The signs of preterm labor.

Every time I go in for an appointment, Trish asks me: do you feel like you understand how to recognize the signs of preterm labor? And she give me a short lesson on contractions per hour, certain pains, certain... other things I won't mention here so as to not gross out any men. At my last appointment Trish told me that back pain is obviously normal in pregnancy, but to make sure that back pain wasn't coinciding with contractions, and that it wasn't worsening over time.

So last night I freaked out when I had such a god-awful lower backache that I caught myself staring longingly at my little bottle of Target-brand ibuprofen, wishing I could pop a few to take the edge off (not being able to take ibuprofen is one of the major bummers of pregnancy). And I was having a good amount of contractions on top of it (but not 4/hour, which is the general rule of thumb for when to go to the hospital). And I had some serious round ligament pain on top of it, and was getting up to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes. Needless to say, I was a wreck when I went to bed last night. I kept telling myself that if it persisted so that I couldn't sleep, or if I still felt awful when I woke up, we'd go to the hospital.

Thankfully, crisis averted. I woke up this morning feeling totally rested and ache-free (and contraction-free). Major bed rest lesson learned. My little outing to the little beach at my Nana's house yesterday was a bit too much activity for me. What's sad is that it wasn't all that much activity. Aunt Sue met us there and played in the water with Owen. I spent most of the time on a chaise lounge, somewhat reclined with my feet up. But the fact remains that it was still almost 4 hours out of the house (and off the couch) when all was said and done, and it was too much for my weak back and belly muscles. Despite that, we did have fun while we were out, and it felt so GOOD to get OUT. Here's Owen and Aunt Sue playing in the lake. Despite her best efforts, Sue did NOT catch a fish in a bucket.

Today we are taking it EASY. I have a flat of geraniums in the backyard that Eric is going to help me plant this afternoon (I'll probably place them where I want them and then sit and direct). And we may do a little grilling tonight (first grilling at the new house!), seeing as how it is the 4th of July and all. And that's about it. The rest of the day I plan on not getting off this couch.

Happy 4th of July!