bis baby shower

our director threw a baby shower for us at her house on sunday. it also doubled as jen and olive's welcome to bishkek party.

the last supper

my mom had us down for our last "life before olive" supper on sunday afternoon before we headed to the hospital. the dinner was crazy and rushed but lovely and great at the same time. my mom always out does herself... she is a modern day julia child. grilled pork chops. sweet potatoes. asparagus. good stuff. i am pretty sure she is the one responsible for my lack of weight loss (aka "weight gain") this summer. it was good family time as nancy, bobby, deana and buddy were there also. my mom also got me a small digital photo frame so i could take images of olive with me back to bishkek when i leave. sigh.

thanks for a great dinner mom.

our last day without a child

tonight we are scheduled (at 700pm) to go into the hospital to induce labor. the actual labor won't happen until monday morning... tonight is all about ripening and such!

odd, scary and exciting to think that today is our last day without a child. by this time tomorrow olive will be kicking and screaming her way into the world.

i can' wait.

nothing says maternity photos like sears

about two weeks ago we felt "inspired" to go and get maternity photos at our local sears store. we felt like supermodels... like brad and angelina. we also felt pretty cheesy but we are glad we did them.

day five

five days overdue and still no sign of olive. well... there are plenty of signs. she kicks and twists and turns all the time but alas... our daughter is not very bright it seems. she can't find the exit.

three days

olive is three days overdue. we just returned from dr. woolfolk (jen, her mom and myself) and were told that the baby still isn't ready to come out. she looks "beautiful" in the words of the doctor but still "cooking".

jen had some false contractions last night for about an hour and a half and then one "real" contraction in the middle of the night... but that has been it so far. the doctor wanted to induce tonight since we are at 40 weeks plus but we scheduled for sunday night/monday morning instead as we really want to do all natural with minimal to no inductions. dr. woolfolk said she believe that olive will come before then but just to help things along... we should walk alot and have sex alot. that was fun to talk about in front of jen's mom. even more fun after we left the doctor's office and jen's mom came up with a schedule of when she would walk with jennifer and when i would "do her". good times!

waiting

a post from jen's blog...

Waiting.

This is such a strange feeling.

The Waiting.

Our doctor said that we could induce on Sunday but I really want to have the baby without inducing so we canceled the induction and are waiting it out.
Could today be the day?

Each day I think that it could be the day that would change our lives forever; seeing our little girl. With help, I finished the baby quilt tonight. Now she can come. Last night, I had about 10 contractions. I knew that they weren't painful and uncomfortable enough to be the "real thing" so I didn't even wake up David. Then today went by. I have had lots of Braxton Hicks contractions but nothing big enough to get us packing and rushing to the hospital. I can't make a call to my family members without the first question they ask being "Is she here yet?" or "Are you in labor?"

David went and did some errands today and I called a couple times. Each time he answered the phone in a panicked voice. After about the third time I told him I wouldn't call anymore unless I was in labor!

So, I think we have tried all of the recipes for jump-starting labor that I have heard of. I guess now she is just going to come when she is ready. And, really, that is just fine with us.

Dilation Envy

a post from jen's blog...
Dilation Envy

We went to our doula's house today for the birth prep class.
The woman sitting next to me at our birthing class was dilated to 2cm and had a due date of August 24th (mine is Aug 16th). I admit, it was the first time in a long time that I felt jealous.

David and I admit that we hadn't met our daily fill of cheesy 70s movies (remember those outdated church videos?) so I'm glad we went to the class today. Five hours is a long time for some pregnant people to sit. But, thanks for the complimentary water.
We reviewed charts and signs of labor, asked questions, and then watched 2+ hours of video (from a tape...who has a VCR anymore?) on videos of real labor and births, breastfeeding, and then what to expect after the baby is born.
Informative, overall.

And, don't worry, David, I won't say anything about you falling asleep during the videos. : ) They weren't about anything you didn't already know.

(He had a very long, sleepless night at his dad's house)

Anyway, I'm really excited to meet little Olivia. I wonder what she will look like, what her personality will be like, etc. It's hard to wait.

But, I'm enjoying my sleep in the meantime.

sweat shop central

jennifer has been sewing like crazy since we have been home over the summer and has perfected the art of making wonderful, cute and adorable dresses for olive.

our daughter is going to be so much more stylish than her parents!

the car seat

jennifer and i have been dorks when it comes to getting ready for olive. my dad and gloria got us a really sweet stroller/car seat and we have been toting it around with a doll (which has an oversized head like our soon to be born daughter) buckled in. we took it/her over to my dad's and had fun playing with it and pretending olive was already here.

it was fun but sad at the same time... not knowing if olive would arrive before my dad dies.

Dresses for Olive

from jen's blog Joy in the Journey...

Anticipating a girl gives me lots of sewing options. Too many, perhaps. So, eventually, I made the leap to make this little dress. The first time was pretty experimental. It's not perfect but it is very sweet and have little shoes that match it perfectly. I love the lime green with this color pink.

The dress came out tons better the second time around. I used some fun Amy Butler fabric coordinates (about 1/4 yard of each). The ruffle is more organized on this one and I like the finished look that the border on the bottom gives.

Here are a couple dresses that I've made for Olive in the last few days. The pattern is really simple and only takes about half an hour to sew since there are no buttonholes or snaps. There are tons of ways to embellish (which I haven't experimented with much) besides the border at the bottom of the red and blue dress. The pattern can be found here.