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Update #2

Let's have a baby

i've always felt extreme pity for those poor pregnant women who have all kinds of contractions, go to the doctor in hopes of being sent on to the hospital, but end up being sent home instead only to face another day of being pregnant.

i am now one of these poor souls.

i had very strong contractions from midnight until 7 am this morning. yup. all night. hardly any sleep for me. with dawn's early light, i guess the contractions decided my hopes were then high enough to be smashed to pieces. the contractions went away. i went to the doctor this morning to learn that i'm 4 cm dilated, 90% effaced, and the kid's head is practically out of me. the doctor didn't really know why i wasn't in active labor since i've progressed so far. he stripped my membranes for me (which i heard was an incredibly painful experience... really don't see it) to hopefully help push me over the edge and sent me home... only after giving me the ridiculously disappointing news of "if nothing continues to happen, we'll induce you next monday." yes. NEXT monday. when i got into my car, i just had to cry.

my womb must rival buckingham palace or something b/c my children never seem to want to leave it.

thanks, due date...

thanks a lot.

Updates

in case you're wondering, i'm still here, still pregnant, still great with child, still incredibly uncomfortable, still technically mother of only a 2 year old. i'm due tomorrow. yesterday through tomorrow is my "convenient time to have a child" time... and that time is already half gone... which makes me nervous. i really thought i was in labor last night and i got pretty excited about it. at about 11:30pm i started having pretty decent contractions every 6 minutes until 1:45am. at that point, they just stopped. nothing. they were gone. all that relaxing and breathing and timing and making a mental list of what still needed to go in my hospital bag, all for nothing. i mean, if i must have painful contractions, can they at LEAST be the real thing? i could have used that time for sleeping... an activity that i will soon be deprived of for at least 2 months. it just seems a little cruel. all i'm sayin'.

some other major events that have gone on in the past few weeks:

2 weeks ago we rushed up to suffolk, virginia b/c chuck's dad suffered a pretty major stroke. it was a very scary time. but he had an amazing recovery over that weekend. he went from bleeding on the brain friday morning to eating scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast on sunday. he has since moved out of the ICU and been doing some physical and speech therapy, and should be sent home pretty soon. hopefully he'll be able to hold his grandson very very VERY soon!

well, this might not be major, but it was pretty upsetting to me. last saturday evening, our dog nan ran away. she's a husky, and if anyone knows anything about huskies, they love to run and not look back. we're living in a very busy suburban area now and losing a dog next to all these major roads is pretty nerve wracking. she didn't come back that night and chuck and i slept downstairs in the den with the hopes of hearing a scratch at the door... no luck. on monday morning i called around to animal shelters and found a website where you can post about lost and found pets... LUCK! a really nice lady picked her up and took great care of her for us. so she's back... for now...

hopefully my next post will have something in it like "he's here" or "here's lucas" or "he finally came out". well, let's just say i'm not planning on posting again until i can say something along those lines... so hopefully i'll post again in like 15 hours... but i'm not holding my breath.

bring on the pain, let's have a baby!!

THE STATS

i went to the doctor again yesterday (i'm going once a week now) and the doctor checked out my progress. she said i'm between 2 to 3 cm dilated, 50 % effaced, and the baby's head is at -2 (which is about as low as you can get without actually coming out for a visit). the doctor was actually touching my son's head yesterday. they still don't expect me to go too early since rachel was late, but i'm all for getting as much as this done as possible before actual labor pains!

i've been pretty bad about getting set up for this little man, but i've been trying to put forth a better effort the past couple days. the fact that i'll potentially have a brand new baby to hold any day now seems much more real now that rachel's old baby swing is all set up in our den, ready to rock 24/7 if the need arises. (i could NOT have survived rachel's newbornhood without this wonderful wonderful swing!) he's really coming!

i just put rachel to bed. i try to remember to say prayers with her before bed so she can learn the habit (it's also a good habit for me!). rachel has learned a little prayer song from her aunt melissa that we always sing before we eat and now whenever i say it's time to pray she automatically sings it. it's to the tune of "are you sleeping, brother john"

thank you, Jesus. thank you, Jesus.
for our food. for our food.
help us to obey You. help us to obey You.
Amen. Amen.

she can sing it all by herself, every word, with no help, and sometimes she even folds her hands and closes her eyes.

well tonight, i told her we needed to pray for her pa-pa to get better, who is in the hospital. she automatically started to sing her little song about food... or so i thought. she made the following alterations all by herself:

thank you, Jesus. thank you, Jesus.
for our pa-pa. for our pa-pa.
help us to obey You. help us to pa-pa.
A-pa-pa. A-pa-pa.

what can you even say about this? i think it must be the sweetest thing that's ever happened or going to happen... ever.