Contractions galore! And I'm officially sick :(

On Thursday afternoon, I started feeling contractions that were stronger than the typical Braxton Hicks contractions.  They started in my back and migrated to my front, which indicates real labor pains.  However, they were coming very sporadically, so I knew they weren't real labor.  They were just like the contractions I've had twice already.  They were a little uncomfortable, but not too bad.  On Thursday night they began coming more frequently and a little more painfully, but they still weren't regular.  At one point, I was sitting in bed and Brooke did something with her head to send super strong shooting pains into my pelvis.  It was so startling and painful that I jumped and had to clench my fists on the pillow and breathe through it!  I've had sharp pains down there earlier in the pregnancy, but this was REALLY painful!  It's so weird to feel her moving around all the way down there.  It's just such a strange feeling.  Sometimes I feel like she is trying to ram her head up against my cervix to get out :)  She ended up doing that 3-4 times, but thankfully she stopped.  And thankfully the contractions calmed down enough that I was able to sleep.

Yesterday, the contractions started up again in the morning and got harder and more frequent as the day went on.  At some points, it was pretty uncomfortable and a little painful.  Even when I was floating in the pool they were uncomfortable and painful.  It was exciting to get the contractions because the past 2 times I had contractions like this, my cervix made progress, but it was also getting to be a little much and I was hoping for a reprieve.  Luckily, the contractions calmed down again last night and I was able to sleep.  At this point, I think I'm getting up 3-5 times per night to pee :)  So "sleeping all night" means I'm able to get back to sleep pretty easily after getting up to pee.

Last night I also started to feel more sinus pressure and my throat started hurting.  I was also more congested throughout the night and woke up with an even more sore throat and congestion.  So it looks like I'm officially sick :(  It's definitely a blessing that we got sick before Brooke was born, but I'm not happy about it being so close to when I give birth.  So I'm praying that we both get over it very quickly so that we aren't sick when I go into labor.  I'm interested to see how much the contractions progressed me.  I'm going to ask the midwife to check me at my appointment on Tuesday and I'm really hoping that these 2 days of contractions made some kind of significant progress, because if they didn't, that will worry me that once labor starts, it will be a long process.  We shall see...

I really hope I don't get contractions today, at least not the ones I had yesterday that were so uncomfortable and painful, because I really would like to get some rest.  Wish me luck!