contractions and teeth brushing

Shawn mentioned on Sunday that he thinks we've passed the threshold, and I do believe he's correct. We've both noticed a slight look of judgement after people ask if we've had the baby and our answer is, "no." I can't assume to know what they're thinking, but I can't help but wonder if they're thinking something along the lines of, "Seriously? You guys have been talking about contractions and acting like it's going to happen any day now for two weeks. Does Jen even know what a real contraction feels like?"

We haven't had Baby Deuce yet, and are staying consistent in our position that it could be any day now - or it could be another three weeks. We really have no idea. If this were our first baby, I'd say it's entirely possible that I'm a pansy and think the contractions I'm having are more serious than they are. Jude's birth is still recent enough in my memory that I do remember the difference between the "ugh, here go contractions again," and the "holy cow! that really hurts. i need to sit down and keep an eye on these." And then of course, there's the, "$%^#@ GET THIS KID OUT OF ME!" contractions, but I'm hopeful we'll make it to the hospital before I experience those.

So I am still having quite a bit of contractions and have almost made the call to head into the hospital a couple of times. I'm a little bit anxious about the timing of getting to the hospital with this kiddo. My doctors are telling me that labor will likely be faster this time around. My labor with Jude was a whopping six hours from start to finish, so....we're not looking at a lot of time to spare here. On top of that, we have our sweet Judeabug to be concerned about this time around - whether that's calling someone to stay at the house in the middle of the night, or dropping him off somewhere on our way to the hospital. I'm faced with trying to find the perfect timing of not heading to the hospital too soon and making sure Shawn and I have enough time to get everything ready on the home front.

I've honestly been praying that my water will break at the beginning of labor (as it did with Jude), so I won't have to second guess if what I'm feeling is early labor or not. In the meantime, I'm trying to remember that I also felt a ridiculous amount of contractions in the weeks before Jude was born, too. I guess it's that pesky irritable uterus of mine again. Simmer down, old girl.

And then because no blog post would be complete without some Jude cuteness, here's a video of Jude using a big boy toothbrush for the first time. We'd previously used a baby toothbrush that you put on your finger to use, but decided that Jude was ready for real toothbrushing. He's always laughed at Shawn and I when we brush our teeth, and especially loves when we spit in the sink, but we were surprised that he knew right away what to do!