MEMORY LANE

I thought it might be fun to showcase a couple of photos of Mommy and Daddy when we were babies. Can you guess which adorable baby is which in each of our photos? (-: Or maybe you can use your imaginations to guess what Baby Z will look like at his or her first photo shoot.

NO NEWS IS... JUST NO NEWS

I had my 40 week OB visit today. I have put on 35 pounds throughout the entire ordeal and after lots of poking, my doctor estimated I have about a 7 1/2 pound little bundle of joy just waiting to come out. However... virtually nothing (measurable) has changed since last week. The baby still has quite a bit of dropping to do, and I remain only 1cm dilated. The doctor prescribed more walking, continuing my happy disposition, and another appointment in 6 days. If nothing exciting has happened by then, she'll schedule an ultrasound and a non-stress test for the 7th day past 'due' to ensure that the baby is handling the extra time okay. Hopefully the tests will confirm that we can continue to wait on the baby and my body to sync up until they determine the new due date on their own time, instead of having to turn to medicinal induction. Above all, though, we will do what we believe is healthiest for the baby based on the situation.

As for now, we are continuing to wait... though I'll admit I'm a bit of a cheater when it comes to patience and waiting. For example, I've been cycling through these two conflicting prayers to God. The first one goes, "Dear Lord, please continue to keep our baby healthy, and please bring him/her into this world safely and in Your time and by Your hand, without the need for human intervention". The second sounds more like, "Dear Lord, PLEASE bring this baby NOW, no matter what condition he/she is in!" I'm thinking it's a good thing we have an omnipotent, all-knowing God... I don't know what other type of God I'd be willing to trust in de-coding all my prayers! Either way, this lesson is patience is probably a great precursor to parenthood. (-:

In other news, today Grandma Amy came over for dinner and a sleep-over while Rich is on-call in case I need anything. We had a great girls' night together, but now I'm gearing up for work in the morning in case nothing exciting happens. I also called Grandpa Dean and Uncle Tim today to let them know that the baby waited on them while they've been out of town, so it looks like most everyone should be around for the big birth-day. And lastly, I'm finally feeling pretty confident that my little house is in order, so I'll have no reason to stress about unfinished projects when we leave for the hospital or about motherly guests staying in a messy home when we return.

Welp; thanks for your willingness to read a bit of a 'boring' update... I kind of needed to get the non-news off my chest. (-: We'll do our best to keep everyone posted via texts or calls when the real news hits. Goodnight.

Just a little reminder about who we're waiting on... (-:

PSALM 37:7

What a fast summer it's been! I've been dying to update the blog and post a bunch of baby preparation photos for the last few weeks, but I was held up by the temporary loss of my camera. Thankfully the camera is found (who would have thought it would be buried in my hospital bag... silly me!) Since most of you have been calling or texting about updates lately you already know how everything's going, so I'll keep the wording to this blog short(er) and focus mainly on supplying our pictures.

Our baby is due in... FOUR DAYS!!... and I am becoming very impatient about meeting him or her. At the last OB visit the doctor proclaimed us quite healthy once again and told us everything's coming along normally. I was 1cm dilated, 50% effaced (thinned out), and the baby was nestled down at a -2 station. There's probably not much chance of me delivering any earlier than expected, but my Braxton Hick's contractions (warm-up or fake contractions) have been coming more frequently and getting me all excited throughout the days and nights. It's now just a BIG waiting game!

Throughout our last few weeks of waiting Rich and I have managed to keep very busy. Rich is in the middle of his OB rotation and he's on-call (working 24hour shifts) about every 3 days. It's been a very draining schedule for him, but he's handling it quite well. He's been sleeping a lot a home and he's had a great time getting to know the charge nurses at work (who are all very excited about our upcoming delivery). Meanwhile, I too have been working, in my new position as the Mental Health Therapist for a nearby rural school district. I see kids in grades K through 12 and I work about 15 hours a week. It's been absolutely great! On the weekends we've managed to fit in fun time with some of the other residents and local friends, a pre-birthday celebration with our Bradley Class, a visit from a great college friend, 2 beautiful weddings in or near Wisconsin, and I've been blessed by family and friends with 2 baby showers. And to top it all off, Rich, Grandma Tam, Uncle Jason, Aunty 'Mandy and I all teamed up one weekend to pull the baby's room together. Uncle Jason spent hours measuring off stripes for the walls while the rest of us followed with green paint. Amanda and I then created an 'Under the Sea' mural to finish it all off. It's been a whirl-wind!

Thank you all for your patience with the 'Non-Blog' as of late, since I haven't kept it updated. We hope you enjoyed the photos... and we can't wait to share pictures of the BABY when he or she finally arrives. You will all receive a phone call when we head to the hospital and/or when we have a new family member to announce. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts during this time.