It seems I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions and didn't know it! I just thought it was the baby pushing her butt up hard into me, but I've recently discovered that that's just not it. It's a tightening all over my belly and my whole uterus gets really hard. I've been marking down the times each one comes and as of last count, (since 7am this morning - it's 2:40 right now) I've had 20 of them. They come sometimes as much as an hour apart and as close as 10 minutes together. It seems like a lot, but I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't be concerned unless you have more than 4 an hour. So far I've had 4 an hour at some points, but no more than that. They don't hurt at all, just make me feel a little uncomfortable. And they are all really irregular in length and time between contractions.

Anyway, on another note, I'm doing some physical therapy for my back/hip pains and have exercises to do. Noel helps with some of them. I've got another appointment PT next Monday and another baby appointment Tuesday. I think they'll do the Group B Strep test then, but I'm not sure... I know we've got another ultrasound appointment coming up, too. I've been thinking that I'm going to want as natural a birth as possible... it seems like if your water breaks and you don't start labor in 12 hours, then the docs want to induce because of risk of infection. So you get put on pitocin, which causes HARD, PAINFUL, FREQUENT contractions that most women can't handle, so then you get put on an epidural which tends to slow down labor, and then if you haven't delivered in 24 hours, it's C-section time. Ugh, I'm going to try like heck to go w/out any inductions. (At least not Pitocin - I've also heard it causes a delay with your milk coming in) I'll take prostoglandins if I qualify! I've written up a birth plan that I'm going to give to the nurses and doctor. It's all worded very nicely.
Okay, that's it for now...