Pain in the ribs

Is it labor if it falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it?

So I am a wee bit unsure if what I am feeling is labor or just me freaking the freak out about The Blob sticking his little ass into my ribs.

The situation thus far: Today we got home from Costco around 1:05 p.m. and I was minding my own business eating my hotdog (hey, you can't beat $1.50 for a dog and a soda) and surfing the Internets when I noticed the left side of my ribs was KILLING ME.

Which is nothing new with this pregnancy. The Blob, he likes inflicting the pain.

So I am IMing my mom and telling her about how my ribs and my back hurt, and she asks me if they are in any pattern. I say "Noooo, they are just rib pains." But then I think about it and they do kind of seem to come and go, lasting a minute or so with each.

Now normally, in the "Contraction/Not a Contraction" game, I would say "not a contraction" because it's really high up and you know, not involving the cramping or the cervical area.

But the last time I was in Labor and Delivery, these same pains were showing up as contractions on the monitor. Huh.

So I timed them for two hours and yep, still there, and yep, about every two minutes lasting a minute. Huh.

So we (read: me, Josh did not want anything) decided to mosey on over to Starbucks and took a little jaunt around the 'hood with stops at Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel. I told him either the pain would go away if they were not real contractions, or they would continue if they were. And while out, I noticed the pain, sometimes a lot lower, but nothing major. Huh.

OK, so we come back home and I sit down at the computer and the pain, it returns. So here we are, blogging and surfing and generally ignoring the fact this may or may not be the beginning of labor.

I'll tell you what though. Tomorrow is my birthday. I really don't want to share with The Blob. But I really really want to go out to dinner tonight and tomorrow night. So I shall ignore these freaky ass pains for as long as possible.