SO Different Already

Everyone says that every child is different. Well, Peyton hasn't even been born yet and the experience is already completely different than when I was pregnant with Kaleb. I was scheduled to be induced with Kaleb (which, technically I am with Peyton, too) because of the gestational diabetes (okay, another similarity), but this go around I don't think I'll make it. It's supposed to be the 11th, but I've been having a lot of contractions and feeling him really low. I've dialated at least 3 cm (last update was a week ago) and I'm sure I've dialated more since then. I'll be surprised if I'm not 4 cm when I go to my doctor's appointment tomorrow just because I've been having so many contractions. I'm hoping that after I see her tomorrow she'll tell me that I've dialated enough that I can just go on to the hospital, ahve them break my water, and get this started. But if not, it's more waiting. That's one thing that I wasn't ready for. The waiting and anticipating. I'm ready for this thing to happen already! I have this huge fear that I'm going to be at school and not be able to make it to the hospital in time to have him. When I'm at home I'm more aware of the contractions and can time them better. But when I'm up teaching I'm vaguely aware that I'm having one, but can't pay enough attention to it to time it or tell if they're coming with any type of consistency. That's why I kind of just want to start my maternity leave even though I have about a week until I know I'll HAVE to start it. I'm just tired of worrying about it. Who knows? Maybe Peyton will decide now's the time and today's the day and I won't have to think about it anymore. But probably not since I haven't had many contractions this morning. I almost feel stupid typing that I won't know when I'm in real labor. In all the movies the women are so sure because they're doubled over in pain or their water has broken in the middle of a huge fight. Well, the truth is that water breaking only happens at the beginning of labor for about 12% of women. And that 75% of the time it doesn't break until you've reached 9-10 cm. I guess the other 13% breaks sometime during labor...I don't know. But I've been thinking this whole time that I'm okay until my water breaks....well, chances are that may not happen for me. Another fun fact: my doctor said that real contractions could feel just like Braxton-Hicks contractions but just be more consistent and get closer together. Well, Braxton-Hicks contractions don't really hurt. I was counting on the pain as another indicator that I was in true labor. Now what? I guess just time the contractions I get whether they're painful or not. Another thing that's happening is that I'll have contractions all day but they're 7-10 mintues apart. The doctor said wait until they're 5 minutes apart for an hour. Yesterday when I was cleaning up some I had them about 3 minutes apart for 45 minutes. Once I finished and sat down, they slowed way down to 10 minutes apart again! My body is just fighting this consistency thing. I mean, I guess I wasn't in true labor after all because I didn't have the baby last night, but it makes me feel ridiculous to take a day off work because I think I'm going to have him and then not. It's all just a guessing game and it is for the birds!