I experienced my first....

CONTRACTION today. Talk about stop-in-your-tracks pain! I was home for lunch, making Taylor a sandwich and talking to my dad and then it came, out of nowhere. I've been asked if it was a Braxton Hicks or a contraction--I don't know, aren't they both a contraction? Obviously it wasn't active labor because I'm still home and not at a hospital and there was only one....so...needless to say, I walked away from this contraction thinking two things...1) how in the world are you supposed to relax when having a contraction?? and 2) if that's what it is going to be like, I am getting an epidural! For those of you who don't know...I am really trying to NOT get an epidural. Yes, yes, let the comments come....but really, (ok, this is the pre-contraction Val talking now) you see the women who have had babies and they're ok--they aren't in pain anymore, the pain is temporary, so why spend the money on an epidural when the pain won't last?? (I told you, this is the PRE-contraction Val talking) But after today--yeah, that has changed. I JUST THINK...if I can do it without an epidural, great, but if labor can't progress because I don't have an epidural a.k.a. I can't relax, then I am getting an epidural. Period.