Change of plans

As we said a few weeks ago, the birth of our baby is out of our hands and it appears to a certain extent out of our doctor's hands too. Despite our thoughts that we'd get to meet baby by the weekend, it seems it won't happen.

We had our appointment this afternoon; they estimate baby's current weight at 9 lbs, 9 oz. This was good news to the doctor as then we could try for a vaginal delivery as opposed to the c-section, so she checked me out and apparently my body isn't ready to give birth just yet - I'm still only dilated to a little over 1 cm, and I'm not "soft" enough or "thinned out" enough yet either, and to top it all off, baby hasn't engaged (dropped) just yet. So all that means they can't induce me yet, which was a disappointment to the doctor and myself. We have an appointment scheduled for Monday morning, so they'll re-evaluate then, and she's hoping to be able to send me to the hospital Monday afternoon or Tuesday at the latest to induce. So we'll see what happens.

After all the debating over the past week and thinking that we'd be parents this week, it was a litttle hard to find out that things weren't going to happen as we had thought. I think I'm being taught a lesson in letting things go; someone at my RCIA class mentioned the phrase "Let go and let God" - I think although I know that, I was trying to control this as much as I could (you know my love of planning!), so here it goes - letting go!

I know many of you were just as anxious as we were to meet this baby, but I think we're all going to have to wait just a little longer. Aaron and I are now trying to figure out what to do this weekend, maybe we'll come up with a fun costume for Halloween to make an appearance at a few parties. If you have any suggestions for costumes, let us know.

We'll keep you updated. Plan on checking back Monday afternoon as that's when we'll update the blog again unless there's a change betwen now & then. Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, and e-mails; we really appreciate them!

Decisions, decisions, decisions

For all of you who know me well, you know how decisive I am, and lately I've had to tackle some big and not so big decisions.

Last night's big decision was what face to put on my Halloween jack-o-lantern. Aaron, Naomi and I each carved out a BIG pumpkin to get in the Halloween spirit. Since the pumpkins were all the same price, no matter what the size, Naomi and I picked the biggest ones we could find. They're sitting on our front steps now, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that no youngsters will smash them. Hope they bring you some Halloween spirit too -

I also made the decision that next Tuesday, October 28 would be my last day teaching. My students take their mid-term exam that day, so that will allow me to end at a natural ending point and let the sub start a new unit. My students seemed surprised that we were already to that point, and I think they were a little disappointed that I would be leaving them, but they were excited for us nonetheless. It feels good to know what the plan is & I'm sure my sub feels the same, so she won't get a frantic call one night or morning and have to throw something together super fast.

But the big decision is with the baby. If I don't go into labor by next Wednesday, they'll be doing more measurements and assuming the baby is around 10 lbs (as the doctor is anticipating), we'll make the decision as to whether induce or do a c-section. The doctor talked to me (and my friend Naomi who went with me since Aaron couldn't) and said she would probably leave it up to me, but I got the impression that she was encouraging me to consider the c-section. She commented that she'd hate to ruin a positive pregnancy experience in the last few hours if this baby was too big for me to deliver. She's also concerned about shoulder displasia (sp?), which is when the shoulders get caught up in the pelvis; if this were to happen it could cause pelvic damage to me and potentially break the baby's shoulder or cause nerve damage in one of us. So we're weighing our options and trying to decide what to do. While earlier, I'd have probably said cut me, open me up & take the baby out, lately I've been wondering if giving birth is all part of the experience. I'm afraid I'll be missing something if I don't do it, but we'll see what we decide. Part of me wishes they didn't give us an option and just told us what we should do.

We don't know yet when it will be scheduled for. It could be as early as the next day (next Thursday) or into the next week sometime. It all depends on what the hospital's schedule looks like, and since I'm not high-risk in the hospital's mind (in the doctor's yes, because of the size of the baby but the hospital's no, because I'm not diabetic, don't have high blood pressure, etc.), I won't have first priority, but we'll see what happens.

So that's where we are with things right now, not really knowing much more but having more to think about. I'm sure this will be just the first of many decisions that we'll be making together as we start our new family, and it's so great to know that we can be open & honest with each other and have others that we can talk to as well.

If we have any more info, we'll be sure to let you know, but in the meantime we'd appreciate your prayers as we finish out the last part of this time of preparation. We leave you with Aaron's new favorite picture; he thinks it just cute how kitty and I were curled up together on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Hope you're all well & we look forward to hearing from you -

Moving right along

I never thought I'd be happy to see the end of a weekend, but I'm glad that this weekend is over. For one, it means that I made it through the immersion conference and it also means that we're only 2 weeks away from the big due date. And it seems that everything is moving along as it should be...

At my appointment last week, after waiting for baby to wake up to pass all his/her tests, the doctor examined me and determined that I was dilated to 1 cm and 50% effaced, which means that I'm 50% thinned out, so things are progressing as they should be and there's hope that by next week (the big week 39), my body might be ready to induce labor.

Aaron finished his first week of work and it went pretty smoothly. They kept him busy and he seemed to enjoy the work he was doing. He even got paid - can't beat that!

And I made it through the conference. I presented a 3-hour workshop on Thursday afternoon on struggling immersion learners, a project I'd been working on with a professor since my first fall here, and then Saturday I participated/presented in a 2-hour symposium on the language use patterns of immersion learners. I had served on the organizing committee for the conference, so it was exciting to see 600+ teachers from around the country and the world (Hong Kong, Greenland, Brazil, New Zealand, Finland, Canada, etc.) come together. The days were long though - I was there for about 12 hours on Thursday, 15 on Friday and 8 on Saturday. Saturday was pretty rough - my body wasn't too happy with me, but I made it through. I made a lot of great connections with some well-known researchers, which I'm sure will serve me well as I start my professional career here in another year or two - And I decided that if this weekend didn't push me into labor, then nothing I can do will make this baby want to come out.

He/she hasn't dropped yet, currently baby is kicking me in the ribs, and I'm starting to wonder if he/she'll ever want to come out, seems pretty happy with where he/she is. I keep trying to tell baby that the outside is more fun and that it is possible to grow outside too - we'll see if it reaches the baby or not!

A few more days until the next appointment, at which point I'll update you all again. Until then, we'll keep plugging away, waiting anxiously for any signs that "birth time" is just around the corner-

These are a few of our favorite things...

Well, we thought we'd share some of our favorite (and not so favorite) things to hear these days; we'll leave it up to you to decide which are our favorite and which are not...

1. "We currently estimate your baby's weight to be 8 pounds, 4 ounces. At birth, baby will probably weigh a little over 10 pounds."

We had our weekly appointment this past Wednesday with the doctor. The ultrasound technician did the measurements and estimated that baby weighs 8 lbs, 4 oz at this point. I was 36 weeks, 3 days pregnant when did the ultrasound, and baby's head was measuring 41 weeks, 5 days! And the abdomen measured 40 weeks. She also measured the legs, which of course were right on target - 36 weeks, 5 days. So much for the long legs from the 20 week ultrasound - All these measurements put together, places the baby in the 98th percentile. Aaron keeps telling them that we're going to hit the 100th percentile yet -

They also did a 3D ultrasound again, but baby was napping, so it wasn't quite as exciting. We still think that baby looked pretty cute though - you can judge for yourself!

When we talked with the doctor; she shared with us what the "plan" would be. If at 39 weeks, I'm "ready" to deliver (in other words, if I've started to dilate), they'll induce me so I can try a natural birth. If I'm not ready at that point, however, they'll wait until 40 weeks and reevaluate; at that point, we'd probably have to do a C-section as there's a chance that even if I can get the head out that I wouldn't be able to get the shoulders of this little butterball out. So that's what they're thinking.

We'll continue to visit the doctor weekly (the secretary now says hi Mandy when I go in!) and they'll do the same two tests - biophysical test (with the ultrasound) and the non-stress test - in addition to an internal exam. They won't actually do new measurements, however, for another 3 weeks.

2. "You're hired!"

Aaron was recently offered a job by Wachovia in their Retirement Services division. This part of the company actually goes by another name - WyStar - but it's part of Wachovia. After a few unsure days on our part with all the talk about Citigroup and Wells Fargo buying them out and how this would impact the job, we were reassured that the job was his. He starts on Tuesday, October 14. His title is Senior Compliance officer, what that means exactly, he'll have to tell you...I think it's kind of like what he did at Ameriprise though. Aaron is quite excited about the new job; he's glad to hear that he'll be busy, but I think what's most exciting to him is that he'll be less than 4 miles from home. He thinks he'll come home and have lunch with baby and I when we're here.

3. "You don't look pregnant from the back." "You look great!" "You're getting so big!"

I've been hearing a combination of all these and slight variations on them over the past few weeks. It makes me feel good that people think I look healthy, and it makes me hopeful that the pregnancy weight will magically disappear since it's all out in front (I'm sure this is wishful thinking though!). But I'll be ready for people to stop telling me how big I am - I've been hearing it for a few months now, but I just smile and say that's because I'm carrying a big baby!

4. "You're invited to a baby shower!"

Over the past few weeks, we've had two baby showers with our friends. My friend Naomi threw us a shower, complete with Brazilian food, so we could celebrate with friends from the Spanish department. The shower was to start at noon, and we laughed because at noon, only 4 of us were there - the four Americans. By around 12:45 or so, the rest of the guests showed up, right on time for the Hispanic culture. It was definitely a cultural experience and Aaron may have even learned a few more Spanish words from hanging out with all of us!

And then our friends, the Olberdings, threw us a shower for our other friends. Everyone had a great time catching up and playing baby games. The consensus seems to be that the we're going to have a Halloween baby (to share a birthday with Naomi!) and that it's a boy. I do have to say that we (or at least I) wasn't so excited when someone predicted an 11 lb, 5 oz baby!

And after all the showers and because of the generosity of our friends and family, I think we've got everything we need for baby. Although I don't know that we'll ever by ready, I think the house is, and I know we're excited to meet our little one. We're even thinking Roni is excited for baby. He has been following me around a good bit lately and is quite affectionate and cuddly. He sometimes even curls up and throws one of his paws over my tummy; baby kicking my stomach doesn't seem to phase him either. I think as long as we still play with him and he has his favorite window perch, he'll be fine...

So, that's the latest from here in Bloomington, MN. As we continue to know more, we'll keep you updated. I'm sure as we meet with the doctor and they continue to monitor baby, we'll have some updates. But really no matter what the doctors think, we know that it's out of their hands and ours; we trust that God will let the baby know when it's his/her time to be born and know that He'll continue to watch over the three of us as our due date approaches. In the meantime, we're learning patience and enjoying all the sleep and quiet that we can -