Promising . . .

Okay, so at the risk of speaking too soon and ruining a good thing:

We just might be getting closer to baby time around here!

And at the risk of being accused of revealing too much personal information:

I lost my mucus plug at 8:00 this morning and contractions started immediately thereafter.

My contractions have been getting more frequent, regular, and intense throughout the day. After spending a couple hours thinking that these things are getting a lot closer together, we've been timing contractions for the last hour now. Contractions are coming 4-5 minutes apart and lasting an average of about 45 seconds.

Eric had the day off, although he spent some time working from home. (Tomorrow is Tiradentes Day - a national holiday in Brasil - and they bridged it into a 4-day weekend.) Most of the day we've been going about business as usual, taking short little 30-60 second breaks for me to put that hypnobirth relaxation breathing to work and get through the contractions.

Still trying not to get too excited . . . but I'm calling this progress! Since we've already missed his birthday, Eric is holding out hope that I can get this baby birthed in the next four hours so she can be born on his grandpa's and sister's birthday (both born April 20!)

We'll see what happens.