Misra Family Hebdomadal: Get Your Kicks From Braxton-Hicks!

Marinda and Amit started out the week pretty chill. Lots of resting and really just hanging out - and by resting we mean Marinda rested while Amit took Monday off to put together the changing table. Note: If the reviews say things like "it took us six hours to put this thing together" then it probably is hard to put together. Not six hours long hard because Amit is a genius, but was definitely more difficult than it should have been.

Amit working hard putting together our baby swing!
Note how the nursery looked Monday night vs.
the pictures below.

Fast forward to Wednesday. Marinda had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions the past few weeks, and they haven't really been a big deal. "Sure I've noticed them, but it isn't like they slowed me down or anything." Us at the Heb have to chuckle little bit - Marinda is already moving pretty slow to begin with. For those of you who don't know, Braxton Hicks contractions are basically just practice contractions to get things all ready to go and don't really tell you much besides "hey, you're pregnant! And it has been longer than seven months since you got that way!" A little trivia, Braxton-Hicks contractions are named after Doctor John Braxton Hicks, the English physician who first described them in 1872.

Woah woah woah - time out. That can't be right. Braxton-Hicks contractions, which are fundamentally only felt by pregnant women, were first described by an Englishman? Seriously? Wouldn't it be more reasonable to at least say they were first described by his wife, let alone the billions of women who experienced them and described them (probably in very explicit detail) well before 1872?

Anyways, on Wednesday night Marinda had lots of contractions. So many, in fact, that Amit decided to look the guidelines online for when you're supposed to go in to the hospital. (Marinda was only at 35 weeks when this started, which is technically pre-term. So the rules are different than the typical 4-1-1 or 5-1-1 most people are familiar with.) The contractions were frequent enough that The Internet told us to go to the hospital. But Marinda was sure she wasn't going into labor, and Amit was tired so they decided to sleep on it. Marinda was fine all night, but the next morning the contractions were back, and when Marinda called in to see if she needed to come in, they scheduled her for an appointment.

Going to the doctor for us was not a big deal. We were 99% sure Marinda was not going into labor. So we know we'd almost certainly get sent back home and get a nice pat on the head. But that 1% chance really freaked us out. So we spent all of Thursday morning frantically getting everything ready for the possibility of bringing home a baby in a couple days. Freak out! We got our hospital bags ready, ran a batch of newborn clothing through the laundry, went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff (including diapers), and then barely made it the appointment on time. And what happened at the doctor? ...(drum roll please)... We didn't have the baby yet. I know, shocker! We did find out that Luke has officially dropped, and the fact that the doctor could feel his head kind of, um, made the fact that there is an actual baby inside Marinda kind of, well, REAL. "When the doctor said 'and there's a baby's head!' I was excited!" Amit said about the appointment. Marinda's reaction was a bit more reasonable in our opinion - "I felt panic - like 'wait a second! I thought I still had a month to get ready for this!'"

So Thursday was a very long day. Friday was more chill and relaxing as we were trying to get the apartment ready for Marinda's baby shower on Saturday. We spent a lot of time getting the nursery ready and cleaning up the apartment, but it was worth it! Amit was not at the shower. He was exiled to the Land of Car, where he ran errands and ate Chipotle all afternoon. Exciting news - we now have a food processor! Woot woot Macy's gift cards from our wedding nearly 2 years ago!

Marinda's baby shower was super-fun. It was pretty small and low-key, with about 10 people over. Her amazing friend Julene went all out for the decorations and even made little hamburger cookies (the food theme was food Marinda had been craving). People sat and talked and played the MASH game to predict Luke's future.

So that's the wrap for this week. Will we have a baby next week? Who knows? It could be any day now.....mwahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!