Is This...Pain?

First, a late update from my check-up on Wednesday. My OB measured me at 2cm dilated, 50% effaced, and baby at a -2 station. I was pretty happy with that. Things have progressed in the past week. I also, sadly, went ahead and made an appointment for an induction on April 16, when I will be one day shy of 41 weeks. I would normally be all for waiting it out as long as I can. But with our flights to China looming on May 14 (exactly 4 weeks after the induction date), I didn't think it wise to wait any longer than that.

While I'm on the subject of the flights to China--this potential government shut down is actually causing us some concern. Apparently one of the biggest problems during the last shut down was a huge delay in people getting passports. As you may recall me mentioning in past posts, we are going to be on a fairly tight timeline to get our son a birth certificate, passport, and visa before we leave. A government shut down would certainly not help our cause! Stinkin' congress.

Back to the point. I've definitely continued to lose huge chunks of mucus plug every day since last Saturday. I've actually been a bit astounded by how much goop is coming out. I guess it regenerates. Also lots of Braxton-Hicks and pelvic pain and pressure. But until today, the pain and contractions weren't really correlating with each other. Until a few hours ago, when I noticed that I was feeling reasonably strong pain in my lower abdomen at the same time that my whole uterus was tightened. A painful contraction, I suppose. These have been coming about every 5-7 minutes for the past few hours. They're not unbearable, but I definitely hope they don't last for days without progressing.

And of course, I just bought some nice, fresh, Dover sole for dinner tonight. We'll see if I end up making it or not...