Labor?

So I've been having what I call cramping for a week or so... but nothing painful, just uncomfortable crampy periodically.   Yesterday I had cramping a lot. Most of the day. But still nothing painful, just uncomfy. We went to dinner at some friend's house last and that is when I noticed that it was more difficult to walk when I was getting these "cramps" and kind of when I realized they were probably contractions and not so much cramps.  I timed them a bit, but they were very sporadic, so I ignored it and went to bed.

I woke up at 3 in the morning with painful cramping... or contractions that I couldn't ignore. So I started timing them.  They were between 2 -10 minutes apart, so I tried to go back to sleep. I woke up an hour later to pee and I lost my mucous plug! It was definitely one big plug of bloody show mucous...  Sounds wonderful, huh?

Here is some Internet research on this bloody show for those who are like, what the heck... :

Bloody Show — What It Is"Bloody show," a pink- or brown-tinged stringy mucus discharge, is a sign that your cervix is dilating and/or effacing. This is a definite signal that you're well on your way toward labor and delivery.

Bloody Show — What Causes It

This "passage" means the blood vessels in the cervix are rupturing as the cervix begins to open up. (This is a good, normal thing.)

Bloody Show — What You Need to Know

If you've experienced the bloody show, you can usually expect to go into labor within the next several days — unless you're a fast starter, in which case you could be going into labor within the next several hours. (Nice and predictable, right?) In general, though, bloody show means you can hurry up and wait. And you won't know for sure that labor has arrived until you feel those first real labor contractions. So when you see that bloody show, get ready — but don't head out the door just yet.

So as you can imagine, I've found it hard to go back to sleep since then. I'm now in the living room on a birthing ball listening to country music and hanging out with the cat... timing my contractions. They are lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to a little over a minute and happening 2-8 minutes apart.  I'm thinking of eating some cereal... although I'd really like to vacuum and take a shower... but don't want to wake up Ryan unless it is the real deal. :)  So there you have it... I think I'm in labor!