As a Mother’s Day surprise, Jeff arranged for the Region 4 champion quartet Chatterbox (barbershop) to sing with and to me last night. It was a lot of fun. I think the other patients and the staff enjoyed it too. They did finally get kicked out because a new inmate, I mean patient, was admitted yesterday evening who had high blood pressure, and she needed her rest. It was nice to be able to sing fun barbershop harmony again.

One of the members of the quartet also brought me dinner in the form of a Subway sandwich (with chips and a cookie). It was delicious. I had already ordered my dinner (I do that in the morning at breakfast), so I gave my dinner to Jeff and Rachel. It was meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. Rachel has always been a little bit suspect when it comes to eating her vegetables, but last night she really enjoyed the green beans a lot. She gave me a bite first, then proceeded to stuff the entire bean in her mouth, then reached for more. She ended up eating probably 5 or 6 beans. She also ate my banana (which I had gotten at lunch and saved for her). She has never had a problem with bananas, but I was very glad to see her eating the green beans.

I am finding it to be extremely frustrating to figure out this whole “real contractions” thing. Last night when I was on the monitor I thought I felt contractions, but it turns out it was just “irritability.” (Irritability is like a contraction that lasts less than 40 seconds.) This morning kind of the same thing happened, but the nurse did say I had three contractions during the hour or so I was on the monitor. When the nurse took me off I rolled over and immediately had a very strong contraction. It wasn’t painful, but it was definitely strong. As soon as she walked out the door I started feeling some cramping. I called her back in, and she immediately sent me to the bathroom, then put me back on the monitor. Wouldn’t you know as soon as I was back on, no more contractions. (There did continue to be a lot of irritability, but I guess that doesn’t really count.)

Dr. Schweichler came to see me this morning after all the excitement. I expressed to her my concern about going home before the baby is born, but she didn’t think it would be an issue. She figures the baby will come first. I am hoping she is born a week from Sunday. That would give her nearly a full 36 weeks, but I wouldn’t have to worry about knowing when to come back. She thought that was an admirable goal. I voted 37 weeks on the poll, and I’m not going to change it, but I’m really hoping that baby Gaby is born on May 24.