My son Micah has a special birth story. Unfortunately, as it unfolded, I had little time to record the details. So as I think back to “what we were doing this time last year,” I’m going to write it down before I forget. It’s hard to believe he is almost 11 months old!
One year ago this week, I was 27 weeks pregnant. Everything seemed to be going well. Just four weeks earlier on Thursday, March 27, we had our first ultrasound at 23 weeks, confirming that there was most certainly a baby inside and showing us clearly that the baby was a little boy!
I had no concerns about the pregnancy because my first pregnancy had been very typical and uncomplicated. My first labor lasted forever, so I wasn’t really even concerned about making it to the hospital 40 minutes away. We will have plenty of time, I kept telling my husband.
During the early morning hours of April 27, I woke every hour, and sometimes more often, with contractions. I hardly slept at all that night! It was a bit unnerving. But when I talked to the resident about it, I was told, “You will notice things happening earlier with your second pregnancy, especially Braxton Hicks contractions.” And a friend who has six kids wrote me: “I had Braxton Hicks contractions for a long time towards the end of my pregnancies. Especially the more babies I had!” So I chalked it up to second-pregnancy Braxton Hicks contractions.
There was still a part of me that questioned whether week 27 with baby #2 should feel like week 38 did with baby #1. Little did I know that this was the beginning of the end!