Braxton Hicks

  I left this out of my last update but I have started noticing Braxton Hicks contractions!  Last Tuesday we went to dinner with some friends who are moving away and they have a 4.5 month old son.  I was asking her what BH feel like and whether I would actually know it was happening.  She described it as a tightening feeling.  The next night when we got home the whole top part of my stomach (uterus...that thing is pretty much my ENTIRE mid section at this point...) had a very tight and hard feeling.  The only way I can describe it is the feeling you get when your back tightens and you want to stretch to release some of the tension.  It also felt like I had eaten too much and was uncomfortably full.  From what I remember it didn't last too long but I did mention it to James.  It didn't dawn on me until a day or two later when it happened again that it might be BH.  So, I looked it up to see how early it can happen and the get more info. on what it feels like.  Seems to be what I'm having!  It happened again once over the weekend and I described it to some of the ladies in my life group last night who all seemed to agree that it's BH.  They said it could be that I'm not drinking enough water or that I need to take it a bit easier.  I can see where (especially this weekend with the water drinking) either of those options could be the reason.  Generally speaking I drink a TON of water but if you'll recall, by the 3rd trimester my amniotic fluid is completely replacing itself every THREE HOURS!  I don't even know if it's possible to drink enough water to keep up with that but I'm trying.  So, not surprisingly my uterus has fallen in line with the over-the-top-crazy forward-thinking preparation mentality my brain suffers on a daily basis and is already practicing for contractions.  I wouldn't mind if this guy came a *little early* (read-December 1st-5th-ish) but none of us (ESPECIALLY him!) are ready yet so hopefully these practice contractions will continue being *just* practice for quite a bit longer.