Twas the Night Before Carter

This post was supposed to go before Carter's birth story, but I got excited about posting the birth story and forgot about it!

Every now and then I think back to Carter’s birthday and it still is such a shock that he was born at 36 weeks, 2 days.  I knew he was most likely going to be born early, but I figured we would make it to full term.  My doctor checked for progress at my 35 appointment and I was 2-2.5 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced.  My doctor predicted that I would have the baby by 38 weeks.  I left the appointment thinking 38 weeks, okay, awesome!  

The more people I talked to the more nervous I got that he would come even earlier.  I had 2 more weeks until Christmas break and I really wanted to make it to Christmas break and obviously I wanted to be full term.  First were my parents who said baby could be born any day and predicted he would be born at 37 weeks.  Then I talked to my best friend and she said she was 2-2.5 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced the day her son was born.  Okay, now I was getting anxious.  Next was a co-worker of Ty whose mom is a nurse.  She predicted baby would be born the following week (36 weeks).  I decided it was time to get our booties in gear, just in case, and finish up some important things like installing the car seat.    

The night before Carter was born I had no idea what was to come the next day.  No early contractions, nothing out of the ordinary.  I went about my day as I normally would.  I was at work all day and had a meeting after school.  I met with my long-term sub to discuss my maternity leave.  We went over details, exchanged information, and she asked some questions.  We planned to meet again the following week.  

I left school a little after 5:00 and met Ty at the running trails.  We ran 2 miles together.  I remember feeling really good on the run.  During the Jingle Bell 5K I had struggled and felt a lot of pressure in my pelvis.  I even described it to my mom as feeling like an invisible string was attached to baby’s head and was pulling.  In other words, it almost felt as though baby may fall right on out.  I didn’t have that feeling at all this night.  It was dark as we finished and the Christmas trees by the park were lit.  As was normal for my runs during the 3^rd trimester, I ran straight to the bathroom as we finished.

We got home and ate dinner.  Then it was time for our bumpdate photo.  I wrote on the chalkboard and got dressed in my bumpdate outfit.  Ty came in and moved the furniture out of the way.  He had been moving the rocking chair and night stand out of the way for the picture and then moving them back when we were finished.  He complained that he was tired of moving them.  I told him he only had a few weeks of moving them left.  Little did we know it would be the last time he would be doing it!  

One of our maternity photos taken by a Christmas tree at the trails we run at.

I typed up the 36 week update and sent out an e-mail with the picture and note.  I bet some of our family and friends got the news that Carter was born before they even saw the bumpdate e-mail!  I also sent an e-mail to my principal about my long-term sub getting in to observe in my classroom before Christmas break.

That night for some reason I didn’t want to go to bed.  I was very tired and normally I would go to bed before Ty and he would stay up watching tv or working on things and come later.  I didn’t feel like going to bed without him and stayed up late (11:00 was late for me at the time).  I figured the next day was Friday and then we would have a relaxing weekend, so oh well!  But Carter had other plans for our weekend…

Did you have any idea the day or night before your baby was born or were you like me, totally unaware of what was to come?