Tuning up

You’ve probably heard the term “false labor”. I hope you never use that term in front of me. While it’s a common way to refer to the tuning up or pre-labor excercises your uterus may go through, no pregnant woman will feel supported by hearing that what she was feeling was false. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this explanation of what pre-labor is. Pre-labor can be exciting cos you think you’re gonna go into labor but if it calms down it can be disheartening because… well, you’re not going into labor yet.

After an evening of pre-labor, I feel tired. Not tired in the “I just gave birth tired” but emotionally tired. It’s exhausting to have your hopes so high and then feel like nothing happened. My midwife reminded me that pre-labor is a good sign, but I have to be diligent about reminding myself of that. I even had to use some comfort measures to get through some of the Braxton-Hicks, which is a really good sign. That means that my body was doing a lot of work- akin to chopping veggies before cooking. It’s all necessary but you could potentially put off the actual cooking for a couple of hours… days, or in the case of labor, weeks.

I saw my midwife today at the farmer’s market and she prescribed walking, spicy foods and as much complaining as I need to do. I’ve got a great midwife.