Contractions!

I was awakened this morning by contractions - they feel pretty much like menstrual cramps. This was after not too much sleep, since Jenny's brother arrived after midnight last night, so after breakfast I successfully went back to bed for a bit. I posted a recently accepted paper on astro-ph, the astronomy preprint server (thus impressing my adviser, and distracting her from the other paper that will not be submitted before the baby), painted chartreuse hippos on a couple of onesies, and took another nap. Now we have just returned from a very long walk around Queen Anne, featuring multiple flights of stairs, intended to get things moving along. The not-too-frequent, not-too-intense stage of early labor can apparently last for a while, so I am anticipating not much happening until tomorrow at least. Jenny's brother is making us crepes for dinner - we are very glad that he has arrived.