Elijah: the birth story

two days old, going home

Elijah Ernest
born August 31st, 4:17 pm
19 inches long, 8lbs 2oz
and I think it's hilarious that this date wasn't even a choice on my birthday poll. Oops.
 Now for those who are interested in all the details, here is his birth story!

                    I had a doctor’s appointment set for the 30^th, and we had reason to believe they might keep me there (my doctor was really worried I'd have the baby in the car on the way there, and so was I a little!), so we arranged sitters for all of our kids. We took Josh and Jonah to the house of someone from church in town, and we arranged for one of Joseph’s coworkers to pick up Elora from school and to bring her to Faith at the end of the day.

                At my last appointment the previous week, Doctor Berdahl had expressed concern about our commute and my shorter labors. She had offered to strip my membranes and keep me there then, but after she checked me and realized I wasn’t even dilated, she said that wasn’t a possibility (as I expected). Induction was considered an unnecessary risk because I’ve had a previous cesarean, unless of course I went over my date. She had me come in Tuesday to reassess everything, and because of her previous statements I thought she might keep me. She actually wanted me to come on Monday, but I really wanted to be there for Elora’s first day of school, so we changed it.

                At the appointment, she reassessed me and said there was more effacement but still no dilation (I told her there never was beforehand) and she said if they did do an induction they had to have the whole O.R. staff on hand, just in case I had any problems. She went to talk to the doctor on call that day and she said she was willing to induce me, but the staff wasn’t all there that day. At first it sounded like they’d have me come back in after several days, which defeated the whole purpose, but then in the end they said I could come in early the next morning.

                We got a hotel room at the Days Inn nearby, since it was actually cheaper for us to stay overnight than to drive home and back again. (Even though really, we can’t afford either). Also, easier for us since we had the kids all being watched already! I was really worried about being induced, since I’ve always been so against it in the past, but we really saw no alternative with our situation…oh did I mention the babysitters would be leaving for Memorial Day weekend, which is when we were now afraid the baby would come?  Waiting was becoming even less of an option as time went by.

                So Joseph and I got to work trying to get the labor started naturally. We walked all around Safeway next door where we bought some doughnuts and rolls to eat, we  looked at the Redbox movies in front of Walgreens (then remembered hotels don’t usually have dvd players), etc. Later, we bought our dinner at the deli in the Safeway, then took it to a pretty little park, where we took some nice pictures of my last day being pregnant.

It might have been better if I had somewhere other than the car windowsill to rest the camera!

After we ate, we walked around some more as it got darker, and while my contractions weren’t regular, they were definitely pretty strong while we walked.

                Early the next morning we went over to the hospital. Both my doctors were there (there are three total, so I know all of them, unlike my previous births!) The doctor checked me and said I was dilated to a three! I felt so relieved. She broke my water, which didn’t feel like anything, and they left me to see if labor would start on its own. I suspected it would, since there was no dilation the day before! Joseph got two movies at the Redbox we’d seen the night before, and we settled in to watch the new release, Limitless,  then later we watched most of Joseph’s choice, Mars Needs Moms. By 9:30 AM when they checked me I was only at a four, but they were willing to let me wait longer, and by noon I was dilated to an eight, which surprised much of the staff.

                This time they listened to me about how I go quickly in the last part of labor, and they got me started on a drip right away so they could have the anesthesiologist come in before I was ready to push. I remembered being so miserable and angry with Jonah’s birth, that I was certain I wanted an epidural this time. Even though I wanted it all natural with Elora's and was mad that didn't work out!

                It was interesting to me that the entire staff at the hospital- including this specialist- were all female. I messed the anesthesiologist up at one point by reaching back to point out something on my back, and I felt like an idiot but she didn’t get upset about having to start over again. There weren‘t any problems with the epidural, and we layed back to wait a little longer.

                Around one, someone came in to drain my bladder, and she decided to check my cervix before she did, just in case. To her surprise, she said I was definitely at a ten and all she could feel was the baby’s head in there. She went to get my doctor at the clinic next door before she did any draining, because they were all sure that the full bladder was the only thing holding him in there, and they were all prepared for him to come popping out the minute she emptied it. When they went to get her, Joseph asked if he should restart the movie, and I looked at him incredulously, asking if he’d heard the part about my being at a ten! (He didn’t get to watch the rest until that evening, though I couldn’t believe he was worrying about it now!)              

"This is a piece of cake!"

       
At some point I said something about this being the easiest labor I’d ever had, but I immediately felt like I shouldn’t have said that, because I knew it wasn’t nearly over yet, and I’d probably just jinxed it! The doctor came in to help me start pushing after they drained the bladder, and she said he was moving down very slowly; she could feel his head and his ear right away. Soon we discovered that he was facing sunny-side-up, which she said usually makes the pushing phase last a little longer, but the baby wasn’t in any distress so we weren’t in any hurry.

Then she decided after a while that my epidural might be a little too strong, because I couldn’t feel anything when I was pushing, even when the doctor tried to help by applying pressure with her hands.  It was weird too, because they put my legs up for the pushing and while I could feel my right leg a bit- like Joseph’s hand on my foot and leg- the left leg was completely numb, so I was a bit startled to turn and see my leg up in the air when I was picturing it just lying down on the bed.
                Then they had the epidural turned down so that I could push more efficiently, and shortly the doctor said she could tell a difference in the strength of my pushing now that I could feel it a little bit better. She said the baby’s head seemed to be stuck on the pelvic bone, though she said it looked like there was plenty of room for him to get out if he could just turn his head a bit. With each push, she says he’d wiggle his head back and forth, but it wasn’t really moving anymore. Sadly, the epidural continued to loose strength as time went on. Around two pm, I really started to feel uncomfortable pressure on the right side of my torso, then it got much more painful, and finally it was spreading to both sides. It seems to me that when I can feel the whole strength of labor, I am a much less efficient pusher because it hurts too much!

The baby continued to endure well, but after another hour of pushing, he hadn’t budged a bit. She decided to try the vacuum assist, since I mentioned we’d used it on some of our other births. She explained that his head was not only pointed up, but he kept extending his neck instead of tucking his chin, so he was presenting the widest part of his head, which not only made his passage harder, it also made it less likely the vacuum thing would work, since the wrong part of his head was available for her to work with. She said we might consider using forceps if the vacuum didn’t work, but I was a bit leery of that option, as I’d heard horror stories of the damage they might cause. (Though others might feel the same about a vacuum!)

They had to turn up the epidural again so that I wouldn’t be hurt while they used the suction cup on the baby, so we pushed for a while as the medicine gained strength again. Then we started pushing with the vacuum around three in the afternoon. She kept saying we were just going to do it once or twice, but she wanted to get the baby out the right way just as much as I did, so she kept trying! She tried to manually move his head at one point, but he just budged a few centimeters, thus the two different circles on his head when he was born.

Finally, she acknowledged that the vacuum wasn’t working, and said since it hadn’t moved him at all, she doubted forceps would do any better, so she asked if we could do a c-section. I could tell Joseph was really upset, but by this point I felt very calm about it, and knew it was the best option at this time.

It was a very different feeling from when they pushed the c-section with Elora’s birth, when I felt like they were treating me like I was stupid. This time, I felt the doctor had tried everything in her power to help the baby come the right way, and that she was asking me instead of telling me to go with the surgery. So this was all decided around 3:50, and they had to start prepping me for that.

They gave Joseph some scrubs to change into, and started wheeling me to the O.R. room, which wasn’t so traumatic because this time I knew what to expect. They tried to give me some anti-acid medicine to drink while we were in the elevator. They said it was in case I had to be put under for some reason, which would put me at risk for aspiration (Throwing up and breathing in my vomit) so this was supposed to neutralize the ph levels in my stomach. Unfortunately, the medicine itself tasted like bile! I took one sip and quickly handed it back, saying, “I can’t drink this,” and that moment I threw up all over the place. Bleah.

In the operating room they took off my soiled gown and got me all ready, setting up the blue screen so I couldn’t see my abdomen, laying my arms out to either side, and turning up the epidural medicine for the surgery. They pinched me stomach a few times to test how strong it was, though I was little worried, remembering how quickly I’d been able to feel pain when they’d turned it down earlier!

 Joseph came in and sat by my head, and I asked him to get the camera ready so that when they lifted the baby out he could take a picture of him. Poor Joseph misunderstood me and actually stood up and looked over the screen, catching a glimpse of the open abdomen, them tugging on skin and pushing the baby out! The lady sitting next to him (yes, the whole OR staff was also female) asked if he was okay, and told him he should sit down because his face was white and he looked like he was going to faint! I bet he would have too, he freaks out when anyone even gets a cut!

Finally at 4:17 little Elijah (or Eli) was out, and they took him to the other side of the room to get him cleaned up and to test his Apgar scores.

the color version of this picture is more disturbing...

Then Joseph was allowed to bring him over to me so I could look at him. The baby was crying in a high-pitched voice (much higher than our other babies have had) but when I said his name and talked to him, he stopped crying immediately and looked at my face. It was so cute! Of course, it might not have been my familiar voice that soothed him, but rather the dark-framed glasses I happened to be wearing.

Then took him to a different room to weigh him. I thought it was weird they didn’t have a scale in the room there, but at least they let Joseph come too.  Joseph got to go out with the baby while they stitched me up, and the doctors and staff all talked about how well I heal, because they couldn’t even find my scar from my previous c-section with Elora.
So far, Elijah and I seem to be doing fine! He had to bring a bilirubin blanket home over the weekend, but he's fine now, and I seem to be healing quickly. We're just glad to have our little boy home! Here are a few more pictures from the hospital and shortly after:

proud daddy in the O.R.

meeting the baby for the first time

baby in the early morning

daddy and baby the next morning

His poor head! Don't worry, it's already healing and almost gone.

I love how it looks like he's smiling back at them!

proud siblings

Jonah is not the baby anymore!

Still Waiting

So, if you're wondering who won the poll on when the baby would be born, it definitely wasn't me. That date was last week!
Here is another picture, taken under a bridge at a pretty park in Spearfish last week.  Me at 38.5 weeks.

 
































Last time we came here I didn't have a camera, so I was happy to be able to get some pictures of this place finally,

 















but really, I'd be okay if I don't have to take anymore this week.

If you've noticed Jonah wearing these red pants in half of our pictures, that just means his diaper leaked again...they're the ones we always bring with us in the car, "just in case!"

 Unless they're newborn baby pictures.
It's not that I want the baby to come earlier than it's ready, its just the longer it takes, the more irritable I become! Why? Because first of all, I can't afford to keep paying for gas every week into Spearfish. It's great that we have somewhere to go and something to do, but it's killing our finances! For another thing, Elora starts school next week, and I'm worried that if the baby comes on it's due date or later, we'll mess up her first day, which I really don't want to do. Finally, I hate how at the end of a pregnancy, it's all anyone wants to talk to you about. "How are you feeling? It's not here yet? We've been waiting anxiously to here the news!" It's great that people are showing their support, but I always feel like I've somehow disappointed everyone by not having the baby for them yet. Plus, I hate waiting.

Nine Months

So I've been pretty good about posting regular pregnancy pictures on facebook, but I don't think I've been so regular about it on my blog. Plus it's kind of fun to see these pictures in succession. I know the whole point, generally, is to be able to compare the pictures, so most people take their photos in the same place in the same pose. I like to see what I was doing at that time in my pregnancy as well as my size, so I just threw that approach out the window and took my pictures whenever I felt like it! I was doing pretty good about taking them every 4 weeks (though I started on a weird week, I know) but this summer I got distracted and let seven weeks go by before I took the last ones!

With my last two pregnancies, I had the baby just after 38 weeks, so we'll see if there are anymore photos.....

14 weeks, snowy field on the way to church

 

18 weeks, in front of my favorite curtains!

Also 18 weeks, I thought this one was kind of cool too.

22 weeks. I love this one! I felt like I finally got one of those awesome maternity shots real photographers do. By the way, I have to wear this dress every week to church my last trimester; nothing else fits me! Which is funny, because I bought it in 2001 at Pike Place Market in Seattle, before I was even married.

26 weeks. I loved how green the fields were and how pretty the clouds were all Spring, such a contrast to the stark winters and the yellow dry summer. Plus a maternity shot was the perfect excuse to take a picture here. Yeah, my face looks a little grumpy, but at least I wasn't squinty or with sunglasses again, right?

 

30 weeks at my mom's house. I had bought this shirt a few days previous and I loved it! I don't know why, but 90% of my maternity clothes are blue, so I was excited to gte something a little brighter and fun.

 

Okay this is the same day, but it's one of the few times Joseph actually caught a picture of me being silly, and I kind of like it.

 Then...we came home and I forgot all about taking a 34 week picture or anything. Oops. Luckily a week or so ago, Joseph went on a trip to see the Bismarck, North Dakota temple, and I remembered to take some pictures of me before it was too late! I'd been wanting to take some pictures by all the hay bales, and when we stopped to take a picture of a buffalo and the sign for North Dakota, there just happened to be a stack just off the road! We hurried just in case the farmer showed up with a pitch fork and chased us away.
Normally, I'd want this picture with the light behind me, but then we would have had the road and power lines in the photo, so we chose the lesser of two evils.

37 weeks. Looks like it's about harvest time...get it? Man, that joke never gets old.  I tried to take a picture without the glasses, but boy was that sun bright!

 And just for good measure, here are a few other pics from our little jaunt up to ND. This temple is so small! There was a Stake Center right next door,and the two buildings were approximately the same size. There weren't very many people there either, we were lucky they still held the session because we were there. We were also lucky to have some friends from church watch our kids from 7:30am till 7:30pm so we could go.

This shirt is always blowing around and making me look too big, but it's still one of my favorites! I've had it since my first pregnancy with Elora. Oh, and this is the only other skirt that is stretchy enough to fit me, but then the shirts aren't quite long enough with it.

Do you like Joseph's mountain man beard? It looks pretty good when it's trimmed up...which he did a few days after these pictures.

Notice anything weird about those temple pictures? Yes, I'm missing my shoe. I was using it to prop up my camera horizontally, so I could be sure the angel was in the picture. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy getting my shoe back on. Does anyone else get swollen feet in the last trimester? Mine aren't bad...just on hot days or long car trips!

Finally, here is our lovely buffalo picture. My original plan was to take my 37 week picture with the buffalo behind me, so I could say something intelligent and witty about me being on the left and the buffalo being on the right, if you couldn't tell. This guy was right next to the fence when we pulled up, but when we got out of our car, he took off running into the field! There was something really funny about such a large creature being so scared of us, poor guy.

I hate how blogger doesn't fix the spacing, even though it looks fine in my rough draft. Grr.

So this Sunday (the 14th) I am exactly 38 weeks. If this baby follows the pattern of the last two, that means it might be born by Thursday! We are excited, but also a little more nervous than usual. We had a babysitter all set up, but now they are going back to their other home in Utah for the school year early- Monday the 15th- so that's no longer an option. (They watched our kids when we went to the temple though, so we are very grateful!)

We have plenty of other people volunteering to help, from friends at church to Joseph's coworkers in the office. The only problem, is all these people have jobs or otherwise hectic schedules, and are available only for certain times! Add to that the distance to the hospital (2 hours straight from our house, or 2hrs 40 min if we drive to town to drop off kids) and it's a little disturbing. I keep reminding myself that I was worried with Jonah too but everything worked out fine, so I shouldn't be worried this time. Of course in Logan, we lived so close to the hospital, I could've walked there if I had to, plus my parents were able to drive up for the night watch with the other two kids.
I think I've made Joseph more nervous than he's ever been before, what with my talk of friends who had babies in their own bathroom, just  last month, to sending him emails detailing how to deliver a baby in a car, etc. Seriously, every time I look uncomfortable he asks if I'm having contractions. He's insisted on having almost everything in the car already (he really wanted me to take a towel to church today in case my water broke like last time. Really.)
When we were at the the temple last week and a worker came in the men's dressing room asking if he had a pregnant wife, he was certain I was in heavy labor right that minute, as if he couldn't remember how labor worked from the last three kids! (The worker was just making sure that we ended up in the session together and not doing different things, due to some confusion earlier.)
Several days ago, I was outside taking pictures of some neat storm clouds, and Joseph didn't know where I went. I was gone maybe ten minutes, but by the time I got back he was practically hyperventalating! Seriously, what does he think will happen in 10 minutes, and where does he think I was...kidnapped? Fallen in a big hole? Bitten by a snake? He didn't find it quite as funny as I did.
So maybe if you're thinking of us..maybe you should pray for Joseph to calm down most of all?

Baby Boy!

For those who haven't heard yet, yes we are having another boy!

We got to go into town where my appointment is the night before , as there was a big snow storm which might have prevented our driving there the next morning. The kids found this very exciting! Well, except when Jonah cried for an hour at bedtime because he wanted us to leave the light on in the hotel room. At least we got to order a pizza and bread sticks (an impossibility where we live) and had the continental breakfast provided the next morning.

After breakfast we went to the ultrasound appointment. I was afraid they'd get upset at us because the paperwork I'd received clearly stated that only one person could come with me. I was kind of glad for the snow the night before, so if anyone questioned me I'd have a good excuse for having everyone there! Thankfully, no one said anything.

Elora had a great time viewing the ultrasound readings as the technician pointed out body parts, the baby's position and other things. Before the end Elora was an expert at pointing out all the baby details herself, much better than many adults! She didn't seem too upset about it being a boy either, maybe because she'd been disappointed last time and had steeled herself against the possibility this time?

Joshua and Jonah weren't quite as thrilled and were ready to go long before it was over. Neither of them got unruly, they were just a little restless, and every thirty seconds Josh would ask, "Can we go now?"

They took tons of pictures of the baby, which of course look just like the sonograms we got of our other kids, for the most part. In this one you can see the lens of their left eye, and their heart:




In this one he might be sucking his thumb:




And here is a nice profile that looks just like Elora's ultrasound profile:



They also did several 3-D pictures. These are always a little weird. If the baby is moving, it might look like it's face is smeared or something. Sometimes if the depths of the scan are off you might see shapes like their brain is showing or a limb has no flesh on it.
These ones aren't too bad; this first one is odd because it looks like the baby doesn't have a nose yet, even though at this stage it should look like a normal baby with hardly any body fat. Maybe the cartilage wasn't scanning well or something? Also see the bony arm and brainy-looking head? Hello alien.



Here is a profile; I think he was moving his hands when it was taken, so it looks like there are a few extra fingers. And his head is falling apart.



So...right now we still like the names Jude and Eli, though we're leaning toward Eli. Joseph thinks it'd be reeeaallly funny to give them a middle name starting with G, just so their initials would spell "Egg". HILARIOUS. (Read with sarcasm).

Actually, my grandpa's name is Gary, which I could use, so that might actually be a possibility. I know tons of people are scandalized when kids' initials spell something, but really it doesn't concern me unless its a swear word or especially derogatory. Because really, how often do you tell people your middle name?

Dope Drapes, Baby Bellies, and a Drawing

These are some of my most favorite curtains ever. I like to lay on my bed and look at the pattern, and think how cool it would be to color this design in a fancy coloring book, even thoug I usually don't like coloring books. Or how awesome it would be on a long skirt, combined with a white peasant blouse and maybe an ankle bracelet.
I like these curtains.
Oh wait, what is that in front of the curtains? Hmmm, lets see.



Oh hey, it's me! At exactly 18 weeks along. Dang I look huge. I can't wait for someone to ask me if I'm due any day now. Or like the lady who told me at 12 weeks that I looked just like the other lady in the room...who was 8.5 months along. Yeah. That's okay, really it doesn't bother me. What bothers me more is that my face gets red and blotchy when I'm pregnant, more so this time than it has before. Twice now I've had someone ask me what was wrong with my face, and did I need to see a doctor? They totally weren't kidding either.
I forgave them because they were over sixty. And a man.



Anyway, back to my curtains. I decided I liked them so much, that I had to draw them in a picture. Plus, I thought it would be a perfect subject for my cool art markers, don't you agree? So I did this one:



The kids faces have some colored pencil on them because it was too hard to do those kind of details with bright markers. They're a little paler than the curtains because of that.
Jonah looks a little scary and demonic. Hmm. It is 11x14, and strangely otherworldy looking, so maybe that's why I like it.

Confessions of Pregnancy

When I am pregnant, I become incredibly ornery with my children. Every little thing irritates me to a ridiculous degree, and when I go to bed at night I can't for the life of me think of why I was so mad that day. I always vow to be extra loving and kind the next day, but somehow something always happens to break this promise to myself.

Pregnancy is usually the first time I can get really angry at whomever is the current baby . Up till then, anything they do seems innocent and excusable. But now with the notion that they will soon be a big brother or sister, suddenly any naughty thing they do seems obviously deliberate on their part. This is when I also start to get less touchy-feely with the youngest child. Probably this has a lot to do with certain areas of the body now being more sensitive, and other areas now being inhabited by a small being I want to protect. But the youngest child- who may be accustomed to mommy holding them often- now encounters a mommy who is constantly trying to get them off of her lap, and pushing them over to daddy.

Again, at the end of the day I feel guilty and sad about pushing them away, but the next day it happens all over again. And I always think, "Well, maybe they won't be as jealous of the new one if they've already been dethroned before they arrive," thinking of course about all the baby-spacing info I learned in psychology classes.

I become easily stressed out, and when there are too many things going on that cause me stress, I am known to break down. Of course, for me breaking down means screaming a lot before I actually cry about something.

I also find I am irritated at strangers much more easily. Any comment anyone makes to me about my pregnancy seems offensive, no matter how innocent they meant it to be. I start feeling defensive before people talk to me, as if I am just daring them to say something to set me off. That I can blame it on hormones hardly seems a good excuse, considering how many pregnant women I've known who never seem to have an angry moment in their lives.

For many women, pregnancy brings on a deluge of strange dreams, and I am no different. I have the usual dreams involving the baby itself- birthing the baby, seeing inside my own uterus, forgetting where I put the new baby, or otherwise- but I also have an embarrassing quantity of dreams that involve people I previously have had crushes on, including the occasional movie character. Thankfully, my unconscious mind usually reminds me that I'm now married, so nothing inappropriate happens, but it's still strange the regularity with which these dreams occur, everytime I'm expecting!

The only six-weeks post-partum checkup I ever went to was with my first child, Elora. I only went because I had a c-section and I had heard horror stories about people's stitches coming apart or them hemmoraging or something, so I wanted to make sure everything was okay. With the other two..it just didn't happen. After Josh, I put off setting the appointment for too long. We moved when he was just six weeks old, and when I called two weeks earlier to set up the appointment, the snotty receptionist told me I should have called earlier because there was no way I could get in in that time frame. Fine.

And after Jonah, I felt fine, and my doctor had told me she was going to do a pap smear at that appointment, because she didn't do one at the first of the pregnancy. I really don't do well with those kind of exams, even after three pregnancies. So, I kind of never called. And never saw my doctor again. I hope she didn't feel bad, or think I was mad because she didn't deliver my baby. Just like my doctor for my first two pregnancies, she was gone when I went into labor, and I had to deliver with someone I'd never met before. Whatever.

Oh yeah, I went to my first appointment this last week. We got to do an early ultrasound and discovered I was almost 13 weeks, putting the new due date on August 28th. The baby looked like it was waving at the camera, it was so cute!

So, if you hadn't heard....

We're expecting a new addition to our family at the end of the summer! The due date should be around Sept. 7th, though if they follow in Joshua and Jonah's footsteps, they'll be born at least ten days early! Both Josh and Jonah were born on the exact days that I predicted, so for this baby my projected date is, um, August 28th!

I'm really hoping for a weekend here, as Joseph will be back to work and Elora will be starting kindergarten right around then...talk about a busy time of the year! I still haven't decided if I'm hoping we'll still be here, or that we will have moved by then.

If we move, that will mean me, 8 months pregnant, packing up our entire house, then unpacking our entire house, the hassle of changing insurance (because we would totally move to a different state) and all that stress.

Staying would be smarter financially, somewhat less stressful...and really, a place can't feel like home when you've lived there less than a year.

We've already encountered a few annoyances with having a baby in such a rural area. Like...the closest clinic is associated with a hospital 3 1/2 hours away. Doesn't work for me. Also, the OB who works there, only comes by every six weeks or so. That annoys me.

The second closest clinic is associated with a hospital 2 hours away, but I was told that hospital didn't have a good reputation. Well, according to the one lady I talked to.

I finally decided on a clinic in Spearfish, which is (wait for it) two hours away. I chose this place because A. all of the obgyns are women, which I prefer, and B. they have appointment times available on Fridays, so Joseph can drive me and watch my kids.

I may regret choosing a place so far away, but, what are you gonna do? Plus, the hospital is right next to the clinic so it's not too far for that final push (haha). Unless I have a labor faster than six hours, which is my usual time.

(Isn't this all so interesting? I knew it would be.)

Then there is my usual worry about what to do with the kids when its time. All our friends that live by us are school teachers, so they'll be at work, and the one lady at church who doesn't work full time lives an hour in the wrong direction. So yeah, that's why the weekend delivery would work great. Though I refuse to schedule an induction. Bad, bad, bad. I think babies should come when they're ready, even if it is terribly inconvenient.

Um, and...I had two boy names I really liked, and two friends on Facebook took them for their fourth babies just in the last few months. Which I guess proves that they're more popular than I realized, but I still like them. So for a boy, I'd have to come up with all new names (though we still kind of like Jude.) And for girls, I'm liking: Gracie, Bonnie, River, Rain, Ginny, and a handful of others.

So. Surprise!