Day -2 – Saturday, July 15, 2017

We had spent the weekend at our friends about 2 hours away from home. I woke up with inconsistent menstrual-like cramping in my stomach. I’d been having Braxton Hicks contractions for over five weeks which I was told were not a concern especially since I had these contractions with my first pregnancy. I had not been alarmed with these contractions because I had experienced them before without going into labor. The menstrual-like cramping I felt during the morning of July 15th, however, was a different kind of feeling in an intangible kind of way.

I was not concerned it was active labor because it had no rhyme or rhythm. I spent most of the day sleeping and resting until the feeling subsided; which it did. The cramping completed stopped by the afternoon and my day progressed with no cramping and few contractions. Since I felt really great, we proceeded with our plans of sleeping in a tent with our 2-year-old daughter Poppy that night. We got amazing sleep in our cozy tent, woke up the next morning and headed home for what I expected to be an uneventful 2-hour drive home. I thought it was the way I was sitting in the car, but the contractions began coming back. I remember telling my husband that if they don't stop, we may be headed to the hospital. I don't think he took my comment seriously. After getting home, I tried to rest again and took a nap.