the boy who cried birth

This morning was similar, but different. Different in that Katrina's contractions woke her up before 4am. Different in that the contractions were even more intense, and she lost a bit of blood. Different in that she threw up. Different in that after several stopped then false starts, this seems to be it! We will keep you all in touch.

38 weeks

How your baby's growing: Your baby has really plumped up. He weighs about 6.8 pounds and he's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). He has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold his hand for the first time! His organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If he's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If he's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time he's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after he's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

Another week down and I'm still pregnant. I have given up all expectations that this child will come early. He comes when he comes. It does seem he certainly has a flare for the dramatic though. At least I know he will definitely be coming out in the next 2-3 weeks. Hopefully he's not too huge by then. I'm just really grateful he's healthy and so glad he didn't turn out to be a preemie. Good luck this week to Rachel and Emily who don't have to play the wait and see game with their babies! It's been so fun going through pregnancy with good friends--even though we live far away.

labor and SYTYCD

I spent the majority of the day yesterday in more labor before it petered out in late afternoon. The closest the contractions got were 4 minutes apart. Sigh. Not even the full moon helped. This morning we went on a nice little hike and that doesn't seem to have done much either. Oh well. I'm thinking maybe this kid is gonna hold out for his dad's birthday on the 29th. That also happens to be the day my doctor is on call, so maybe he really wants her to deliver him. :-)












Switching gears to So You Think You Can Dance... was anyone else appalled that Kherington went home on Thursday instead of Comfort? I certainly was. Personally, I don't think that Comfort should have even been brought back at all. I thought she should have gone home weeks ago. They should have just not eliminated a girl this week since Jessica got hurt. Comfort is a good hip-hop dancer but she has only been so-so in the other styles. She should not be in the top 10. And although Kherington didn't have a good night on Thursday, she is such a better dancer than Comfort! Come on people! I also wish that Mark would have gone home instead of Gev. I think Gev has really improved over the show and turned out to be way more impressive than I was expecting.

finally some photos from the beach

I finally got around to going through our photos from our family vacation at the beach last month. Here are a few of them.

The first moments at the beach.

The kiddos

Two white folk at the beach.

The beautiful sandcastle Lauren made.

I love this one.

Hilary and Me.

Hilary looking chic under the umbrella.

Miss Olivia wet from a swim.

Mr. Isaac after he got hit by a wave.

Miss Grace running. She did a lot of that.

Olivia

Grace making her latest fake photo smile.

The whole gang at dinner on our last night there.

cable sadness

The new season of Project Runway starts tonight, but I will not be watching it. The free cable package at our new place does not include Bravo. Oh the tragedy! I guess now I'll be happy that next season it will air on Lifetime. For all you PR fans, enjoy! At least I still have So You Think You Can Dance.

bishop's score

I had another doctor's appointment today. Nothing too eventful other than that I gained another two pounds. I am packin it on here at the end. Dr. S didn't even check my cervix today which is fine with me. If it was the same as it was last week after all the contractions and such I've had I'd have been depressed, so better not to know.

After the appointment we hit up Costco to stock up on foodstuffs. I figure we won't be making it back there for awhile so we kinda went all out. We pretty much bought our weight in cereal. I had some good contractions while pushing that heavy cart around and more since we've been home. Fortunately, I haven't had the crazy cramps so that's nice.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. In pregnancy books you read about the Bishop's Score. It is a scoring system used to determine whether labor is likely to start spontaneously and how likely an induction is to work. I was curious what mine would be so I found this chart and figured it out.

Based on my last cervical exam, which was last Tuesday at the hospital, my bishop's score is an 11 or 12. Guess what the highest possible score is? 13! So pretty much I'm basically in labor. Any guesses as to when this kid is gonna make his appearance?

37 weeks

How your baby's growing: Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Despite several attempts otherwise, little Asher has made it to full term! Watch, now he'll probably go late, crazy kid. I am really grateful that he made it to full term though. I saw a baby on TV that was born at 34 weeks and was super small and had to be in the hospital for weeks. I feel so blessed that Asher won't be in that position.

I just wish I knew what was going on with my body. I had pretty intense cramping yesterday morning for several hours. It was the worst it's been yet. I couldn't even really tell if/when I was having contractions because the cramping never ended. I finally got in the tub and that helped tremendously. I would rather have rhythmic contractions than just constant cramps because at least you get a break between contractions. But when I don't have the cramping, I feel pretty darn good considering. I still feel like my pregnancy has been pretty easy physically. There's just been lots of drama.

And I did end up getting a hair cut on Friday. I got some more layering so it will now be much easier to just let it dry naturally, and I can still pull it back when I want.

summer tv

Remember back in the day when all that was on TV in the summer were reruns? Well, isn't it nice that these days we get so much more to choose from? Like reality tv shows. I'd like to share with you my favorites.

So You Think You Can Dance

This show is awesome. I have watched it the past three years and the dancers and choreography just keep getting better. It's from the same producer as American Idol, but the show is set up much smarter. To go from 20 to 10 dancers, viewers call in for their favorites, but then the judges get to pick one girl and one guy to go home out of the bottom 6 dancers (3 couples). This assures that the really good dancers stay in at least until the top 10 and don't go home due to ignorant viewers. Once it gets to the top 10 then only the viewers decide. The show airs on Fox on Wednesday and Thursday nights. We are just barely at the top ten now. I highly recommend checking it out. There are some seriously talented dancers on the show this year, but our favorite to win is probably Will.

The Next Food Network Star

This show has been on for several years and I've never watched it, but this year I happen to know one of the contestants--Kelsey Nixon. Kelsey was a year or so behind me in my Broadcast Journalism program at BYU, and I actually helped her produce and edit some of the first episodes of her cooking show--Kelsey's Kitchen. It aired locally on Provo Cable. It was a really fun project and a great learning experience for all of us. Kelsey is SO driven and focused. She is also extremely nice and fun and just plain adorable. After she graduated from BYU she went to culinary school and now she's on the Food Network! It has been really fun watching her. She has made it to the top 4, and I'm hoping she makes it all the way. The show airs on Food Network on Sunday nights at 10 pm eastern. Check it out! Also here is a link to where you can vote for fan favorite. Go vote for Kelsey so she can win some cool prizes.
Now it's your turn... any favorite summer tv? Or are you too busy with fun summer activities to watch this time of year?

what is the deal?

Yesterday I had more intense contractions for most of the day. I was able to ignore them and still do things some of the time--with breaks when a big one came. I also took some time to lay down and get in the zone with my HypnoBabies stuff. And we took a walk. But they didn't get any closer together than 5 minutes. The only thing different is that I'm losing more of my mucus plug. Lovely, I know. And now after reading Ariana's comment about painful false labor for 2 weeks(!) I am getting paranoid. On a good note, I have been able to sleep well. (Except for the many bathroom breaks.) I've also been getting some really good HypnoBabies practice in.

So far this morning has been uneventful, but they didn't start yesterday until about 10:30, so we'll see. I honestly have not been anxious for him to come since he's still early, but I don't want to go through days and days or weeks of this. It's not very fun.

nothin

I continued to have contractions last night but I was able to go to sleep. And this morning.... nothing. Well not nothing nothing. I still have been having the normal mild tightening kind of contractions, but not the intense onces like yesterday. So this kid might be staying in awhile longer yet.