The Starting of Week 37 and much more (March 18, 2010)

Today marked the day of week 37 of my pregnancy, and the baby could have come at any point from here on out. The doctors stressed that I needed to get to week 37 to deliver so that the baby would be healthy. I had heard this since my first scare with preterm labor in the end of January, and it was weird to know that week 37 was finally here. The day was pretty normal. I had been back on full-time days at school for three days, and though I was supposed to go the doctor on this specific Thursday for a normal check-up, I had to reschedule due to a mandatory faculty meeting. After school on this Thursday, I went to the meeting and then decided to skip book club and go to Jil's house. I was having contractions and thought it would be best to take things easy. Book club would have been a 4pm to 6pm thing, which I would have happily have gone to, but I really was feeling these contractions and wanted to visit with Jil, a friend who recently had a baby. I wasn't at Jil's long, just to visit with her and her new daughter Anne Marie. I was timing my contractions, which were now 5 minutes apart for over an hour. She asked if I was going to head to the hospital, but I told her that I would wait. I was convinced that if it was really labor, I would have worse pain with the contractions and/or my water would break. So far, things weren't that much different than other times, and I thought that it could also be the Braxton Hicks contractions that I had had from time to time. I couldn't help but think what the doctor would have said at my appointment today. I guess I would have to wait until the morning, which was when I rescheduled my appointment for 8:45am. I planned on having subs for the first three classes of the day, and then I would return just before lunch for the rest of the day. It didn't really matter, since I had a student teacher teaching all of my classes, but I still had to have a certified teacher in the room with her. Everything was set, and all I had to do was keep track of my contractions and pain until then. No problem!