Spring Baby

Pete and I were just talking this morning about how we had always thought we would have a "late winter" baby, but now, she is definitely a Spring baby. We for sure didn't think she would be born in April... and unless I go into labor now and have a pretty quick one, she will be!

A fun thing about today is that three years ago, we got engaged! So, it would be fun if she decided to come today to celebrate with us.

Another thing we've been talking about frequently together is our need for control and how God is just kind of forcing us into patience and trust in Him. I, specifically, had all these plans and expectations for how things would go (thought I might have a 2 week old by now!) and I've had to just surrender those plans to the Lord. And I still don't know what the future holds- it's a moment by moment trust in Him.

We've also been convicted about how eagerly we've awaited her arrival with all sorts of emotions (excitement, frustration, tears...), and how we often don't think of the Lord that way- we don't anticipate His coming like we should.

Another battle I've been facing is choosing to trust the doctors and not worry about our baby, ultimately trusting that our baby is in God's hands. I know He will bring her in His timing and that He has a good plan for her. He loves her more than we do!

With that said, baby has been moving a TON still. Even this morning, she woke me up with her kicks. :) We have another appointment tomorrow for a check-up. The induction is still scheduled for Monday morning if we haven't had her by then. Again, our hope and prayer would be to go naturally, but as we are choosing to trust our doctor and ultimately God, this is what we've chosen.

So, anyways, sorry for the longer post. I felt like it would be a good thing to share some of our feelings over the past few days.

And in case your interested: I'm 11 days past my offical due date, but only 3 days past the average naturally occuring labor. The range of normal gestation accoring to our handy pregnancy books is 38 to 44 weeks... and I'm only at 41 and 5/7 weeks.

Short Update

Hi- okay, we went to the doctor again today. Nothing has changed yet. They monitored me and the baby for awhile and said that everything still looks fantastic and healthy. Since we would like to wait as long as possible to induce we have scheduled another check-up appointment on Thursday, and an induction next Monday. Our hope obviously is that we wouldn't even make it to Thursday. If we do go all the way until Monday (which is really unlikely) then we've asked for them to break the water as the means of induction. Our plan then would be to see what my body does and re-evaluate later if we need to.

I'm still only 9 days "late" at this point, which is normal. And since everything looks good and healthy, there's no need to induce, even if we (and everyone else!) are impatient.

Our prayer request is that labor would start now and we would have this baby naturally today or tomorrow. Pray also that we would trust God for His timing. :)

Sunday

So we're officially in the "super late" category that we had for the poll. However, if we had the baby today we would be in the average for giving birth (a week and a day "late"). I'm mainly just posting because I'm a little bored. I got up this morning and made blueberry muffins, and we are planning to go to the mall later to walk around and amuse ourselves, and really just to get out of the house.

Today is my mom and dad's anniversary- Happy anniversary to them!! They would love it if Lucy showed up as an anniversary gift, but I'm not too optimistic about that. I guess it could happen.

Answers to some commonly asked questions:

• I'm not having any regular (or even real) contractions... I think I'm just having some braxton hicks contractions and mild cramping randomly, mostly at night before I go to bed.
• We would prefer not to induce if that's possible, because there's really no need and I know my body will launch into labor when its ready. We have an appointment tomorrow morning with our doctor who is back in town (yay!) and we'll discuss options with him then.

Fun fact: Statistically, there are more babies born during the full moon because of the gravitational pull. Tomorrow is the full moon (and the day Pete predicted we'll give birth.) We'll see!!

For fun, a short clip of Lucy kicking... sorry about the background music. :)

41 Weeks

Nothing new to update you about. We are still just waiting!

A little progress

We just got back from the doctor's office. The nurse (filling in for our out-of-town doctor) said it seems like I've been having some irregular contractions because I have made a little progress (2 cm and 75% effaced). They also monitored the baby for almost half an hour and everything looked really good.

So the next step (unless I go into labor this weekend!) is an appointment on Monday morning. :) At that appointment the nurse said Dr. Nord will discuss options for inducing since he doesn't like his patients going past 42 weeks. Hopefully we will go into labor naturally within the next few days anyways!

And 3 days later...

Still nothing happening here! Sorry to keep everyone waiting in such suspense. We've been spending the last few days trying to stay relatively busy and getting work done while we can. I've been walking, getting plenty of rest, eating well... we've both been cleaning (Pete vacuumed and dusted our entire place!) and we've been enjoying our time together as just the two of us.

Here are some statistics I've found interesting and comforting this week:

• A Harvard study done in recent years indicated that the length of an uncomplicated (and non-induced) gestation is actually 41 and 1/7 weeks on average. (Right now I am 40 and 5/7 weeks).
  
• Only 3%of babies are born on their due dates.
• 45% of women go past their due dates.
• 15% go past 41 weeks.

It has been very interesting to me as well how many people I know that have told me they were super late. So I feel normal. :)

We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and we will be sure to update with any new news.

We are praying for the Lord to prepare our hearts for this child and to bring her in His perfect timing.

Still Nothing...

So we are officially overdue in case anyone missed that. The due date was yesterday. This was to be expected and it looks like the majority of you all think she will be born in the next 6 days according to our poll results.

We've spent the last couple of days spending some time with our new staff team here in Central Illinois and we just had dinner with Pete's sister Elizabeth. Its nice to spend time with people and a great distraction from just waiting for our baby to arrive.

I really haven't had any regular contractions at all- just Braxton Hicks and some preliminary contractions disguised as cramps and a tummy ache (according to my doctor). So... only God knows when I'll actually get this thing rolling. We pray that its soon!

40 weeks!!

The question is: Will there be a 41st week picture?? :)

Oh and some of you have been asking- the walls of the nursery are a chocolate brown color... not black, and not purple. Our other colors are green and pink.

Friend's Visit and Doctor's Appointment

We were so thankful to have our good friends Jon and Siobhan Syu come visit us for a few days! We had a great time together and it defintely took our minds off of just waiting for this baby to come. :)



We just came back from the doctor and found out that although I am softening, I'm still at 1 cm and 50% effaced. I measured at 40 cm and everything else looked good. Everytime someone checks me they seem surprised that they can feel the head so low, which I think is a good thing at this point. I have been having some cramping and lots of movement which the nurse said was probably my body starting to contract some.

New Poll!

Vote for when you think Michaela will have the baby. -->

This is just for fun obviously. :)

As Promised, Virtual Nursery Tour

Nothing Has Changed

I went to the doctor today and I am still only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. That wasn't what I was expecting, but I'm feeling alright about it. Pete said he was a little disappointed. He said he wanted me to be at 3 cm because that would have given him assurance that I was progressing normally. (I think he's getting anxious too!) We both agreed though that we're okay with it because we still have things we could do before baby arrives... and there is really no use in being impatient. So, I'm probably going to be late and I will spend my last couple of weeks with a good mixture of rest/relaxation, and productivity. :)

39 Weeks... almost

Hi- at the request of my mom, here is a belly picture for (almost) 39 weeks. :) We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will update soon afterwards.

Preparing for her arrival

In anticipation for the arrival of our baby, we finished up our Bradley classes yesterday, made a poster about our birth for the class, made her an early Birth-day cake, and have been sleeping a lot. I guess our bodies know that we won't be getting much sleep once she comes, so they are storing up...?

We also have things packed and ready to go if it happens, knowing full well it could be several more weeks. The nursery is coming along- on Friday Pete's dad is bringing the rest of the furniture, and then we'll do a virtual tour for all of you who are so anxious to see it. :)

For your amusement, here is the poster we made for our Bradley class which shows what we hope our labor will be like. Yes, we have pretty much decided to name her Lucy, which is why the comic strip is titled "Welcome Lucy." I'll leave the poster up to your interpretation. :)

Here is Pete making the delicious Hershey's chocolate butter icing.

Lucy's Birth-day cake. We already ate some of it. We told her she could come out anytime she wants now, since we are prematurely celebrating her birth.

And for everyone who keep asking me how I'm feeling, here's my answer today: Physically tired and sometimes just crampy, achy, and uncomfortable. Emotionally, ready for the baby to come, and anxious/nervous about when that happens, but excited too. She moves so much, and we talk to her a lot, so we feel like we know her already and just want to meet her!

We promise to post every 2 or 3 days, or if anything starts to happen!

Doctor Visit

We had another appointment today. I measured at 39 and the heartbeat was 163. He didn't do an exam to see what the progress is because after last week's exam I had some bleeding that obviously made me uncomfortable. That, plus the fact that an exam now isn't necessary, made him decide to hold off for this week.

So, its still a guessing game on when labor will start. It is definitely something that Pete and I are having to trust the Lord for and be patient with. It could be tomorrow, or it could be another 4 weeks. Whenever it is, we know that it will be God's timing.

One concerning thing we found out today is that our doctor will be out of town on a mission trip to Mexico March 21-28,which is great for him, but means we may have a doctor that we are uncomfortable with... some of the other doctors that fill in have reputations for not complying very well with the wishes of Bradley patients. Dr. Nord assured us though that the ones that fill in for him are respectful of the preferences if his patients. Who knows, maybe we will give birth before or on our due date and we won't have to worry about that!

T-minus 2.5 weeks

We can't believe that it is the month of March! Although our due date is still 2.5 weeks away (March 20th), I could technically have this baby any day now. The baby has dropped, and I have been having more frequent Braxton Hicks contractions preparing my body for labor. We can't wait to meet our little girl!

37.5 Weeks

The Pack n' Play is already set up in our room in anticipation of the first weeks. Many thanks to my handy husband who put it together, along with the stroller and the car seat that he put in the car already.

Books!!

Toys!

A corner of the nursery- the one that is most set up right now.