HE'S HERE!!! Full Birth Story

Hello all, we have big news: Jennings Randall Lesher was born at 10:49pm on Friday, June 22nd at Langley Air Force Base Hospital in Hampton VA. Here's the story:

My doctor had made an appointment with the labor & delivery floor for me to have a non-stress test done. It would monitor his heartbeat and his movements to see how his heart reacted when he moved. So we got there, got hooked up, and Doctor Leis came in to check on me. She watched the monitor for a bit, then told us that she didn't like what she saw. His heartbeat baseline was in the high 110's, and they wanted it to be in the 130's or 140's. She said she wouldn't feel comfortable sending me home. She patted my leg and said, "You're staying to have a baby." We totally didn't expect to be staying when we walked in that morning. We already had the labor and diaper bags with us, but we hadn't made arrangements for our animals. A little while later, the doc came back in and broke my water. I was three centimeters dilated when she started, and four when she was finished. She said she'd come back to check my progress in two hours. So Bryan took that time (after a little reassurance that I'd be fine) to go home and drop off the housekey with the neighbor. He came back shortly after, in plenty of time (we don't live more than 20 minutes away from the hospital). I started feeling much stronger contractions, but they weren't too bad. When my two hours were up, I was 5 centimeters dilated. Doctor Leis said that if I wasn't at 7 in another two hours, they were going to start Pitocin, and chemically induce labor. When those (steadily more painful) two hours were up, I was somewhere between 5 and 6 centimeters dilated. So they started Pitocin, only a small dose, and the anesthesiologist came in and put in my epidural. I started shaking pretty heavily once it started, which made both Bryan and me nervous. But once everyone left, and I was able to relax, the shaking stopped. Now it was just a waiting game for me to dilate. We watched a LOT of tv during that time, and slept as much as we could. I watched the monitor screens a lot to watch JR's heartbeat as well as my contractions. I could feel when I had one, but I wasn't feeling any pain. About 7 or 7:30, the nurse came in and said it was time to start pushing. It took me a while to figure out how to push effectively, but my nurse turned off my epidural so that I could feel my contractions better. She got scolded by my doctor, but I was glad she did it. I still didn't feel any pain, but I could feel my legs more, and was able to feel my progress. It got tons easier when I finally felt his head as he was crowning. Bryan was wonderful the whole time, getting me water and chapstick, and holding the bowl when I had to vomit. That happened when the nurse wanted me to try pushing on my side, but my body didn't agree. Pushing was rough, mostly because it took so long for me to figure out how to push effectively, and because I couldn't feel that I was making any progress, and that was really discouraging. But when Bryan told me he could see JR's head, that was the best encouragement ever! And then Nurse Laurel (awesome nurse) had me reach down and feel his head when it was about halfway out. Between those two, I got the extra mental push I needed. I couldn't feel when his head came out, but I felt his shoulder come out, and could tell when the midwife pulled the rest of him out. When I saw him, I just started bawling, from relief that my work was done, and from the sheer beauty of the moment. Over nine months of waiting had rewarded us with this perfect being. Bryan cut the cord, and they placed him on my chest to clean him off. I remember saying, "He's so heavy!" I kept looking up at Bryan, thinking, We did it, we really did it...

So, 14 hours after we arrived at the hospital, and with three hours of pushing, Jennings Randall Lesher was born. I considered it an easy labor, and a relatively easy delivery. It was a relief, because after such an easy pregnancy, I thought I'd have a horrendous labor and/or delivery. As it was, the lady next door to me apparently had a horrible experience. As JR's head was just starting to crown, the nurses were hedging bets on who would deliver first. I guess she was just as close as I was. But as I got closer and closer to delivering, I could hear her crying. Nurse Laurel said she was panicking, she didn't want to have a bowel movement on the table, so she wasn't pushing right. Even though she had an epidural, she was still crying that it hurt really badly. I also heard her trying to give up, saying she couldn't do it. JR was born at 10:49pm, her baby was born at 1:04am the next morning. I was really proud of myself for never giving up, or even thinking of it. I was determined to get that baby out. I do remember thinking that he never wanted to come out, because he sure was taking his time.

It wasn't the birth experience I had hoped for, but it turned out for the better. I didn't want an induction, because I knew that inductions make contractions worse. I wanted to try to have him without an epidural as well, because I wanted to prove that I was strong enough. Women have had babies medication-free for generations, and I'd been told that a med-free birth gives us an enormous Superwoman feeling. But at the end, I told Bryan I was really glad I'd had the epidural, because I didn't think I could have dealt with the pain had I not. It would have been really hard to push through that kind of pain. But I knew that if I'd had to be chemically induced, I wanted the epidural. So it did turn out for the better, because I don't think I would have been given much of a choice about being induced. I told the Doctor I didn't want an induction, but if that's what it took to have a healthy baby, I didn't have a problem with it.


I just realized that I forgot JR's stats in the email I sent out. He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 20 and 3/4 inches long. He got an Apgar score of 9 at one minute old, and 9 at five minutes old. The highest a baby can get is ten, and it's incredibly rare that it happens that way. So he was doing great. The nurse did note that for being overdue, he still had a lot of cheesy vernix on him. Babies are supposed to lose more and more of that the longer they go past 40 weeks. I've noticed that he has a lot of that lanugo "fur" still yet, too. So apparently, he was right on time for him.

But like I said, Bryan was great, absolutely wonderful the whole time. He got my water when I wanted it, got my chapstick when the nurse advised against drinking any more. He helped me push, his voice was the one I focused on when he was counting for me. He helped me push through contractions when my nurse wasn't there. He was so encouraging, telling me how great I was doing, how proud of me he was. I'd never loved him more.

Here are some pictures:

Picture 1: Just after they got him cleaned up and Apgar scores taken, so he was about five to ten minutes old at that point. Doesn't Bryan just look so proud? :)
Picture 2: Taken with my camera phone while we were in our postpartum room.
Picture 3: These were taken right after we got home, three days after he was born. This was his going home outfit. His hat says Boob Man, though you can't tell. He was hungry when we got home, so I couldn't get a good picture of him.
Picture 4: I love when he's awake and alert like this. I get this after burping, when his belly's full, but he's been woken up. He's all content, but very alert.

That's all for this post. Still to come: JR's first days; My postpartum body

Officially Overdue

Hello all. So here it is, 4:30am on June 14th, and I'm still pregnant. ***Sigh...*** I went for my 40 week checkup on Tuesday, I'd dilated another half a centimeter, and I am 75% effaced, so at least I'm making progress. But at half a centimeter a week, he'll be here in another month... I'd been having a good amount of Braxton-Hicks contractions that I knew were the reason for the progression. After that appointment, though... I've been having lots more, much more regular, and starting to get painful. Sunday night, I was driving home from leading my mom to where she's staying for the week when I ended up in so much pain I was in tears. It didn't feel like contractions, really, but the pain would peak and ebb, so I wasn't sure. I called Bryan to let him know, since I was supposed to pick up dinner on the way in, and told him that if this kept up after I got home, we were going to the hospital. Within ten minutes of getting home, I was perfectly fine. Tuesday night, the night after my appointment, I went to bed at eight (I was SO tired), and woke up at 9:30 from a "I went into labor and was rushing around getting everything together" dream, and having contractions that lasted over two hours. Some were painful, some weren't, and they averaged 7.5 minutes apart. But they went away (darn) and I went back to sleep. I woke up again about 3am from a "My baby's coming, I'm not gonna make it to the hospital, having a home birth" dream, and again having contractions. These didn't last nearly as long, but they were a bit stronger. So I went back to sleep. I woke up at 8am from a "I had my baby in the hospital, all is well and I love him to death" dream. No contractions this time. I let the dog out to use the bathroom, checked my email and pregnancy message board, and went back to sleep at 9. I got woke up at 11:30 by the phone. It was officially my due date, and this was the first "Have you had that baby yet?" phone call. I got two yesterday. My mom got two or three. I'm actually surprised that I didn't get more, or emails. Pleasantly so, of course. I'm impatient, yes, but having reminders like that make the waiting that much worse. Like I told my mom and Bryan, when Junior decides to grace us with his presence is between God and him, and there's nothing we can do about it. I'm just really hoping he comes in the next couple of days. I'm so tired of these false alarms. Yesterday we went to the resort where my mom is staying to hang out with her and my brother instead of them driving here. On the way back, I started getting menstrual-type cramps and lower back pain at the same time. The back pain never really went away, but the cramps would come and go, and most certainly would peak and ebb. It wasn't nearly as painful as the stuff going on Sunday night, but I was definitely having contractions, I could feel my belly tightening up. These were stronger than any I'd felt before, and I got them several times within an hour. Bryan's mom called while we were on the road back, and when he described what was going on with me, she told him that's what his sister did two days before she went into full-blown labor. It kinda made him nervous. But again, shortly after I got home, they went away. I just read that the current theory on what gets labor to start being stress hormones causing muscle tension in the uterus, and that leads to contractions, which subsequently lead to labor. I'm thinking that may be right in my case. It seems that when I get home and relax, all these contractions go away. But Tuesday night's stuff really got me nervous, because Junior shifted his position. I can normally feel his rear end under my ribs on the right side, and that's where he seems most comfortable. That night, he moved to where his rear was right in the middle of my belly, into birthing position. Really got me wondering if it was time to be making phone calls. During the time I was having all those contractions, I got up, moved around, cleaned my kitchen, and when they still didn't go away, I came back to the couch and laid on my side. That's when they stopped. These false alarms are driving me nuts. I really don't want to go to the hospital until I'm fairly certain that what I'm feeling is true labor. I know that if I go in and it's not, I'm going to be SO horribly disappointed. So when these contractions start up, I time them the best I can, and if they last more than a couple hours, and get stronger in that time frame, then I'll get Bryan and head to the hospital. So far, none of my contractions have lasted for longer than an hour, save for the two hours on Tuesday night.

But I did get another sign of impending labor Wednesday. For those of you who are squeamish, I'd suggest skipping this paragraph. I lost my mucous plug. I thought I'd lost part of it last week. Boy was I wrong. It's hard to describe what I found when I went to the bathroom about noon yesterday. It was long and sticky, looked like snot and moved like jelly. It was clear except for a spot of blood at each end. It came out in two parts. I don't know if it was the entire thing or not, I have no idea how big it is to begin with. But it came up on the toilet paper, and I very nearly took a picture of it. But it was too disgusting. I reached down again, and up came still more! It was smaller, but still had the same consistency and color, complete with the spot of blood at one end. When I told my mom about it, she told me that she never saw hers with any of us three kids. Bryan just asked what it meant. I told him it meant that my cervix had opened up enough for that to fall out, and that it meant I was making progress. From the research I did on it, it doesn't mean labor's right around the corner, but it is something to note and mention to the doctor on the next visit.

Speaking of the doctor, I saw a doctor on Tuesday, not a nurse practitioner. There wasn't really much difference. She was really nice, and gentle with my exam. She asked a couple times whether we had any questions. Almost all of my questions were answered by the nurse last week. Did I write about last week's appointment? I'll check, and if not, I may put up another post. Eh, no need for another post. I'll just edit this one, there wasn't much to tell anyway. Anyway, the doc told me that I had two choices: I could schedule an appointment for next week, or I could be put on the induction book for eight days from Tuesday. I figured, my mom's going to be gone either way, might as well let him come when he wants to come. So I chose the appointment. She made my appointment for the 21st. Most of the time, we are the ones who have to go to the appointment desk and make our own appointments, so the fact that she did it for me was pretty cool. But she came back in and told me when my appointment was, and that if I hadn't delivered by then, she figured I'd want to talk induction at that visit. Who knows? I'm pretty comfortable physically right now. Emotionally, I'm a rollercoaster, but I'm doing my best. Anyway, somehow we got on the subject of helping things along as far as labor goes. And this doctor comes right out and tells us to have sex!!! I was thinking, OH MY GOODNESS, DID SHE REALLY JUST SAY THAT??? No attempt at tact whatsoever, just point-blank, out there, blatantly tells us to have sex. I don't know why I was so shocked, she is a doctor after all, but still, it shocked me. Bryan says I turned beet red. I don't embarrass easily, but for some reason, that did it.

Anyway, so here I sit, 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I just know I'm going to be fielding phone calls for the next couple days until he comes, "Are you still pregnant?", "Is that baby here yet?", "You STILL haven't delivered?" I just tell myself, they say first time moms are late the majority of the time, and boys tend to be late, too, so I get a double dose, he'll come when he's good and ready, apparently he just wants to cook a little longer. Physically, I'm pretty comfortable. The worst part right now is trying to sleep. I can't seem to sleep any longer than four hours, no matter what time I go to bed. I went to sleep at ten last night, and lo and behold, I was awake just after 2am, with contractions. If I go to bed at midnight, I'm awake at four. This morning, I laid in bed counting contractions. They weren't really timeable again, the same crampy pain with lower back pain, but I counted how many I had over a certain period of time and averaged it out. This morning, it was nine contractions in 45 minutes. They didn't last any longer than that. They were five minutes apart, so if they'd lasted two hours or more and gotten stronger, I would have been waking Bryan up. As it is, all my moving around trying to get comfortable woke him up anyway, so I got up and went downstairs. He really needed his sleep. But another issue yesterday and lingering into today is my swollen feet. They got pretty swollen yesterday afternoon, and at eight last night, I couldn't walk on my left foot without pain. So I propped my feet up on my mom's coffee table, and we talked about watching a movie, but Bryan was SO tired, and we needed to let the dog out anyway, so we went ahead and went home. I have a couple blankets on the bed that are folded up to where I can put my feet up on them, so I went to bed shortly after we got home. I think the swelling went down overnight, but now that I've been up and around again, they've swollen back up nearly to the same degree as they were. I know my left foot's starting to hurt. I may end up calling the nurse's line to see if Epsom salts will hurt me any. I'll stick my foot in ice water first, see if that does any good. I'll probably end up bringing my blankets downstairs onto the couch, so I'm not stuck in bed all day, bored out of my mind. I could sleep, but I made up a lot of my sleep Tuesday night. It was heavily interrupted, but I still got more than four hours. Oh, I think I feel more contractions coming on, so I'd better end this.

Oh, last week's doctor's visit, if I already posted about this, just disregard. The nurse was really nice, she answered all my questions, didn't rush me at all, and asked plenty of her own. She checked my cervix, I was a "solid" one centimeter dilated. She didn't tell me if I was thinning out or not. That's basically the majority of what happened.

Anyway, I need to get another bottle of water, put my feet up, and see if these contractions decide to continue. They seem to have gone away just in the short time I've been writing. Five minutes never seemed so long... I keep thinking the contractions have stopped, and I'll look at my watch and realize it's only been four minutes since the last one. It's crazy.

TTFN!!!

This week's issues

I realized most of my previous post, I talked mostly about what was going on outside my body in my world. For those of you who want to know, here's what's been going on with my ginormously huge *grin* body. (Bryan considers himself a very lucky husband, since I've not had any self-esteem "I'm so fat" issues)

I'll start at my head and work my way down. My hair: It's grown SO much. I finally broke down and got a couple inches taken off about a week ago. I hate getting my hair cut. But I want to use my Glamour Shots gift card that Bryan got me for Valentine's Day, and my hair looked horrible with all the split ends and stuff. But it looks much better now, even though I'm still trying to get used to the suddenness with which my ponytail ends. My eyes: I've noticed that when my eyes are tired, I'll see ghost outlines of everything. I'll move my hand across my line of vision, and it'll look like there's a strand of my hair stuck on the outside of my hand. It's really weird and horribly annoying at times. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, I kept looking for that strand of hair to take off my hand. I also have horrendous dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. I have them normally anyway, because of wearing glasses, but the glasses themselves usually hid them. Now I can see them under my glasses and it bugs me. My nose: I've been more stuffed up lately, but I think it's weather-induced, it's been really warm here, and I'm sure that the pollen counts are sky-high. I don't really have much in the way of allergies, but I'm still slightly affected. My chest: Amazingly enough, I actually can still wear my B-cup bras. I can't wear them for too long, though, because the 34 part is too small. Bras in general right now are really uncomfortable because of the area on my stomach that my bosom rests on when I'm sitting. Junior loves to push his feet in that area, and I could swear there's a hernea there. It's horribly sensitive from both the inside and the outside. It hurts really badly when Junior pushes there with his feet, and also when it's touched from the outside. It's the worst on the right side, so I've started trying to make sure that I sleep leaning toward my left, so he doesn't get comfortable with his feet in such a painful spot. It's worked well so far. My lower stomach: I'm an OUTIE!!! It's so funny to see, because you can see my belly button poking out when I wear certain shirts. Because of where I had a belly button ring, I have this funny-looking arc over my belly button. (o That's what it looks like if you tilt your head to the left. Anyway, I also have some serious stretch marks on my belly now. I didn't have any until around 34 weeks along. Then they were all too low on my belly for me to see them except in a mirror. Now they've crept up and seem to be radiating out from my belly button. They don't bother me right now, but I can foresee the big possibility that they will really get to me after Junior's born. I loved my pre-pregnancy figure and loved wearing bikinis to show it off. I might be less inclined to do so with such horrid stretch marks. I also have them on my hips and upper thighs, all the way around, but those I'm less concerned with. They don't cover such an expansive area, and they're already starting to lessen as I quit gaining weight (finally). I've gained right at 40 pounds now. I shouldn't gain any more for the rest of the pregnancy. I might actually lose some of it since the baby should be fully developed and my body doesn't need all the extra stuff anymore. My feet: Because it's been so hot and humid here lately, with the Tropical Storm Barry around and all, my feet have started to swell again. My hands have too, I can't move my wedding rings. So I try to keep my feet elevated as much as I can. It's too hot to wear my support hose and especially my tube sox, so I just keep my feet elevated and try to keep cool indoors.

Temperature control: Ugh, my body is going nutso right now on temperature control. This last month or so, I've been getting so over-warm! This is SO not like me. Normally, I'm shivering at any temperature less than 70 in the house. Right now, we have our thermostat set at 65. Bryan is loving it because he's almost always too warm at anything above 70. But even still, when I go to bed, I sweat buckets. It may be gross, but I actually was waking up several times the other night thinking my water had broken, because I had my legs together, sleeping on my side, and where the skin met had been sweating profusely. I HATE it! I'm not used to sweating like that, I never used to. I never used to feel as over-warm as I have been, either. It's probably wreaking havoc on our electric bill, but we're both comfortable. I broke down and moved our fan back into the bedroom. We had it out on the landing at the top of the stairs to circulate the air and make room in the bedroom for Junior's bed. It's really in the way right now, but I didn't get nearly as uncomfortable and sweaty the past two nights, so it was worth it.

Emotional issues: Like I said earlier, I haven't really had any of the "I feel like such a fat cow/whale" issues. I know why my body is like it is, and the extra weight and stretch marks are the sacrifice I make for being able to have this little miracle of ours. But I've been thinking more and more about my post-pregnant body, and wondering if I'll be wearing my maternity clothes forever after he's born. As I said, I loved my pre-pregnant figure, and really would like to get that back. I know it's not going to happen immediately by any means, but I'm hoping to be able to wear my complete pre-pregnant wardrobe by the time he's six months old. I really don't want to have to go out and buy a new wardrobe, as much as I love to shop. We don't really have the finances to do that, with the baby and the move and all, so I'd end up wearing maternity clothes for a while longer. But there is hope. The way I'm carrying and the fact that I plan to breastfeed will both contribute to getting my figure back fairly quickly. In other emotional issues, I think I'm done freaking out about Junior coming early. I've been in early labor for three weeks now, as my cervix is dilating and such (ugh, Junior's got the hiccups... it gets annoying after a while), and that had me really worried that he would come early and I wouldn't have a mommy there. I told Bryan that I just wanted a mommy person that I knew to be there to talk me through labor, but he didn't believe me. He doesn't think I'd be satisfied with anyone other than my own mommy. But that's another can of worms. Anyway, for some reason, after my appointment on Wednesday, I was much more at ease about him coming early. I really think that he could come today (Friday) and I would be okay. With all the drama surrounding Bryan and my mom right now, I almost wonder if it wouldn't be for the best if he did come when she wasn't here. I'm really wondering if Bryan's not jealous of the relationship I have with my mom. I don't know, but he brought up being pushed aside again the other night, and had me really depressed the day after. My mom's a pretty understanding person, and if you tell her nicely that you need some alone time, or in Bryan's case, alone time with me, she'd be fine with that. She might be disappointed that she can't share in that time, but she'd be okay with it. Bryan isn't sure he believes me when I tell him that. The worst part is that I can't really prove it to him until the time comes. He's honestly got me really concerned about what this baby's delivery is going to be like. Here I was stressing over my mom and dad being around each other for the first time in years (they've been divorced for over 10 years and don't like each other very much), and I'd finally gotten over that, and now I'm worried about my two best friends in the world getting bad blood between them. I don't want this baby's birth to end up tainted because of this. Heck, I'm even considering doing this completely alone, no Bryan, no mom. Kick them out of the room, and try not to think about it anymore. Bryan would never forgive me, but I would really really really go off the deep end if he and my mom ended up not getting along. He's such an independent person, and he can't understand the relationship I have with my mom. She's been my best friend my entire life until he came along, and now I have two best friends. He makes me feel like he wants me to rely solely on him, but I can't do that. I better stop this before I work myself into a tizzy. I'll have to talk to him about it when he gets home from work. He's not going to like it, but it needs to be taken care of before my mom gets here. This keeps up, and it's going to be bad for everyone. Especially me.

Better go.

TTFN!!!

Hopefully the next installment will be a birth story!!!

I'm Dilating... and Waiting... and Waiting

Hello all! Very pregnant me, checking in! We are 39 weeks along today and a solid 1 centimeter dilated. I went last Wednesday for my 38-week checkup and had my cervix checked, I was one centimeter dilated. The nurse checking me had to go around the baby's head to find my cervix, that's how low he is in my pelvic cavity. As hard as she was pushing, it felt like she was trying to push the baby out my nose!!! When she finished, she seemed all excited that she had blood on her fingers... bloody show, they call it. If I had seen that without having an internal exam, it would have meant that labor was just around the corner. I tell you what, Junior did not appreciate all the poking around she was doing! While she was examining me, he was kicking all over the place. He doesn't seem to like being pushed around in there. He did the same thing when I was checked at 36 weeks to see if his head was down.

I went in for my 39-week checkup today. I've been having contractions every day, just one or two here and there, but I was afraid I was going to be dilated a lot because of them. A week's worth of contractions starting at 37 weeks was enough to get me to one centimeter. I don't want him to be late, but I want him to at least wait until my mom is able to be here. She's driving in on Sunday afternoon. I really want her to be here, so she can tell me what's going on with my body during labor. She went through labor with all three of us kids, even though she only went through natural delivery with one of us. For delivery, it's going to be just me and Bryan, but I'm going to have lots of coaching for that. Bryan's done his reading, although we should probably practice here and there on the breathing techniques. As far as labor goes, though, I know the nurses will likely be in and out during that, at least until I get dilated to a certain amount.

Anyway, I really liked the nurse I saw today. I've seen someone different pretty much every time I've been in for an appointment, but that's par for the course in a military hospital. I think I've actually only seen a doctor once, the rest of the time, it's been nurse practitioners. I know I'm seeing a doctor for my next appointment (if he doesn't come before then). But the nurse I saw today saw that I had a list, and was actually glad I was asking questions. She didn't seem like she was rushing me or anything. She answered all of my questions and asked plenty of her own. She quizzed me on when I should call Labor and Delivery, signs of labor to look for, and bad things to call immediately about. I asked her about estimating Junior's weight, because I know the weight thresholds that gave my mom trouble during delivery, and I wanted to better prepare myself for the possibility of a C-section if he was too big. So she felt around him and said that she estimated his weight to be about 7 and 1/2 pounds. That's a good weight. Of course I don't know her track record on how often she is right about that kind of thing or how far off she is on those kinds of estimates, but still, it gave me a little bit of peace of mind. She checked my cervix, much more gently than last time, and told me that I was still a one... "wow, a very solid one." She thought that maybe the last nurse was "giving me grace" when she said I was one centimeter, but she figured she must be wrong. So I may be closer to two centimeters, but still, not that far progressed. She didn't say whether I was effaced at all, though. She did tell me that the results of my Group B Strep test came back negative, which is good. I had the test done, but no one had given me the results yet. She told me what I needed to do to get pre-admitted, so that I don't have to worry about paperwork when I come into the hospital in full-blown labor. So I got that done.

I finally started packing our bags for the hospital. The diaper bag thingy that Bryan picked out came in the mail yesterday, so I could pack the bag for the baby. Here's a picture:

I was pretty skeptical about it, since I want a sling carrier for the baby. We didn't get a traditional car seat that comes in and out of the vehicle, instead opting for one that can be used from birth to 80lbs or so. I didn't want to have to lug it around all the time. But we needed something to carry Junior around in besides our arms all the time. But I was worried that this Baby Bandolier, as it's called, would interfere with carrying the baby in a sling. We'll find out when the sling comes in the mail. I was also worried that it wouldn't hold everything we'd need for Junior, but I just packed it today, and it does wonderfully.

In other news, we just installed the car seat. Bryan being a guy, he didn't want to use the instruction manual, which really frustrated me since this is such a huge safety issue, but he was already frustrated about the whole thing in general. He is under the impression that we're going to have to bring the car seat into the hospital for them to look at it. So he wasn't really thrilled about going to the trouble of installing it now just to have to uninstall it at the hospital and re-install it. So I just stood back and handed out advice as I dared. He finally got it installed, and got it level. It took about 45 minutes, but the worst part is that I know it's not completely right. I will probably go get the car seat's instruction manual later and take a look at it. That's how we did with Junior's bed; I did the manual reading while he did the manual labor. One of our biggest worries with the seat was that it would be too wide to fit all three of us comfortably and safely in our little three-seat pickup. We'd had experience with car seats in our truck with Julie, the little girl I babysit for, but we were concerned that the seat we'd bought would be wider than any of hers had been. It actually wasn't. We both fit in the truck with the car seat okay. Of course, it's not completely comfortable, but it wasn't horrible.

Anyway, I guess I'm going to end this mini-novella here and go get the car seat manual. It's getting dark, so we won't fix it tonight, but it will be good to know. We won't fix it tomorrow either, unless I drive him to work. He's on duty tomorrow. But I still want to get it right before Junior gets here, of course. Now we're just hoping that the hospital will come out to the truck to check the seat instead of having us bring it in. Hoping... hoping... hoping...

Wish me luck on this baby coming on time!

TTFN!!!

Here's the pictures I promised:

The difference in what I look like between these two pictures is amazing. You have to look close to see I'm pregnant in the first one, but I'm as big as a house in the second... Interesting...