In order to maintain sanity and not get a bajillion replies on my Facebook wall I’ve opted not to post anything about my early “labor” there, but for those of you stalking this blog to get news, here’s a quick recap of the past week.

Wednesday, Sept. 7: I start having contractions before bed. Dan and I get excited and little freaked out, but decide to wait and see if they are still going on the next day before alerting anyone.

Thursday, Sept 8: Contractions continue sporadically this morning, so we call my mom and she jumps in her car and drives down here. I tell work I’m pretty much done, but manage to hang out with the girls at lunch and at happy hour, pausing occasionally for contractions. Mom arrives this evening.

Friday, Sept 9: The midwife checks me at our weekly appointment, but I’m only about 1 cm dialated although very soft. Mom and I go to lunch at the Southern Sun, and their lovely sandwiches seem to kick my contractions into high gear. We start timing them but it gets to be bed time and they aren’t too strong, so we take the midwife’s advice and go to bed.

Saturday, Sept 10: By morning the contractions have stopped again, so we mess around the house and run errands all morning and afternoon. That evening around 4pm they start up again, finally getting closer together (3-4 mins) and feeling like they are serious and strong. We pack up the bags and head to the hospital, only to find out that I am still very slightly dialated. Once again the midwife recommends going to sleep, and advises us not to stay at the hospital.

Sunday, Sept 11: Once again the contractions have died off by morning and we keep busy around the house. There’s very little action in the contraction zone, although they come and go throughout the day.

This is the pattern that we’ve maintained ever since: sporadic, irregular, and pretty mild contractions that go on throughout the day but don’t increase or accelerate. Even the full moon on Monday didn’t seem to give us the extra oomph that we need.

Yesterday Mom and I had massages, complete with work on acupressure points for me, and I followed it up with a visit to the acupuncturist to hopefully kick things up. So far that hasn’t lead to labor, but I’m holding out hope If it doesn’t work today/tonight I have another appointment for acupuncture tomorrow morning, followed by a midwife appointment where we may see if they will sweep my membranes since my due date will only be 3 days away at that point.

Generally the process has been sort of frustrating as it drags on, but I’m doing my best to stay positive and optimistic while maintaining realistic expectations about this process. It’s fantastic having Mom here to help keep me occupied, especially since I’ve stopped working. The best thing is that one way or another, this baby will be here in a relatively short amount of time

This past weekend we had one of the best parties ever thrown for us by two of my best friends, Jessica and Lindsay.

The hostesses

Jess is an event planner, so she offered to throw us a baby shower and recruited Lindsay to help out. I knew with those two in charge it would be a great day, but I was not prepared for how awesome it turned out.

First of all, they made adorable caterpillar invitations, which I understand required many hours and several bottles of wine to complete. This was the start of the general caterpillar theme, which was continued in the food and decorations.

The Friday night before the shower my mom, both grandmothers and my sister-in-law flew in from Texas to help with the preparation. It’s a good thing they did, too, because otherwise Linds and Jess might not have gotten any sleep that night.

The food in the above photo represents only a tiny fraction of the abundance that they put out. There were melon ball skewers, caprese skewers (mozarella, tomato and freshly picked basil), and cheddar and grape skewers along with veggies and dip, pulled pork sliders and grilled veggie sliders.

And of course the crowning achievement was the cupcake caterpillar that Lindsay put together – isn’t it adorable?

After a night of prep work and fun it was time for the actual party, which was just great. There were white onesies to be tie dyed and drawn on (mad props to all the artists, by the way), gifts to be opened, and of course lots of snacks to be eaten. Matt and Jess’ pulled pork will be made by quite a few people in Texas in the coming months

We were overwhelmed by all the people who came out to show us love and support. We are truly fortunate to have found such a great community of friends here in Boulder, and we can’t wait to introduce the baby to all these great people.

Of course it was also fantastic to have family there too. It was a whirlwind weekend for Ginger, my sis-in-law, and then my grandmas and mom stayed over the rest of the weekend to help wash baby clothes and setup the nursery. I’m still amazed by how much work it takes to setup a room for a person whose needs don’t extend beyond food, sleep and poop, but the room is set and ready for baby Partain’s arrival.

Again, I just have to say thanks to everyone made the effort to come out (particularly Andrea Oh who drove in straight from the airport after a massive delay in her flight home). You are all amazing friends and we are so lucky to have you!!