like father, like son -or- like mother, like son

Well, here it is September 17th and I still have a baby inside of me!!! I had my 40 week appointment this morning with the doctor and the following accounts for the current "conditions" (sounds like I am talking about the weather!):

I am one centimeter dilated and my cervix is 30-40% effaced (cervix thinning). I have been having mild contractions which I thought were strong cramps; however, the doctor confirmed they were contractions as I was having one on the table while being examined! Everyone told me that I would definitely know the difference between the two, so I didn't even give it a second thought that my "cramps" were mild contractions. The doctor was able to strip my membranes -basically the doctor scrapes the inner lining of the cervix with the finger and separates the fetal membranes away from the cervix (once again, not such a pleasant experience). The doctor also said that I could walk as much as I could to my own comfort level (since the hernia only effects my comfort and not the baby's well being).

Sooo, after my appointment Tim and I took a trip to CostCo and went up and down every isle. We took Nahla to the dog park for some exercises and arrived back home not too long ago. We are now just doing random things around the house to keep ourselves busy (I paid some bills and Tim is killing some brain cells playing video games). I have had spotting and have had stronger contractions since arriving home; and although there is no way to truly know when things will progress, I think there is a pretty good chance that we will go to the hospital some time in the next 12 - 24 hours (lets keep our fingers crossed for that)!

The standing joke in our household is that if the baby comes on time (i.e. sometime today) then he is more like his father; however, if the baby comes after today then he is more like his mother (since I have a propensity to be late). I said that if he is truly like me, then he won't come until Wednesday!!! Lets hope he has some of his father's "timing" tendencies!

I will be sure to post any new/relevant information as it becomes available. However, once again you can probably expect to not hear from me until after our Peanut is here!

I hope this finds all of you doing well!!
Love,
Jenn