3 Things that Make You Say, "Hmmmmmm…"

1. Contractions coming every 15 minutes or so.

2. Those very contractions arriving on a day when you just learned that you won’t have to pay out of pocket for your hospital expenses because your midwife has worked her magic.

3. God, who in his mercy, doesn’t decide to whack you on the head with a 4×4 to teach you to be patient and to just put your trust in him rather than trying to figure everything out on your own and instead gives you bed rest, weeks of hearing your baby will be here “any day now,” and a surprise pregnancy, so-unlike-your-previous-pregnancies and then a capricious third trimester to help you wise up.

Unlike my overanxious cervix, I certainly don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I’ve been having contractions every 15 minutes now for almost 2 hours (about to put a call into my midwife). Considering I made it to nearly 5 cm without feeling much more than a slight tightening in my abdomen, my husband and I are thinking this may be it (then again, no one thought I’d make it past March 15th and here we are). Of course, tomorrow is one day of call he couldn’t trade (although it looks like someone will be willing to cover if this fickle little one really does decide that she wants out). Go figure.

But there’s definitely a silver lining to all of this. What really amazes me about the timing of these contractions is that just this morning my midwife called and asked, “Are you still pregnant?”

“Yes,” I told her, sighing only slightly.

“Well, you can have that baby now because…” And she went on to explain that she’d finally received the okay for me to deliver at the hospital we’d hoped to have the baby at because it was in our health insurance network and would not require us to pay a hefty bill.

Some would call this a happy coincidence. I call it divine providence. If this pregnancy and all its waiting and “what ifs” hasn’t taught me a thing or two about trusting God, then I don’t know what will.

Even if tonight’s not the night (I’ll be 39 weeks in a few days and wouldn’t mind letting Baby grow a little bit more), I’m feeling very much at peace and a whole lot of gratitude right about now.

Stay tuned…