Now you're REALLY hurting Mommy

I'm in labor. We're still at home trying to get the contractions to about 5 minutes apart. I've been at around 6-7 mins apart since 7am (been contracting since 7am yesterday-- we did think that they were just braxton hicks for quite a while though). This is really no fun (no fun at all) but we can't wait until Stinky's here. I guess the name mystery will be solved soon (will be stuck with it once they write it on that piece of paper in the hospital. We're still not sure what it'll be). We'll update when there's more news.

Contractions for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

Really though, Baby?

We don't have much to report yet. We're due and tired. We want Stinky to come already so that we can worry about him in all new and interesting ways. We haven't had any real labor signs and other than the fact that he's engaged (which we've known for 2 weeks now) there's really nothing to indicate that he is coming soon. We'll be induced soon if he decides not to come on his own (we were told that 12 days is standard waiting time). We have an appointment with the midwife tomorrow and we'll be sure to update everyone as to what is happening once we know.

Nothing else has been going on really. We went for a lovely walk today and found a bunch of almost adult baby swans in the stream near the house. We had a good time feeding them bread and taking photos. We'll post pictures of us and the town soon (I know, we keep promising to post pics and haven't. I will someday!). Daddy still doesn't love school and Mommy is super ready for Stinky to come out. Will post again tomorrow after our appointment. For now, we're going to watch the second half of the Saints game. We wish that we were in New Orleans to watch it with all of our friends! Daddy really, really wishes that he had an Amber in his hand.

Amber for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

You ready, Baby?

We're sorry that it's been so long since we've updated but it's been a relatively slow news week over here. We had our 38 week appointment on Monday. We are well and Stinky is engaged. We know that this doesn't actually mean that he's coming right away but we're opting to see it as a good sign. He's still head down and all of that good stuff (and his heart sounds good and our blood pressure isn't going crazy...). Mommy is a ball of out of control symptoms though. We haven't had any swelling all this time but now Mommy's hands are holding onto so much water that she can't grip things and they hurt all of the time. We're still not sleeping so well but we make up for that by trying to sleep for as much of the day as is possible. 'Resting' all day also helps Mommy (almost) forget that Daddy is at work all day (Mommy and Stinky really miss Daddy while he's gone).

On Sunday we did our practice run to the hospital in Edinburgh. It was even easier than we could have hoped. It took an hour and 5 minutes door to door and was super easy to find. Mommy is a lot less stressed about it now that she knows that it's not going to be difficult to get there. We're all packed and ready to go for the hospital. Mommy never feels as if we're totally ready for the Stinky but Daddy suspects that she never will. We have the essentials and everything is clean and folded and neat (ready to be utterly messed up by a crazy Stinky baby). Now we just wait...

The weather has been really nice here in Scotland. It's been sunny most days but it's progressing strongly towards winter. The air feels clean and crisp and it makes us think of beautiful October/November days in Nola. Mommy and Daddy both wish that we could be sitting at the Fly with some friends and this cool breeze (we're sure that there are a lot of people in Nola who would love it if we could bring this breeze to them!).

Daddy isn't loving work so much but he loves being home with Mommy and we're both looking so forward to Stinky coming that it makes up for work being yucky or being lonely through the day.

That's about all we have for today but we'll write again soon. Hopefully the next post will read something like, 'we're in labor' and will be posted very soon (Mommy can dream!). We hope that the weather is nice no matter where you are and that you're all sitting outside in a nice breeze right under a sunbeam.

Cool breezes and sunbeams for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

Time to come out now, Baby!

It's official-- we're full term. This last Sunday we were 37 weeks. If Stinky wants to come out now it would be fine with us. We can't wait to meet him and Mommy feels like she is about to burst. We're almost all ready for his debut. We have a few odds and ends left to get and Mommy still has a few things that she needs to pack in her hospital bag (she would also like to spend some more time practicing getting that car seat in and out of the car) but for the most part we're ready. Mommy's been doing what she can to encourage Stinky to get on out of there. There's raspberry leaf tea and walks and spicy food (nothing crazy spicy, Mommy doesn't want to chance worse heartburn than she's been having). Other than running around planning and packing and cleaning there hasn't been all that much happening. Daddy is busy working and Mommy is busy trying to get 3 consecutive hours of sleep. We didn't end up going to Glasgow last weekend. Daddy's parents came in town instead. They're coming in again this Saturday so we might not get there before the Stinky comes. We'll see... we'll work bubble tea into our future somehow (also, Mommy would love to see her friend Eileen). On Sunday we're going to do a practice run to the hospital. It's fairly far away (should be about 45 minutes, we'll see...) so we want to know the very best route in case Stinky is in a hurry. We have a checkup this coming Monday and hopefully everything is on track (he's still in a good position, etc). We will, of course, let everyone know how it goes. We hope that everyone had a good labor day and that everyone is well. We also hope that everyone is getting more sleep than Mommy (which she is about to go attempt again).

Sleep for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky