It's been a few days since your last post from me, so I figured I'd take the moment of quiet while Jeni's feeding Hosea to just relate a couple of recent happenings in the Price house, free association style.

For a few days there, our happy little baby was still little, and still a baby, but not very happy. Actually, he was pissed. Almost continually. His only serene moments would be between waking up and taking his first suck on the bottle. After he'd gotten about an ounce down, he came off screaming. He then continued to scream, taking only an ounce or two more, until he crashed from exhaustion. Needless to say, that was not so enjoyable for anyone involved.

The cause of his discomfort was most likely the fact that he was gulping pretty massive amounts of air as he ate. We were told at the hospital the day he was born that he has a tongue-tie; the little flap of skin on the bottom of his tongue comes to far forward and prevents him from lifting his tongue up into his mouth, a skill essential to breast feeding and desirable for bottle feeding. We have an appointment with the surgeon at the Sick Kids hospital next week to have it snipped, but till then we have to work around it.

Jeni went to a breast feeding clinic last week, to get some help and feedback on feeding Hosea. They gave us some great tips to help him be happier now, as well as to be able to transition back into breast feeding easier once his tongue tie is snipped. We now feed him from the bottle with him lying on his side on a pillow. It's been a big help and has eased a lot of his discomfort.

Shifting gears, that breast feeding clinic is one example of why it's so great to have a child in the UK, or at least here in Edinburgh. Jeni spent two hours at the clinic on Tuesday feeding Hosea in a room full of other women who'd come to get help as well. She got about half an hour of one-on-one time with the hospital's lactation specialist. This clinic is every Tuesday and is completely free. My guess is that that's the sort of thing you'd pay a bunch of money to attend in the States, and over here she can stop by every week if she likes.

Another great thing about having a baby over here is the midwife and health visitor system. After your delivery, women are sent home earlier in the UK than in the US. It's not unusual for a woman having a normal delivery to be in and out of the hospital with a baby in well under 24 hours. That may seem rushed, but they don't just send you out into the cold, cruel world on your own. A community midwife visits you at home every day for at least ten days after the birth to check on the health of both child and mother. When they are satisfied that everything is going well, they hand off care to a health visitor who comes around once or twice a week for the next month or so. They're the one who does all weights and measures of the baby for his or her first month or two of life. The health visitor even gives the baby his or her first vaccinations. In other words, there's no reason to go back to the hospital unless something really drastic happens. All your standard neo-natal health care is handled in the home.

Speaking of home life, another exciting thing that happened this week was that our shower just quit working yesterday. Jeni needed (NEEDED) to take a shower pretty badly, if for no other reason than emotional stability, when our shower wouldn't switch on. Our shower is electric and makes its own hot water. Fortunately, repair people from the University were able to come out the next morning to install a new shower, one that's a lot nicer than the old one!

So what have we been doing with all our time that we haven't been able to find time even to shower? You might guess that the answer is taking care of a baby, but that alone would leave us with plenty of time to get everything else done. The real culprit is none other than the board game I mentioned a few posts ago, BattleLore. We're absolutely addicted to this game. We're now playing the last of ten scenarios included with the base game, and we're itching for more. I'll be going out next week to buy the Call to Arms expansion as a birthday gift to myself. The game has a bunch of cool expansions, so if anyone out there is wracking their brain about what to get us for a birthday, belated birthday, belated baby shower, belated anniversary, or early Christmas gift, here are a few hints.

Speaking of awesome gifts, I got an unexpected card in the mail today from Jeni's parents and grandparents, thanking me for taking care of their daughter, grandson, granddaughter, and great grandson (No wonder I'm so tired!). They sent along a hefty gift card for Starbucks which will be well used. Thank you so much!

Speaking of coffee, Starbucks is great for all their blended sugary, carmelly, chocolatey creations (which carried Jeni and I through her finals last school year), but if you're in Edinburgh and want just a regular cappuccino, but demand that it be a transcendental experience, Kilmanjaro Coffee is the place to go. This place is about a 1 minute walk from our flat and is the best straight coffee place I've been to. Be sure to stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

Well, that's about it, I think that's the last link of my free association chain. Oh yeah, in the time it took to get this post written we've actually done two feedings, two nappy changes, two spit ups, and an hour's worth of fussing for no apparent reason. Ah the joys of parenthood. We're off for two hours of sleep!

Wow, I can't believe he's two weeks old already! He is about 9 lbs now, and getting bigger every day. Here are a couple of shots from the last week or so:


Matt and Hosea out to run some errands:

The Bottle Brigade (yes, we're bad people who prep bottles in advance instead of making one at a time):

Taking a little nap in the Moses basket. The socks above his head were attempted mittens, but he's good at thwarting our anti-scratch efforts.

Oh geez, Jeni killed the baby.

On Saturday, a fantastic bunch of people threw Hosea (and us) a baby shower! Yay!

It included friends, food, and a fantastic vegan chocolate cake:

Emily and Russ made us the awesome "nappy cake" with eco-friendly nappies, toys, a sippy cup, liners, and a blanket. And some Butt Paste.

Here's a blurry action shot of me drinking, eating, and holding a baby. See, I am improving!

Oh yeah, he's still adorable. Those feet, oy.

Here's Hosea after a bath. Does he look happy? It's 'cause he just crapped on the towel through to my leg.


So that's been the last while in the Price house. We're still trying to establish some sort of feeding/ sleeping pattern. He's been doing this mystery screaming thing, which we can't really figure out but seems somehow related to eating (e.g., maybe gas, or eating too fast , or something else). In ay event, we love him a lot and are excited to see what the next two weeks bring.

That is what I said to my ankle bones the other morning, when I woke up to find they had reappeared in their former glory. Slowly but surely, I am in fact recovering, both from the parturition and from the pregnancy. My belly looks saggy and soft, but much flatter; my stretch marks are beginning to fade; I am able to stay awake for more than an hour at a time; I can cough and laugh without holding my scar.

All that's left to do, really, is figure out how to be a mother.

What if I can't get him to burp? Why is he still crying? Why does he seem to like Matt more than me? How do I tell what he needs? How in the heck to I fold that nappy? More than anything, how do I convince this tiny, squishy, confused creature that I'm worth loving?

It's pretty overwhelming, and a lot of the time I'm terrified that I'm going to somehow mess up, and make it so he resents me for the rest of my life. (jeni, you say, you're being irrational. yup, I know.) I also feel, while we're discussing irrational thoughts, that I somehow missed my chance to bond with him while I was recovering from the surgery and the mystery bug, and that now it's too late and I'll never feel like a real mother.

Hmm, pregnancy hormones much? I know they are at least part of it, but I feel like I'd still be overwhelmed even if I wasn't all hormonal and weepy.

It's not all bad. I am getting more used to taking care of him. I am not as scared to be left alone with him for awhile, and I feel less resentful of Matt when he seems to know what he's doing and I don't. Pumping is going very well, and he's eating about 50/50 breastmilk and formula. But there's still this part of me that feels so desperate and doubtful. I've spent 2 weeks being a mom and I still feel almost as awkward and clumsy as the first night.

Moms out there, did you ever feel this way? If so, how did you start feeling more confident in your mom skillz?

Tomorrow is Hosea's 2-week birthday. Expect some ridiculously cute pictures then, or maybe today if I figure out how to post pictures one-handed. Matt very considerately hooked the pump up next to the lappy, so I am checking blogs with reckless abandon every 3-5 hours. Whee!

At least two written documents already have our son's name down as Jose Bruce Price.

Nice.

Also, I am bad at 1-handed typing.

Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, and advice! We have been much better in the last couple of days. I am feeling a lot better (i.e., consuming more than one banana every 48 hours) and have thus been able to help out a bit more for Matt. Hosea is still ridiculously cute, even when he refuses to go to sleep at 4:30 in the morning. Cloth nappies are working out very well; they really aren't all that inconvenient. Ummm... I think that's the short update. I hope to take a shower today, I think that will be a nice change from the squalor to which I am accustomed.

I heart you guys!

Sorry y'all haven't gotten more regular or informative updates from us in the last few days, things have been pretty hard. Jeni has some sort of mystery ailment, or combination of mystery ailments, which prevents her from doing very much aside from lying in bed. Until this evening she hadn't been able to hold down any food for the last two days, which has sapped away all her energy. I've been pretty much on solo Hosea duty, with the notable exception of help from Emma, who's come over for the last two evenings to help out with stuff.

Speaking of which, if anyone here in Edinburgh would like to drop by for a few minutes to lend a hand, mainly to hold Hosea while I do simple stuff like take out the recycling, we'd really appreciate it. Just give us a call when you want to come over.

Also, I'd like to apologize to those of you who've been expecting phone calls from us, and to family who we haven't spoken to since we got home from the hospital. Hopefully we'll be able to make those calls in the next day or two.

Ok, how about some good stuff? Hosea's doing great! Every one who sees him, from the midwives to random people on the street (I've gone out with him twice now), say he looks fantastic. He's doing everything a healthy and happy baby should be doing, and we're remarkably thankful for that. Another praise, even in the midst of her feeling poorly, Jeni's been doing a great job nursing Hosea. At each feeding she nurses him for a while before we give him formula, and he's been taking less and less formula each time. We're not there yet, but we're at least on the right track to getting off the formula.

Finally, please pray for Jeni as she figures out how to get back to school. It's going to take longer than we'd originally planned for her to get back, perhaps significantly longer, and that's been causing her a lot of stress.

Did anyone ever say that it's hard work parenting? It is.

Also, I am really feeling low, both physically (recovering from surgery/childbirth) and emotionally (feeling useless because Matt has to do literally everything since I can barely function).

Matt is hanging in there, though he is "far down on his rope" from waking up during the night for Hosea as well as taking care of him all day. I really, really want to help more at all, but I just... can't.

Hosea is still cute, incidentally.

Pray for us.

Woot!

Here's a shot of Hosea in his going-home outfit:


And here's one of our neighbour/awesome friend Emma feeding da bebe:

Now we're all frickin' tired, so it's bedtime.

Howdy, y’all! This is Jeni, the absent yet very much present third of the venerable Price trio. I’m glad Matt has been keeping you well up to date with the happenings here at the Royal Infirmary. I have some internet access (“unlimited”, but so awkwardly crappy it makes my head hurt to think about it), but it won’t let me use blogger, so I can’t post directly from the room. I have read all of the incredible comments you’ve left; I can’t even describe how happy/grateful/weepy it’s made me feel to know you guys are hanging around on the ‘tubes thinking about us. Yay for fantastic friends!

I think I get to go home tomorrow. I’m a little scared about that (what if something happens? What will I do without 4 midwives/nurses at my call? How do I live without an adjustable bed?), but mostly I’m excited about the thought of being home with my husband and our son. I’m still recovering, obviously, and I definitely feel as though I had major abdominal surgery 3 days ago. I can’t see my scar since my belly still comes between it and my eyes, but I’m told it looks “good” by the doctor. My milk still hasn’t come in, which is super frustrating. Body! Do what you’re meant to do! Lactate, I say! But I’m pretty much okay, and I am so grateful that Hosea and I made it through safe and sound.

Aside: isn’t Hosea incredible? I can’t believe him. He’s so smooshy and soft and fantastic.

So, some of you have emailed asking for gory details about why I wound up needing a C-section. I’ll do my best to chronicle that here with a minimum of freaky medical terms or blood.

We went in for the induction at 1 p.m. Monday, and were promptly seen at, um, 5:30 p.m. I was given dose number 1 of prostoglandins, which are supposed to thin out the cervix and start dilating it. After 2 or 3 doses of prostoglandins (at 6-8 hour intervals) they then break your waters and give you a hormone to start contractions. I was told to expect some cramping, and to just hang out until dose number 2 in the morning. So Matt and I went for a walk, then played some Rummikub, and I sent him home.

I read for about an hour, then called Matt to wish him goodnight, then crawled into bed to try to get some sleep. Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, a sharp crampy pain went through my abdomen. Lame, I thought, these cramps from the medication are really painful! I massaged my belly and closed my eyes. Another cramp shot through, then another. Hmm, these seem really close together. And regular. I looked at my cell phone clock- it said they were coming at 5 minute intervals. Yup.

At this point, my brain sounded like: I can’t be in labour! People start having contractions at 15-20 minute intervals that get *gradually* closer together. Who starts labour at 5 minutes? Are these even real contractions?

I walked up and down the hall and talked to a nurse, who said it might be or might not be, and gave me some Tylenol for the pain. I decided, in any event, to call Matt, who had only left under the promise that I would call him if ANYTHING happened. As I was talking to him, I had another “cramp” and I think that impressed him; he decided to call for a cab instead of waiting the hour for the bus. As I waited for him, I climbed into the tub in my room, which helped a pretty good amount.

By the time Matt had arrived, I was in considerable discomfort. I got out of the tub and we decided to go for a walk. Almost as soon as we left the ward, the contractions (which pretty much everyone agreed they were) were coming about 2-3 minutes apart, but we decided to continue with our walk down to the cafeteria for some coffee for Matt and juice for me. I was in pain, but I just had Matt hug me and tell me stories during the contractions, and it was okay.

However, by the time we got back to the ward, I was significantly less okay. The nurse gave me “gas and air” (laughing gas) to breathe during contractions. It may or may not have helped, but at least it made me feel woozy and distracted. They had me hooked to a monitor for awhile, then wheeled me into the room where I was, theoretically, to give birth. Once in there, I was so uncomfortable that I asked for an epidural. By the time that arrived, I had been in labour for about 3-4 hours, and there was no way I could have lasted much longer.

Pain of labour, incidentally, is the worst pain I have ever experienced. Ever. I’ve been thrown from horseback, slipped vertebrae, broken bones, etc. and nothing even comes close. Man oh man, I am a wuss when it comes to birthing babies. The flip side is the sweet sweet miracle called the epidural. As they were putting the catheter in, they mentioned how once it kicked in I could take a nap and I almost laughed at how ridiculous that thought was. But the relief was so complete that I actually did snooze for a few brief stretches. Wow.

Anyway, they checked my progress before they gave me the epidural and I was at 3cm. When they checked 2 hours later, I was at 5, and 3 hours after that, at 8. All in all, a textbook labour progression. However, my contractions pretty much stopped when I was at 8 cm. They went from strong every 2 minutes to moderate every, oh, 5-7 minutes. 2 hours later, I was at 9cm, and they sent in the doctor to check me out.

She said that he was posterior but also that his head was positioned wrongly. Instead of coming straight out, he was headed out “ear first” (kind of. Not that extreme, but in that direction). She decided to give me another hour with some drugs to make the contractions stronger to see if he’d shift at all once I was the rest of the way dilated, or if they’d be able to shift him.

After an hour, I was still at 9 cm and he was still in the wrong position. In addition, the drugs had made the contractions stronger but not closer together, and the stronger contractions were causing him distress (his heart rate was dropping pretty low during each). They recommended a c-section, and I concurred. During all of the excitement, too long had slipped since my last epidural top-up, so I was in a lot of pain, and they said they needed to wait (obviously) until I had some stronger epidural drugs on board. However, my body did not co-operate very well and it took almost another hour before they were satisfied with my anaesthetic. Actually, they still weren’t completely satisfied since I had some sensation, but since I told them I didn’t mind feeling it as long as it didn’t hurt, we were set. Oh, and since the epi took so long, they examined me once more to make sure I hadn’t dilated, but I hadn’t. That last 1cm was too much for my uterus, apparently.

The actual surgery was super fast- 10 minutes from scalpel touch to hearing Hosea screeching his way into the world, and another 35 before I was all stitched up. I discovered that despite the curtain I could see the surgery through the reflection in the lamp, so I kept myself entertained while Matt and Hosea were getting checked by the paediatrician.

And that’s pretty much it! We have a son, he’s awesome, I have a scar, etc. He’s been super healthy and much happier since he’s been getting enough food. I can’t wait to get him home and get on with our life as a family. Whee!

I just realized as I was putting these up that Jeni doesn't make an appearance in today's pics. I guess it's all up to the Price men today.


Here I am wearing our baby sling thing.


A hand! Who's in there?


Oh, just you. You still think you're cute after three days?


Here's Hosea being less cute while getting his first bath.


But don't worry, he got cute again pretty quick afterwards.

That's right, at least for the time being The Scot Vet is going to be replaced by the Hosea show, all Hosea, all the time! I apologize in advance to those of you who can't stand when new parents suddenly can speak of nothing but their kid, but this is our only method for the next few days of getting pics of the little bugger back to family in the States, so please bear with us for a bit. For those of you who just want more cuteness, the man of the hour won't disappoint!



Today was a reasonably happy and sleepy day. We're starting to figure out what makes him happy and what upsets him. Also, he's started eating in a more serious manner, which may be the biggest difference from yesterday to today.



Jeni is doing great as well. She's getting more mobile with each hour that goes by. I think she even managed to get a few hours sleep in today as I took Hosea out of the room and walked him up and down the hall, or read a book while sitting in the quiet room with him asleep. I'm just shy of halfway through A Prayer for Owen Meany which I'm loving, even though for the first half of the day he only let me read a paragraph at a time.



Any fans of baby feet out there? Hosea's got some pretty cute ones. They're ticklish, too!



The biggest thing we've been dealing with for the last two days is feeding this little guy. Jeni hasn't had the best luck breast-feeding so far, but also by no means near the worst. Her milk has been slow to come in, a problem only compounded by the fact that with his size comes a serious appetite. He's also a bit tongue-tied which makes it difficult for him to latch on correctly. At about four in the morning last night, after being awake and angry for hours I'm told, he got the shakes pretty bad from lack of sugar so we started supplementing Jeni's feeding with formula. The above picture shows me feeding him from a little cup, which interferes less with his learning to nurse than a bottle would. He's taken to eating really well, and the midwives think Jeni should have no problem over the next week or two phasing out the formula and feeding him all herself.

And the best part is that a full baby is a happy, snugly baby:

Nelle with Hosea.


Laura with Hosea.


Getting the hearing test.


Konked out.

Konked out was how Hosea spent most of his second day, I guess to make up for the fact that he was completely wired and alert for his entire first day. He's also loud, or at least can be. Jeni says she actually doesn't mind. She has exercise induced asthma and sometimes finds herself short of breath hiking around the city, especially for the last month or so of her pregnancy. Anyway, she figures that any kid who could be this loud has obviously got a healthy set of lungs.

It was great to have visitors today. Nelle and Laura, two of Jeni's fellow vet students came to the early visiting hours, and Colleen and Emma, two of our former neighbors from when we lived in the old building, came by later.

Other than that, Jeni's cesarean recovery is coming along perfectly. She's sore, but has been able to get in and out of bed on her own, shower, and walk up and down the ward a few times. Hosea's health seems great so far, and of course that's the most important thing.

There he is, our big happy son Hosea Bruce Price, who made his dramatic entry into our lives at 1:52 this afternoon. As you probably guessed from the previous post, Jeni got started with active labor, strong painful contractions, at about 11:00 last night. We'll give you the details of the following thirteen hours in some future post. What's important to know now is that labor ended with an unexpected cesarean from which both mother and child emerged admirably. Also important to know: Hosea weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long at birth. His eyes are dark blue, which will lighten up over the next few weeks I'm told, and his hair looks to be, what else, a sort of reddish blonde. Jeni and Hosea will be in the hospital recovering for at least the next three days before heading home.

Here're two shots of Jeni with about 30 minute old Hosea:





Here's me with a slightly upset 6 hour old Hosea (He doesn't particularly like being held like this.):



And yes, Jeni and I were laughing our heads off at how close you guys came to unintentionally guessing his name in the comments of this post.

P.S. Jeni won't have access to the internet while in the hospital, but can accept calls on her mobile phone. If you're adventurous enough to to brave the sea of digits and charges required for trans-atlantic telephony, email me at guitarmatt@gmail.com for her number.

We went in today for the induction which happened only after 5 or so hours of waiting/bargining with the nhs. I came home to let jeni spend the night there, but not she wants me back.... taxi's waiting, gotta run!

Hopefully, the next time we put up a post you all will get to find out just how gorgeous our son is!

Well, tonight is our last night of not having a child (cause we probably won't *have* a child tomorrow, but we'll *be having one*). We went out to lunch today and played board games and napped all afternoon. It was really awesome. I am so excited to have our little Methuselah soon (since that's everybody's guess for the name), and so thankful that he and I have stayed more or less well up to this point.

We're off to grab some drinks with some friends, and enjoy child-free company for the last time for awhile. Set your clocks to 1:00 p.m. Edinburgh time tomorrow to start praying for us- that the induction and labour would go smoothly, that I would be strong, that Matt would be a good labour buddy, and most of all that our son would arrive hale and healthy into the world A.S.A.P.

Love you guys!

Well, I figure you all are probably getting tired of the lame mini-updates, so I'll give you a semi-real post instead.

As you all know, I'm due to be induced on Monday. While it would be nice for him to be born naturally oh, say, 3 weeks ago now-ish, he seems pretty comfy in there. I have had many of the (uh, gross) pre-labour signs in the last few days, none of those have been followed by actual labour, so my guess is that he's holding on to the bitter end. I am just so excited to meet and hold him! We almost definitely have his name picked out. As in, we have it picked unless for some reason we see him and it just seems wrong. But we both really like it, it's a cool Biblical figure, and it's unique, so there are some pluses lined up.

So the deal is that Monday at 1 p.m. we go to the hospital to begin the induction process. In all likelihood, this means that he will be born sometime on Tuesday. Oh, the irony in the fact that his birthday will probably be 9/11. NEVER FORGET our son's birthday! At least it wasn't on the 5th anniversary or anything. Anyway, they want to keep me tethered to monitors/i.v. lines once they induce, so I get to chill in a hospital bed for awhile. Whee! Matt and I are going to scope out our chances of having a massive board game tournament.

Said tournament would not be all that different, actually, from the way we've been living the past couple of weeks. Matt and I love board games in general, but we've both been really into BattleLore, the game we bought recently. It's pretty complicated and intense, much closer to a RPG or the like than anything I've played before. Matt is still much better than me, but I've beat him a few times. More than anything, it's a great way to spend a few hours together with our brains turned mostly on (as opposed to an I Can Has Cheezburger? reading extravaganza or moving together through 12 episodes of King of the Hill).

I am feeling much less frustrated and grouchy than I was last night. I was going to make us salad and garlic bread, but I forgot 2 key salad ingredients and waited too long to start the garlic bread, so we just had (bland, semi-stale) garlic-less bread and pathetic salad
for dinner. Then I decided to make up for it by getting us ice cream sundae ingredients. They were delicious, but fudge brownie ice cream plus Hob Nobs plus Mars Bars does not equal a belly-friendly sundae, so we both felt sick afterward. Sigh. However, several rounds of Bookworm and a relatively good night's sleep made me feel much perkier, especially combined with a gloriously warm and sunny day today and two games of BattleLore.

So that's the extremely interesting news here at Casa Price. Our son will be here very soon no matter which means he chooses to enter the outside world. Matt and I are really geeky board game enthusiasts, and one should not choose lame bread if one is going to eat said bread without copious amounts of butter and garlic.

What's new and exciting for you all?

Not yet. On the upside, I made a really terrible dinner tonight, then ate so much sugar for dessert I gave myself a stomachache.


I'm going to bed now to try to banish this foul mood I'm in.

...but now I'm sick, so hopefully he'll hold off a day or two until I'm better. And until our house is clean. And until we we become responsible adults ready for caring for a child. And until we get in a few more games of BattleLore.

So I've heard that Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Well, I noticed that Jeni didn't post anything up here today, so to stop the speculation before it starts, no we haven't had the baby yet. He's still quite content it seems to stay holed up in Jeni's belly for the time being. As far as labor protocol goes, you'll probably get a quick "we're headed to the hospital now" post if we're not too overwhelmed. After all, at any given moment our most visceral impulse is to sit down for a while on the internet, often beating out eating, drinking, sleeping, or going to the bathroom. This is the way I envision it going:

Me: "Love, your contractions are three minutes apart and are so painful you're constantly writhing in agony. If I listen real careful I think I can actually hear a muffled crying coming from your belly. I really think it's time to go..."

Jeni: "No...must...search...food-blogs...for recipes.....for...therapeutic...labor baking...Just one more......batch of....muffins!"

Thanks, everyone! It's so nice to have friends (real and bloggy) to check in on me. I feel special.

-I had another BP panel today and it was more or less okay, so I'm less worried. My BP was around 138/72 while we were there, with one higher reading and a few lower ones. No big deal, and I got to watch myself having contractions on the monitor, which was fun. The Nessie was sleeping soundly for the first 15 minutes or so I was on the monitor, which freaked me out a little since he, well, never sleeps. But he woke up and was doing jumping jacks for the second have of the monitoring session, so I caled down.

-Anastasia, I have had protein in my urine for the past 3 weeks which is one of the main reasons they were worried. However, it hasn't been *that much* (whatever that means) and my BP wasn't any higher today and I haven't had any abdominal pain, so they're not all that worried.

-The doctor did a membrane sweep on me, which can sometimes bring on labour naturally within 48 hours. I'll let y'all know if I start feeling anything serious, but for now I'm just at semi-regular Braxton-Hicks every 35 minutes or so, with more painful contractions sprinkled in at odd intervals.

-The doctor also told me that my son has conveniently flipped into a posterior position. I can expect longer labour, more back pain, and other fun goodies. Yay, me!

-Matt and I walked for a long time today: around the obstetrics unit at the hospital, across the Meadows to get to the bus to go to Easter Bush, from the Bush to the stop that would take us to Costco/Ikea, to Ikea for a pit stop and some meatballs, to Costco for chicken, and back to the bus stop to get home. We also took many buses: the 33, the 49, the 31, the 15, the 47, and the X47. I am really tired.

-Since 6:10 is too early to go to sleep and too late to nap, I think we'll play a game or two before bed.

-Almost here, son! I can't wait to meet you!