My entire pregnancy I assumed I'd give birth well past my due date. One, because I'm a first time mom and two, I figured it was karma. I was born 17 days late (sorry, Mom), so it'd only be fair if my pregnancy went late, too, right? Thankfully, towards the end of my pregnancy I wasn't a miserable mess for weeks on end as I hear many women are. But come a few days before my due date, I started to feel really awful — exhausted, uncomfortable, emotional, nauseous and dizzy. Dread started to set in as I imagined an extra two weeks of this state. Little did I know, our baby girl would be one of the few actually born on her due date.
I was due on Aug. 13, a Wednesday, and Sunday was when the "awful" kicked on. Monday morning I felt a few minor contractions and tried to fight any excitement — I knew irregular contractions could come and go for days on end before the real deal set in. Tuesday morning, around 7 a.m., I woke up after a measly four hours of sleep (thank you, tiny bladder and uncomfortable pregnant body) to the same irregular contractions. Since I couldn't sleep, I crawled into the bathtub to try and relax and started timing my contractions. Though the timing was still sporadic, sometimes 20 minutes apart, sometimes eight or closer, they were coming consistently and slowly getting closer and closer.
Screenshot from timing my contractions. Every time I had a contraction in the tub my belly would get lopsided and I'd be able to see the outline of baby.
