“The baby won’t budge. Nothing seems to be working to get labour going,” MJ chatted with me as she walked to the grocery store this morning. “Not spicy food, not walking. I was even jumping up and down. Nothing”

“That sucks. At least you don’t have menstrual cramps,” I commiserated.

“Hey, wait…something feels weird down there.”

“Weird how? Like water-breaking wet weird?”

“Weird. Wet, yeah. I dunno. Let me pop into this store and use their toilet to check. I’ll call you back.”

15 very long minutes later (I paced the house with keitai in hand waiting for it to ring), MJ called back. She was damp but not the water-breaking gush she imagined. Since she had no idea what was going on she went home, had a shower and a closer look at things. After a trip to her clinic later in the afternoon, she learned that she has a slow leak but isn’t dilated enough to go into labour. She is on antibiotics with instructions to come back on Thursday.

If you want to keep up on the proceedings, check out MJ’s special pregnancy blog, Wombquake. She’s set it up so she can post from her phone in the clinic after delivery. Tracey and I will be guest posting as needed in the next few days while we are down there in Kanagawa with her.