Kanan (dressed in Iron Man costume) watches his 40-week mama capture her big belly shot in the bathroom.

Today has been a slightly disheartening, but somewhat hopeful day. I woke up feeling a wee-bit crampy, but otherwise normal. My friend Claire and I met up around 10 to walk around the mall given the icky weather and hope that the walk would stimulate some labor in either one of us. Well, big success for Claire! We had to leave around noon because it looked like she had started! They started getting stronger and stronger and she became even too uncomfortable to drive, so I took us home. Very exciting! I have yet to hear back from her to find out her progress, but hopefully she is having that baby soon. In the meantime, spending time with her may have rubbed off on me. Since leaving her, I have been much crampier. As a matter of fact, the majority of the afternoon and evening I have been getting waves of cramps about every 20 minutes! Still, when I went in for my check up today, I found that my cervix is still high and closed tight. The doctor scheduled me for another appointment for next week—week 41. If I am still high and closed tight, we will probably have a c-section on Thursday the 26th. Moving on past 41 weeks in a subsequent pregnancy after a c-section can increase risk of rupture. While Owen and I would rather have a VBAC and are praying that we are successful, the risk of stillbirth and uterine rupture by going past 41 weeks with no signs of labor just doesn’t sound worth it. Especially since my last labor didn’t progress past 1 cm despite it being 24 hours post membrane rupture and laboring all night long.So that is where we stand. I’m hoping my crampiness today is a sign that a C-section next Thursday will not be necessary. Prayers would be appreciated.

So I guess that means this baby will be here within a week! In the meantime, Jameson’s heart rate today was 145—very good. I lost 2 lbs since last week, praise God! That 7 lb weight gain in one week was just crazy! So overall that means I have gained 31 lbs over the course of this pregnancy and that is much better than my first pregnancy of like 45-50 lbs ( I honestly don’t know as I stopped weighing myself at 45 lbs which was a week before I gave birth and I know that last week I puffed up A LOT with water retention).