Hey Ali! I planned to work to the day I gave birth, and I pretty much did. I wanted to optimize my time at home with the baby, and taking vacation days before Mat leave screws up EI somehow. So, I worked til June 17, 8pm. And I was in labour at the time, but thought I just had a lot of Braxton hicks. That night my feet swelled bad and I went to the hospital thinking something was wrong with me. Ends up I was 3cm dilated. So they sent me home. I was in labour all the next day, went at the end of the day and was still 3cm. They said I could go on like that for a while (at 4cm they consider that real Labour not pre-labour). That night was HORRIBLE. I couldn't sleep for the contractions. We went to the hospital Sunday morning, and I was 5cm. I was also exhaused. So they broke my water to speed it up so I didn't have to suffer much longer, as I hadn't slept for more than 24 hours. They broke my water at 2pm, and I had Eve at 7:55pm, drug and epidural free...on Father's Day!
In retrospect, I really should have taken a couple weeks off ahead, but since Eve was almost 4 weeks early, it wouldn't have made any difference for me. Next time I will book off at least 2 weeks early. I just didn't want to be sitting around, if Eve was late, wasting my mat leave time waiting for baby to arrive. Most first babies are late, and if I took off 2 weeks, then waited 2 weeks...that's a month of sitting around WAITING...which would have killed me. So I figured better to keep busy, and since I sit on my butt at work, it's not a bad thing.
That's so exciting that you're starting your classes. E-mail me a pg pic!!