Well we still don't have a baby - yet. We did however get the chance to go out to Jeanne's studio and she took some photos of us. I guess one nice thing that's come out of our little guy's delay is that we got the chance to get some real nice photos before his birth which I'm sure will be great to have for years to come...
Jeanne also provided Joellen with a 17" Powerbook G4 to use for photo editing and what not which will be a huge blessing to her. I'm sure she'll be spending the better part of tomorrow getting it all set up, unless of course she is in active labor in which case, it will just have to wait. By the way, if Asher decides to make his appearance tomorrow, he'll be a leap year baby! How crazy would that be? Seems as good a day as any to me :)
Oh and yes; The part about the few less pounds. Well I've been trying to watch what I eat lately since in January, I reached a ridiculous (for my height) 195 lbs. The thought of reaching 200 lbs was unpleasant enough for me to start paying attention to my weight. So anyway, after about a week of not being at work, I went back to work yesterday and lo and behold, when I went to put my belt on, it was way too lose! I had to punch a new hole in my belt over an inch down from the tightest hole on the belt. Man that felt good. As of this writing I am down to 179 lbs and falling :)
Alright, well I guess I'll try and get some sleep and hope to be awakened by Joellen telling me it's time to go!
We'll keep you all posted...
Blessings.
Ok so here's an update on the last few days:
That's right. A whole lot of nothing. Well not really; Jo and I have both been very busy with design and photo work and trying to keep our minds off the fact that we're still pregnant :) I decided to go back to work while we wait for something to happen...
Asher was at zero station on Sunday when we went in to the hospital which seems strange to me. Well not that he's at zero station, but that nothing's happened since then. How long can a kid hang out mid-pelvis like that? Seems he ought to be a tad uncomfortable. But then I guess he's probably been uncomfortable for a while. Does anyone know if that's normal?
I don't know if they induce over something like that or not. The people at the hospital didn't seem to think it had to happen right away, at least when we were there on Sunday. I don't know - maybe I'm looking for a reason to get this kid out of there...
By the way, I'm still looking for a new job that will help us make ends meet. I have a few design jobs out there pending which should help but I'm just not bringing in much from AT&T. I met with our District Manager whom I've known for a while about other opportunities within the company, but the problem is that due to certain restructuring measures within the company, most salaries are based on income from the previous year, leaving me without too many options. As for Goldstreet, I've been working as much as possible for them, but not gleaning much there either. Anyway, please pray for wisdom for us and that the Lord would present the right opportunities for our family and give us the discernment to know them when we see them.
Thanks again for all your support and we look forward to posting a baby photo on here one day soon!
Thank you for your kind comments. Jo and I made it almost halfway through mom's poem before we got choked up and had to pause... We're both a little frayed already and we've only just begun. Anyway, we asked our Doula Margy to come over yesterday afternoon and she recommended we get some sleep while we can - so we did. We slept until about 11:30 PM when we both found ourselves wide awake. Joellen's contractions were getting stronger and we thought, "Good, things are moving along." So we waited around at home until about 1:30 AM when Jo's contractions felt strong enough to justify going in to the Hospital. We both were very excited to find out how far dilated and effaced Jo was since the last time she'd been checked was early Friday afternoon.
So we called Margy and met her at the Hospital only to find out she had not dilated any further since Friday! They hooked Jo up to the monitor and watched her contractions for a bit. She had some pretty good ones while were there but they seemed a bit erratic. After being on the monitor a while, Margy suggested a walk up and down the hall so we headed out to walk around the birthing center. Joellen must have thought there was a trophy or prize on the line because she speed-walked for a while up and down the hall as I tried to keep up.
Anyway, we were sent home within a couple hours and both slept pretty well through the rest of the night / morning. Right now we've little indication whether she will be going into active labor today or 2 weeks from now. We've resolved to try and live our lives as though we weren't waiting for this baby (wish us luck). Joellen's folks are in town from Coos Bay but have to leave later today so it looks like another trip is inevitable for them.
I guess that's it for now. We'll keep you all posted as things move along and thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.
Well folks, it's been a bit of a lull between updates here. Not much to report, unfortunately, because not much has happened! Joellen's contractions have not really been picking up and it seems like they may even have slowed a bit. Here is a photo taken right before one of the many trips we've taken around town this week thinking it would be our last before Asher's arrival. I Guess not ... (Notice Joellen is still smiling - According to the Doc, she won't be smiling when "the time" comes).
Anyway, please pray for us, two of the most impatient people I know. We don't do so well with this level of ambiguity about when the baby will arrive. We trust the Lord will bring things about in His perfect timing, although it's hard not to wish for some hint as to when that timing might be :)
Also, it's been very difficult to know what to do in the meantime. I've been trying to work on a website for Margy (our Doula - who agreed to trade services with us) and Joellen's been trying to stay busy but it's hard to focus on anything else at this point. I have taken a couple days off work already thinking we were having a baby this week. Although today and tomorrow are my regularly scheduled weekend, I will probably need to go back to work on Tuesday if we still have no baby to avoid using up all my vacation time before Asher is born.
Thank you to all of you for your incredible support so far. We will try and keep all of you posted and of course, check back here anytime. Will today be the day?
We hope to have some good news for you all soon... In the meantime why don't we do this - Anyone know any tricks to kick this labor into the next phase? Any ideas on how to deal with the mental and emotional side of the perpetual waiting? Want to contribute a thought, poem, verse or prayer? Share your thoughts by clicking on "comments" or "post a comment" right below this entry - We'd love to hear from you!
Until next time...
So yesterday was discouraging - or so we thought :-) My contractions hadn't picked up really, and in the afternoon they were actually slowing down. We had started to get our hopes up despite being told it could still be a while but when you're expecting your first baby it's next to impossible to not hope for the soonest, easiest delivery. I had my original Dr's appointment for this morning but was thinking I wouldn't go since I wasn't planning on going to the retreat anyway but Mark convinced me to go. He figured at least we could see if all these light contractions that were making me tired were actually doing anything.
We were in and out of the clinic in less than 15 minutes! And, we heard some great news! My cervix has dropped, I'm 80% effaced and about 2-3 cm :-) I know, it's not huge progress for 2 days of contractions but at least I'm in almost no pain. I say almost b/c my back is starting to get tired and now, after the exam, I'm starting to at least feel a bit grumpy and not completely comfortable. I know, weird that being uncomfortable can be a good thing!
So, we'll go to the doctor again later today (as long as my contractions continue) and if I'm somewhere between 4-5 cm then we'll take off to the hospital! My Dr said that if things don't progress enough today he still thinks it will probably be this weekend... so crazy!!! During this whole pregnancy we didn't really think it would be this soon but now we are so excited about it! We're past the point of getting our hopes up now :-)
Alright, well, I'm a bit tired and we definitely need to get at least one good meal in before I get too cranky and hopefully another brisk walk. We'll be keeping in touch... thanks for all the prayers!
Well the past two days have been sort of fun :-) I realized I was having contractions (not major ones though) and they continued on for over a day so I went to my doctor. This morning, he said I was about 50% effaced and about 1 cm dialated. Sounds great.... but who knows how long until I actually progress into active labor. My contractions are still steady, a little bit stronger but not painful yet. Sure, it would be awesome if I got to 3 or even further without knowing it really, but I'm not going to count on it! Either way, I'm super excited to see that my body and baby are getting ready for this birthing event to actually come to pass!
I've got almost everything I need! When I got the diaper bag from my mom I realized that there was nothing else I was in desperate need of before Asher appears... crazy! Mark and I are both excited, a little anxious but not really nervous though. The birthing classes definitely helped ease our worries and it's nice to at least have an idea of how all this might progress.
It's too bad though, I have to miss the women's retreat for our church - and I was SO looking forward to it! It's over 1 1/2 hours away and my doctor would really prefer me to just stay relatively close to the hospital and I can't imagine it would be fun for my contractions to kick up in the middle of the night out in the middle of nowhere!
Now I have been warned, this could go off and on for a few weeks - but I'm praying it won't! I can't imagine living in this state of anticipation for too many days. And poor Mark - at work he is just a wreck :-) Hopefully he can find ways to stay busy and keep his mind of how I'm doing. We'll see how tomorrow goes... he has the day off so at least we can hang out and talk all about the next few weeks and enjoy the idea of getting to meet our boy! Yay!
We'd love all the prayer we can get... not even for an easy or pain free labor (though that would be nice) we just really would like to avoid a c-section if we can. Maybe going a few weeks early will help with that... who knows! It's so funny to think that God already knows the course of events that will come to pass.... it makes it easier to just sit and watch what happens.
Anyway, we'll let you all know how things progress... and trust me, we'll put photos up as soon as we are able... probably within a few hours of the birth. Mark can do the grunt work while I rest :-) I can't wait to share the new life of our son with all of you!!!
Both of my baby showers were so wonderful. We were so blessed to get so much stuff for Asher - and such a wide variety too! Almost no duplicates, and some of the real essentials that we feared we would be spending lots of $$$ on. We definitely recognize the blessing of the Lord in this time... I don't know what we would be doing if we hadn't so generously received from all of you... probably freaking out!
Anyway, I had a shower in Yamhill that my mother-in-law helped arrange and then my Mom in Coos Bay put one together as well. I definitely am set on clothes for at LEAST the first 9 months of Asher's life :-) And Tracy (sis) and her bf bought us the stroller we really wanted... I can't wait to use it!
Everything is going pretty well - just work for Mark, me working for Jeanne and doing a few random photo shoots on the side. I did some photos for the Valentine's Dinner that Calvary Chapel in McMinnville put on. It was really great, and I learned some incredibly valuable lessons about doing photo work in that type of atmosphere.
Oh, about Mark's work. He's looking at another job within the company... there are some lose ends that may or may not work out but it would be a great opportunity (especially if we could get the salary we need) but it's all really up in the air right now. If you don't mind praying, we can really use any prayer we can get!
I'm sleeping a bit better - probably just from all the activity and running around getting things in order :-) But I'll take the sleep as it comes - I'm sure to find a shortage of it again soon! But we're really excited to be in the final month... we're not sure what to expect and it's funny thinking it could just start any day now. I have so many plans but I'll have to just relax and trust that God knows when the perfect day is for Asher to arrive!
Alright, that's it for now... thanks again for all your generous giving... we are so blessed!
Oh and yes; The part about the few less pounds. Well I've been trying to watch what I eat lately since in January, I reached a ridiculous (for my height) 195 lbs. The thought of reaching 200 lbs was unpleasant enough for me to start paying attention to my weight. So anyway, after about a week of not being at work, I went back to work yesterday and lo and behold, when I went to put my belt on, it was way too lose! I had to punch a new hole in my belt over an inch down from the tightest hole on the belt. Man that felt good. As of this writing I am down to 179 lbs and falling :)
