A Tale of Two Pregnancies

I'm sitting here trying to decide which is more agonizing, the way my first pregnancy ended or the way this one is shaping up to?  With my first child I went one week past my due date with no signs of going into labor whatsoever until it actually happened.  I was swollen and had slightly elevated blood pressure for the last two weeks and was dilated about 2 cm, but otherwise I didn't have any increase in Braxton Hicks contractions, no bloody show, nothing.  This time around I have had an increase in strength and number of Braxton Hicks contractions for three weeks.  They are at the point now that my stomach feels like a bowling ball it gets so hard during them (which is very uncomfortable and at times even crampy and painful).  For at least the past two weeks I have been 2 cm dilated with her head at station zero and almost fully effaced, have had bloody show on and off, most recently about four days ago, have felt nauseated, had stomach issues, had cramps, and had a few days of increased energy that sometimes happens right before labor and still, nothing.  I have lived every day of my life for the past three weeks expecting that change in the contractions from just tight and uncomfortable to building and painful.  I know what active labor feels like this time.  I also know that how I have felt for the last three weeks is only how I felt on the actual day that Peyton was born.  With Peyton my water broke, giving me evidence that labor was going to start some time within 24 hours and only then did I have the massive increase in strength and frequency of the Braxton Hicks.  I can't guarantee I'll get that sign again since it apparently only happens before labor starts in something like 10-15% of women.  All I know is I'm becoming more impatient, more moody the longer this drags on.  My actual due date is tomorrow, that completely arbitrary number that really doesn't mean anything, that so many people are fixated on, that is 40 weeks from the start of your last period before conception.  Only 4-5% of babies are born that day (I'm going to caveat that with naturally) so the chance of having her tomorrow is slim to none.  If I was sitting here in the same boat as I was with Peyton, nearing my due date but without the contractions, gastric misery, fatigue, and the last three midwives I saw predicting I would go early, would I be so bitter and impatient?  Maybe, but sometimes ignorance is bliss.