Still waiting...

We went to the doctor this morning. I am still dilated to one centimeter which is no progress from Sunday. I had another round of contractions through the night last night. I am pretty tired today, but the contractions have stopped again. Dr. Newman said that my guess is as good as his as to when she will decide to come. He didn't think it'd be today though. I am supposed to continue resting and doing kick counts to make sure Lainey is doing OK. We'll be going in tomorrow to the hospital for another round of monitoring. I will be 42 weeks on Tuesday and the doctor said that it is dangerous to continue waiting past that point. Lainey will be safer on the outside after that. His scheduler is going to call me today to set up a date for next week to induce when he will be available. It will probably be Sunday night for delivery on Monday. She still has a few days to decide to come on her own. I am hoping it won't be tomorrow, but it just might be! Apparently I am the most pregnant person my doctor has had since he opened his new practice more than a year ago. Glad I could be the one. :) In the meantime, I'm trying not to be discouraged and just rest. I suppose I have waited for three years to get pregnant and then nine months to get to this point, so what's a few more days?

We are moving in the right direction!

Last night after dinner my back started to hurt and I had really bad heartburn. We settled down at home and watched some reruns of The Office and I started to feel better. That was a little disappointing since I'd hoped the back pain was the start of something. Then at about 12:30 I started feeling really nauseous. That rolled into more back pain, and the start of contractions! They weren't terrible but they were enough to keep me awake and uncomfortable. So I thought we were really on our way, but Lainey decided she wasn't quite ready yet. I fell asleep at about 5 and woke up feeling better with no more contractions. But I think we are moving in the right direction. I lost the mucus plug last night, and that should mean that we are really close. I am just hoping and praying that she comes by tomorrow. I would really rather that she's not born on Halloween and I think if she doesn't make it by tomorrow then we'll be having a Trick or Treat baby.

I still feel kind of sick to my stomach. So I think I might take it light on the meals today. Nothing sounds good anyway and I really don't want to eat anything that is going to be terrible to have coming back out. We have a few errands to run that I could pass on, but I think I will go to keep moving and hopefully encourage Lainey to scoot! Please pray that we have real labor sometime today so that she can get here soon!!

This morning's tests

Everything looks good! My amniotic fluid level went up to 7.7 cm and Lainey scored another 8/8 on the biophysical profile. She's already a straight A student. :) We will go see the doctor on Thursday morning and then possibly go in to the hospital for another round of monitoring depending on what Dr. Newman says.

I have been having some contractions, but they are still nothing to get excited about. We are trying to determine when to induce if it should come to that. With Halloween on Friday, I am definitely not interested in inducing Thursday night. We may induce on Sunday night, but I will still be short of 42 weeks by then. And as long as Lainey continues to show good vital signs on her monitoring tests, I am hesitant to push her to come out earlier than she wants to.

Our plan is to take a little trip to Costco this afternoon and maybe grab dinner and a movie. We will just be waiting for the signs that she's ready to come out! It's getting harder and harder to be patient though!

No news...

Nothing exciting happened today. I wasn't going to post an update, but I was afraid some people would think I didn't update because I was having Lainey. :) Not today. We will be going tomorrow around 11 am to recheck my amniotic fluid and Lainey's status. John has been predicting she would come tomorrow, so we'll see if he's right. We are all getting pretty antsy waiting for her to decide to come. I will update tomorrow afternoon after our monitoring at the hospital. Hope you are all having a great week so far.

Another day gone by!

We went to church this morning and had some friends over for lunch today. I was a little bit worried that my water was leaking today, so we decided to go to the hospital to get checked out. I wanted to be safe even though I wasn't sure there was anything to be worried about.

They said that my amniotic sac appears to be intact. They also had me on the monitor again. Lainey's heartbeat was very steady and strong throughout the time we were on the monitor. I had a few contractions, but still nothing that is painful. They decided to do an ultrasound to check to make sure that I still have enough amniotic fluid. When you go past your due date, loss of amniotic fluid is possible and an indicator of placental function. My fluid levels were a little bit low. I was at 6 cm of fluid. Lower than 5 is dangerous, over 10 is normal. 6-8 cm is what they called a "gray area" in terms of how to proceed. Since we were in that gray area, they had the ultrasound tech come back to do a biophysical profile test on Lainey. They said that this test helps to prove that the placenta is functioning well enough to support the baby. To pass, you have to have a pocket of amniotic fluid that is at least 2 cm, the baby has to show practice breaths, flexion and extension of an arm or leg, and trying to roll over. They have 30 minutes to do all these things. Lainey did it all in about 5 minutes.

Since she is showing such healthy signs, the on-call doctor said we should come back for a repeat of the biophysical profile and heart monitor on Tuesday morning and Thursday morning, then see my regular doctor on Thursday. Of course, she could decide to come at any point. I am now dilated to one centimeter, so we are making progress!

Other than being overfull from eating Olive Garden tonight, I am still feeling pretty good. I think we will get a good night's sleep tonight and see what tomorrow brings.

A Haiku for Lainey

Not much news to report today, but I thought I'd share the haiku our friend Steven Payne wrote for Lainey:

A Haiku for Lainey....

This might persuade you
The world is bigger out here
Your Dad has a Wii

Thanks Steve-o!

If the haiku doesn't work, we are having pizza tonight... will it do the trick??

Apparently I am a little too comfortable

...for Lainey!

We went for the NST this morning and it showed a happy baby! Her heart rate responded perfectly to all her movements and I did have one small contraction during the test which she did fine with as well. We went to the doctor's after the NST and found out that I am 100% effaced, although still not dilated. This is good news since it means I've progressed some from Tuesday, so at least things are moving in the right direction... just slowly. Our plan from here is to continue waiting for her timing. Meanwhile we will be checking on her status with NST's twice a week. If she doesn't come this weekend, I am planning to go on Monday and Thursday of next week for NST's. We will have another doctor's appointment on Thursday to see how things are going and that will be my last OB appointment. If she hasn't come by then, we will decide on an induction date (probably Sunday night/Monday morning). The doctor doesn't think I'll last until then though. We'll see when she decides her birthday should be.

As for me, I am feeling fine. I have a little bit of anxiety about how she's doing, but the NST this morning did a lot to reassure me. Other than a sore back, I am doing great. We will probably try for another walk tonight when it cools off a bit. Maybe that will get things moving. I think I'll try almost anything (except Castor oil... blech). Thanks for all your sweet emails and comments. It's nice to know we have so many people praying for us!

The freezer is full, but the bun is still in the oven.

Mom and I spent the entire day cooking. We made chicken and dumplings, asiago cheese mashed potatoes, and pasties (a kind of meat pie, turnover style). The pasties took forever to make since the pie crust had to be rolled out and cut, then stuffed and baked. Plus we had a disasterous batch of pie crust dough that refused to roll out well. Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix in a box is definitely better than our attempts to make our own dough. It wasn't all a loss though. We made cinnamon-sugar topped cookies out of the bad batch and they are pretty tasty! And despite how much work they are, the pasties are delicious. We had them for an afternoon snack and dinner. :)

All of the stuff we made today, in combination with the meatballs and pot roast we made yesterday, has the freezer full. I think we have dinners for about 2 weeks after Mom goes home and after our church friends are no longer bringing meals.

Baby news: Lainey is squirming around a healthy amount. I check on her a couple of times a day by laying down quietly, drinking something sweet and making sure that she's moving and kicking. We will be going in tomorrow morning for the non-stress test at about 9:00. They said as long as Lainey is cooperative, it should only take 30 minutes to run the test. For anyone who is unfamiliar with NSTs, it is a simple test where they place a monitor on my stomach to measure her heartrate. Then each time Lainey moves, it is expected that her heartrate should increase and then decrease when she stops moving. This indicates that the placenta is functioning well and that she's getting enough oxygen.

I will go see my OB after the NST to check my progress again. Depending on the findings we will determine our best course of action. As long as Lainey is doing well, I will wait for her. All of the doctors in my clinic are out Mon-Wed of next week for a conference, so I figure she will come one of those days when all three of them are unavailable. :) But don't worry, we will have a doctor... another clinic provides cross-coverage for them when they aren't available.

Now it's time to relax and watch some more baseball. You can expect an update sometime tomorrow afternoon. Good night!

Still waiting...

Well, today has been another uneventful day baby-wise. We went for a long walk this morning which was fun for Freddy and just tiring for me. Mom made paninis for lunch and then we went to the store to get the ingredients for several meals to fill the freezer. We got started with a few of them and we have all run out of energy for the night. Tomorrow we plan to make the rest of the meals... which probably means that Lainey will come tomorrow since we have so much food to cook! :) Of all the meals, I am looking forward to Pasties the most. They are the most work, but the most delicious!

We'll spend the rest of the evening watching the World Series and relaxing. Maybe tomorrow we'll have some baby action! Thank you for all your prayers and encouraging emails and comments. Talk to you soon!

Not much progress...

Lainey's due date is going to come and go. Our doctor's appointment this afternoon showed that her heart beat is strong and a good rate. I haven't progressed at all compared to last week's appointment though. Because I would like to try to wait for her, we are not going to induce labor. I am not really a good induction candidate at this point anyway, so we are sitting tight. I will be going in on Friday morning for a non-stress test (NST) on Lainey, then to the doctor's office to check if we've made any progress. Dr. Newman said that he is okay with waiting for her with a NST later this week and then if labor hasn't started on it's own by next week, we will go in for NST's twice. Hopefully we start having some contractions that make some progress!

My Mom got here today and we are going to work on getting some meals in the freezer while we have some extra time. It'll be nice to have her here when Lainey finally decides to show up!

Must have been false labor...

Last night my contractions diminished back to once an hour. I've had some today, but not too many. Tomorrow is my due date and we have an appointment to see the doctor. We'll see what the next few days bring, but hopefully she will be coming soon!

Early labor? False labor?

Who knows? I've been having contractions since last night. They are mild, but I've been having at least one an hour. This afternoon I thought maybe we were on the way toward having a baby with contractions coming every 10-15 minutes, but they have died back down to about one an hour. I don't know if this was "false labor" or "early labor", but either way I think we are going to have a kiddo here soon. Will keep you posted!

Baby Jackson is here!

I don't have too many details, but Jackson Spaulding arrived yesterday! My cousin Jenn had him yesterday. Now it's Lainey's turn!

Baby Shower Pictures

I'm not too blog-savvy. My sister says that if I paste what she sent me in here, there will be a slideshow of the pictures she took of the baby shower in California. It was a really nice shower. My Mom, sister, and Grandma out did themselves! Let's see if it works...

***I am having technical difficulties... stay tuned.***
There we go!!

39 week check up

Well, we are making a little bit of progress. I am 70% effaced as opposed to last week when he said he had me at about 20%. I am still not dilated yet. I have noticed a few more contractions this week that are slightly stronger, but nothing painful or even close to regular. I imagine that she will come pretty close to her due date. The doctor said that they really do not like women to go past 41 weeks because of placental breakdown and the effect that can have on the baby. So we might be discussing induction next week if things haven't progressed further. However, I am really against inducing unless Lainey is in distress so hopefully that won't be necessary. I am all packed and ready to go the hospital whenever she decides to come! Only 5 more days until "D-day". :)

39 weeks

We are at the 39 week mark! Still no sign of Lainey's pending arrival. I had a few mild, but noticeable contractions yesterday. We'll see if those are the precursors to the real deal or not! I had a really difficult time sleeping last night so I'm pretty tired today. Good thing I don't have any plans! Tomorrow we have another appointment to check on things. I will update tomorrow with any news. In the meantime, here is a picture of me and Lainey on the 11th. We are 38 weeks, 4 days. It's a little bit of an awkward angle because I took it myself with the timer. :)

38 week check up

We had another appointment today. No news!! I am the same as last week... thinning, but not dilated. We just have to be patient! Lainey had a quiet day yesterday and didn't really wake up and start moving until 2:00am. She made me a little nervous, but I did feel her a few times throughout the day so I didn't worry too much. Today she's making up for the lack of movement yesterday. I don't think I've gone more than 10 or 15 minutes without feeling her squirm or kick all day.

In other exciting news, my cousin's wife had their little boy yesterday! Finnley Ryan Spuhler was born 10/07/08 at 10:08pm. He weighs 6 lbs. 7 oz. and is 19 inches long. Ashlee is doing well and it sounds like she had a pretty easy delivery... she only had to push 5 times and he was out! Let's pray Lainey is that easy! :)

Here's Ashlee, Nick and little Finn:


Congratulations guys! We love you!

Lainey's Room

I got Lainey's room all done this week. I had a lot of fun painting the artwork and her name letters. John put together her dresser and I did the crib a few weeks ago. I think it's turned out really nicely. We are awaiting the day that Lainey decides to join us on the outside. I'll be 38 weeks on Tuesday. I have another doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Last week, I was the same... thinning, but not dilated. The doctor predicts that she's 6.5 to 7 pounds. I have been having some Braxton-Hicks contractions, but not too many. I think she's content to hang out for little while longer. I had my first moment of being ready to have her out day before yesterday. I was so tired and uncomfortable, but I couldn't sleep. I decided I'd rather be tired and comfortable with her on the outside than tired and unable to get comfortable enough to sleep.

Nesting has definitely settled in. I am trying to get some reorganization projects done around the house, but my energy level has kept me from doing too much. Today was a day off from projects and it's been a nice relaxing day.

Here's some pictures of her room before I got it all organized. She got so very spoiled by all of our generous friends and family when we were home a few weeks ago.

So much stuff!! Where will it all go?


Her crib and some artwork hanging temporarily.


More stuff! Spoiled a bit?



And here are some pictures of her room completed. It is hard to get a picture of the whole thing, so here it is in parts.

Right side of the room with her crib and glider.


The artwork I painted for her.


Left front corner of the room with her new piggie bank and my old Cabbage Patch Kid piggie bank.




The most comfortable glider ever!!


Her crib with name letters.


We are going to get a toy net to hang in the corner for all her stuffed animals. For now they are hanging out in her crib.


Some shadow boxes I stained.


Overall, I think it turned out well. The couch is against the left wall and can still pull out for guests if we ever need it. It's a nice extra place to sit in there too. I have a Pack-n-Play for our bedroom with a bassinet attachment that she will sleep in at first when she comes home. I think we are just about ready! I have her bag all packed and I am going to start getting mine put together in the next day or so. I just have to figure out how to have the things I want to wear at the hospital packed when I want to wear them now too! The hospital is so close to our house though that if I forget something, it'll be no big deal to send someone to pick it up for me.

Thank you for all your prayers for us! We will keep you posted on our progress. My cousins Jenn & Andrew and Ashlee & Nick are also anxiously waiting for their little boys to be born. Jenn is 1 cm dilated and due on the 15th while Ashlee is about 2 cm dilated and due the 21st. We have an exciting time ahead in our family!

37 weeks!

We are in the final stages! They say most women deliver between 38 and 42 weeks, so we can expect Lainey to come at almost any time. I am feeling good. Just a bit tired and hungry almost all the time. I went to the doctor last week and he said things seem to be right on track. Her heart rate is good and she's in the right position. I have another appointment tomorrow to see if I've started dilating at all. I have been having some small contractions this week, but they are really mild and irregular. They say that you can have these contractions for a week or more before actual labor starts.

Lainey's room is almost totally finished. I just need to get a dust ruffle for her crib. I am going to try to get out to get that today and then I'll have pictures to share. I've been meaning to go for a few days now, but I've been taking 2 hour naps instead. :)

Our friends are moving out today. It will be very quiet around here after having someone living with us since February. I think I've gotten used to having people around all the time. But soon enough, we will have our own little noisemaker, so I'm not too worried.

For those who didn't get to see me last week for the baby shower or the wedding, here's a picture of me with my cousin-in-law, Ashlee. We are both due on October 21st and just about 36 weeks in this picture. Ashlee and Nick are having a little boy... Finnley Ryan.