm still having contractions. On the list of "discomforts of pregnancy," I'd say they're more fun than five months of morning sickness but less enjoyable than Shirley's regular attempts to head-butt one of my kidneys while simultaneously kicking the other. (Which tells you how I feel about puking.)

Fortunately, my ADHD tendency to "space out" has come back in spades this week. I say fortunately because that (and Unisom) have made it much easier to cope with the pain from the contractions. Unfortunately, my body has apparently trained my mind to do these little space outs without my conscious control. While it's been nice to be less aware of the pain (I'm telling you, not hurting does wonders for my mood!) it also means that I'm much less aware of everything else. At the end of the day, there are quite literally gaps in my memory of hours at a time because my brain apparently just wasn't paying attention. Guess it's good practice for when Alzheimer's kicks in!

Aunt Tig's birthday was Tuesday. Since she is one of the women named Shirley we're naming the baby after, we tried to use this to our advantage. "Come on honey, February 19th is a great day to be born a Shirley!" was spoken to my belly more than once on Tuesday, but she didn't buy it.

Because it was Wednesday, we saw the obstetrician again yesterday. And my cervix is slowly dilating--it's now a little over 1cm, which is more than it was last week. So these contractions are serving their purpose (make my cervix dilate so Shirley can come) but it's taking a loooooong time.

I'm not completely sure why, but the doc wants another ultrasound on Tuesday. And it's probably not going to happen, but I really hope I can call to cancel the appointment before then and say "The baby arrived, so I won't be coming in!"