Gabriel is Here!!

Gabriel Christian Rasch was born yesterday, February 25th at 9:39 p.m. He is 21 inches long and 7lbs, 12 oz. Labor and delivery went exceedingly well and we are so excited to welcome Gabe into our family!!!

We arrived at the hospital at 8 a.m. Shawn dropped me off at the entrance while he went to park the car. I checked in and the nurses helped me get ready for my induction. They hooked me up to an IV and Dr. Howick came in to check on me. In the mean time, Shawn and I started a game of Scrabble. About an hour later the nurses came in and started my Pitocin. After about an hour and a half of absolutely no contractions Dr. Howick came back and broke my water. I quickly became a smaller version of Niagra Falls. The 24 inches + of fluid that was in the amniotic sac seemed to flow en masse forever. My contractions then began almost immediately. They weren't bad, but by no means were they comfortable. They started about a minute apart and then quickly went to about 20-30 seconds apart. I didn't have time to breathe. After about an hour the nurses came in and suggested that I get the epidural soon as I needed to be able to hold still for it to be done. I agreed and within a half hour the CRNA appeared to give me the fabulous drugs. It didn't take a whole lot of time, though she did comment that I was the first patient that she had who giggled when she was having contractions. Within five minutes I couldn't feel a thing. It was beautiful!! The next 9 hours were lovely and pain free. I napped and watched sit coms all day. I also starved. The last few hours they decided to put me on oxygen to try and help Gabe as he was becoming stressed after most of my contractions. In the last two hours I rolled back and forth and back and forth as we attempted to find a position that would help me finish dialating while at the same time reducing Gabe's stress. Eventually, I began to feel the pressure of Gabe pushing down on my pelvic floor. They checked to see if I was ready, but unfortunately the right side of my cervix seemingly refused to finish dialating that last half centimeter. Dr. Brown (the on call doctor) came in and was contemplating a C-section when I seemed to finish opening up and they decided I should start pushing. It was about 9:05 p.m. at that time. So I started. Eventually the room filled. Shawn, Aunt Patty and I, my nurse, the doctor, a couple of other nurses, the resident, and a med student were all there. While I pushed, my nurse stretched me and counted and Shawn stood at my head helping support my back and also counting. Eventually the med student and resident also began counting as they didn't seem to know what else to do. (I think they felt a little awkward just taking up space.) They even became my own little cheering squad. It was quite entertaining. I was having a hard time not laughing as I pushed because of it. (I should note at this point that I was feeling absolutely no pain whatsoever, it was quite beautiful.) After about 8 pushes I felt Gabe head down my pelvic bone and stop after just crowning. Then I had the longest wait for a contraction I had had all day. I was honestly a little worried that another one wasn't going to come. He started moving though and they told me to push. I started, he started to come out, they told me to stop (his cord was wrapped around his neck once). They fixed the problem and told me to push and in one push Shawn and I had a new son!! They handed him to me for a moment before taking him over to measure and weigh him.

End Week 39, Beginning Week 40

So here we are. It is Tuesday the 24th. I went in for an appointment last Thursday. I was slightly more dialated, but nothing else was happening. We scheduled our next appointment for today the 24th. On Sunday night, around 3 am while I was wandering about the house unable to sleep, I had some very real, very intense contractions. The full on, this baby is going to kick your butt kind. It was rough, I called for Shawn and then decided it would not be nice to wake him up if they weren't real, since he had to work at 6 am. That was a better decision as it turned out there were only a couple of them.

We went in at 8:30 am today for another ultrasound and non stress test. Gabe was busy hanging out in there, making funny faces. My fluid measured 24 inches. A couple of inches higher than it should be, but it's better than having too little fluid. It seems Gabe has to pee a lot. We went up for the non stress test, where everything was fine and I finally figured out that I have been having some contractions lately that I wasn't too sure about. Usually they hurt a bit, and I had been having some that didn't so I was very confused. I guess they were real. The doctor came in and checked my cervix. I am fully at 3 cm and almost 100% effaced. We are supposed to call at around 5:30-6:00 am tomorrow and tell them we are coming in for inducement. We will get there sometime before 7 am and they will set me up with an IV and some potocin. Dr. Howick will break my water and we'll get things going!!

Mid-Week 39

Well, I had thought that not a whole lot was going on. The membrane stripping did not seem to do its job. I'm still completely and utterly pregnant. On Saturday I went to take Maggie in for a pedicure (so as not to scratch the baby after he came) and I fell. She got away from me when I opened the car door and when I tried to grab her leash I fell. My knees took the brunt of it but I still landed on my belly. I felt alright, but when I got into the store and they told me that they couldn't do Maggie's nails because her vaccinations had expired on the 1st, I lost it and just couldn't stop crying. Apparently the fall had jarred me a bit more than I had realized. The baby is fine though and so am I.

Everyone at work was amazed when I showed up this morning at work. They were all convinced that I would have had him over the weekend. That didn't really happen. However during the first part of second hour I realized that I hadn't felt him move since Saturday so I decided to stop studying (it was P.E., I have lots of free time that hour) and wait to feel him move. Needless to say, he did not move. I went to third hour and kept watching and waiting and he still wasn't moving so my two supervisors told me to call my doctor. I called Shawn (I had forgotten my phone at home) to get Dr. Howick's number. He gave it to me and I called. My nurse said that I should drink something sugary and that she would call me back after she talked to my doctor. I ran upstairs, bought a caffeine free soda, and drank it quickly. My nurse called me back and told me to come in at 12:15 to check in for an ultrasound at 12:30. Afterward we were supposed to go upstairs for a non-stress test and then an appointment with the doctor. Shawn came and picked me up and we went into the ultrasound. He passed the 8 point test with flying colors. There is 22 inches of fluid, his heart rate was good, he was moving (I couldn't feel it) and practice breathing and all of that jazz. We went upstairs and they hooked me up to a fetal monitor and we watched his heartrate and to see if I was having any contractions. His heartrate was really steady and he wasn't moving a whole lot so they gave me juice and put some sort of vibration/sound thing on my belly to try and wake him up. I felt him move twice and then he went back to "sleeping." After awhile, the nurse tried the sound thing again and he moved once but then relaxed again. Apparently he is extremely comfortable in there. The doctor came in and looked at the readout from the machine and told me that I am actually having regular contractions that are 2-3 minutes apart, but that they aren't strong enough to feel yet. She put me on official bed rest. She had no idea what the membrane thing was from last week. She said she had never heard of that before. So now I am at home, resting, and waiting to actually feel these contractions I seem to be having. Our next visit is Thursday at 9:30 am. We'll see how it goes!

Week 38

We got quite a bit done this week. We are almost finished painting the nursery. I'm working on the trim around the door and the door itself as well as a little strip of white around the built in shelf that Shawn made. The trim everywhere else in the room is finished and put up. Shawn put the crib together. There was a recall on our crib for a specific part. However, the recall was for about 535,000 cribs so the new part is on backorder. It's a good thing that we have a separate crib in our room that Gabe will be using for the first couple of months.

We had a doctors appointment on Thursday. I was still dialated at 2 cm, and not a whole lot was going on. My doctor stripped my membrane and it seems that I found part of it the next day. However, there weren't any other changes. I didn't even know what stripping the membrane was. When we got to the appointment, Shawn told me that a bunch of his co-workers told him that I should have my membrane stripped. So we asked our doctor about it and she explained it to us and said she would do it if we wanted her to. It didn't really hurt, even though everything I read said it was painful. I'm not sure what all of those other women were talking about, I was feeling more pressure from her checking my dialation than I was feeling anything else. The doctor said that about 75% of women go into labor within three days of having this done. I asked Shawn if he wanted to hedge bets.

Friday at work it was RAD day. It is basically a planned fun day for the students with various activities that they can sign up for. I went with a group that went bowling in the morning and rock climbing in the afternoon. I bowled three games in the morning with the other three teachers that were chaperoning with me. I actually won one of the games....by like a point. I was hoping that all the movement would help get things going. Alas, it did not. However, I was very sore the rest of the day. Shawn called in the afternoon while I was at the rock climbing session. He was headed into the doctor because he has pink eye. Go figure. I could go into labor at any moment and my hubby goes and gets pink eye.

Week 37

This was quite the week. My birthday was Saturday the 31st. We woke up, took Maggie to the dog park where she wore herself out running around, went to breakfast and then came home to work on the nursery. Shawn gave me a pregnant precious moments figure. On the 4th we celebrated Shawn's birthday. I worked and then came home to eat pizza, cake and ice cream with Shawn. Shawn got the third installment of the Inheritance trilogy (which is apparently now going to be a four part series...).

On the 5th we went to our ultrasound where we found out that Gabe has his father's nose and adorable toes. Apparently my placenta is getting "old" and the sonographer showed us all of the gross stuff floating around in there. She said it looked like my water may break soon as everything is beginning to shrivel. My doctor said that all of these fluids have an expiration date. They are made to last 40 weeks which is interesting and explains how you can lose your baby if the doctors let you go too long past your due date. I can only hope that the sonographer is right and that Gabe is headed our way. I need a break from work. Everyone is getting cranky and a bit unpleasant and I just need to get out of the fray. After work that day we headed over to the hospital for the child safety class. Shawn apparently has quite the knack for installing car seats. He got it right the first time which seems to be quite unusual. So we are almost officially ready to bring baby home. The car seat is installed, the stroller is put together and waiting. We just need to put the crib together.

Week 36

So in some ways, we seem to have slowed down for a bit, but in others we're headed straight for a new baby. As of Sunday, breastfeeding will not be an issue. Gabe will definitely be fed on a regular basis. We went in for our weekly visit on Thursday. I'm still dialated at 2 cm, but I am apparently measuring larger than I should be and so we are scheduled for an ultrasound next week to check out Gabe's size. After our appointment we went on a tour of the family birthing center. It is quite nice and has two family waiting rooms, a private operating room and a couple of kitchens that are kept stocked for patient access. We went in with our paperwork already done and having read the booklets concerning the birthing process at this particular center as well as vaccines. The tour guide was particularly impressed by all of this. We got a gift bag from the clinic and I went back to work. I was really sore and tired after my visit. I am really exhausted lately and standing for more than five minutes makes me really sore. Oh, I don't know how I'm going to handle him getting bigger in there. How on earth will I be able to walk! The good news is, he seems to like hanging out in proper birthing position, so as long as he still plans on coming out the regular way, he's ready to go.

Week 35

Well, things just keep getting more and more interesting! We went to childbirth classes and a breastfeeding class this week. Shawn got to wear the fun pregnancy belly which was rather interesting. I have pictures that I'll upload one of these days. The funny thing was that the belly was 35 lbs and I've only gained about 12 so far and they wanted to put a band around his ribs to constrict his breathing a little, but apparently I am tall enough that, that was never really a problem for me. (He ended up not wearing the band because he has had broken ribs in the past.) They showed this horrid video showing three women giving birth with three different birth plan options. It was a bit graphic and I couldn't watch it because quite frankly I'll be doing it myself soon enough and I don't need to see it. I'll experience it plenty. Other than that, the class was great. There was this list of things that your body does as it preps for labor and I was able to check off all of the things on the list....go figure. The breastfeeding class on the other hand was not nearly as helpful as my lactation consultant at WIC had already given me all of the information that the class provided. Even Shawn felt like it was a bit of a wasted evening. Oh well, the rest of the classes we took were really good.

Yesterday at the beginning of 7th hour my body decided to start contracting continuously. That was fun. It started and just kept on going, and going, and going. They were definitely braxton-hicks contractions because they were all different lengths of time and really, really close together (30 seconds to a minute apart). They kept up for about 30 minutes. It was rough. I just sat at the back of the classroom praying that no one noticed me back there breathing deeply and acting a bit strange. That would be about the time my supervisor called me out to the hall. Needless to say, it was a bit difficult to get up because I was in the middle of a contraction. I tried. And failed. After breathing through it, I went out with her and explained why I looked so funny when she opened the door. I went to work at Lane Bryant after school where I probably stood for longer than I should have because by the time I finished checking out our last customer I started to have this really strange sensation of ice cold water being poured over my lower abdomen. It was very, very wierd.

I went to my doctor appointment today where, after telling her about my contractions she decided to check and see if I was dialating. I am officially at 2 centimeters. (Yes, I know you can stay there for several weeks - a fact we discussed with the doctor). However, she told me that if I started having contractions like I did yesterday that I should probably call and come in to be checked again. She made me call in to Lane Bryant and tell them I can't work anymore and told me that I can't do any shopping or standing for extended amounts of time this week in an attempt to convince Gabe that he should hang in there for at least 7 more days. She was going to make me stop working at the school but I convinced her to let me stay as long as I sit most of the day. Thankfully this isn 't a problem as everyone there is most understanding while at the same time being desperate for us paras to be there (there are lots of people gone lately without any substitutes available). So we have an appointment for next Thursday as well as a scheduled tour of the hospital in the event that Gabriel stays in that long.

Week 34

Well, what a week this has been! Walking around and standing has been getting much harder as I am having lots of lower abdominal soreness when I do. Apparently something is up because on Friday morning, after our morning meeting at work, I lost my mucus plug (apologies for the graphics). I called my doctor's office to find out if I should come in early to my appointment or not. (I wanted to make sure that what I thought had happened, actually had.) The NP told me just to come in at my appointment and we'd talk about it then. So I went back to work and eventually went to my appointment. Apparently I've lost a pound since my last visit 2 weeks ago and my blood pressure, though good, was slightly elevated (likely because I didn't know what to expect at this visit after what happened and was a bit stressed). We did the strep test and then Dr. Howick checked to see if I was dialated. Thankfully, I wasn't. However, I have begun effacing. She said it could be a few days or a few weeks, we just don't know. She said she would prefer if he hung out until at least 37 weeks, but if he decides to deliver at 35 weeks, we will. So there you have it. It seems that Gabe is wanting to join us a little early. We'll see how that goes!

Week 33

So much has happened this week! Shawn threw my baby shower on Sunday at Culver's. We had a turtle custard cake and an oreo custard cake. My two supervisors came, as well as two of Shawn's co-workers and about 6 of the girls from Lane Bryant. Jo and Mom were there too. Everyone was very generous and gave us lots of cute stuff and necessities. The girls from LB even pitched in and gave us a carseat. I am so grateful!

Shawn fixed my car this week as well! He took the dashboard cover off and fiddled around in there and got the car working again! Hooray!!! I really do have a fantastic husband! He also made our reservations for the rest of the classes at Altru this month and next. He is going to re-take the Daddy Care Basics class because he wants to learn with an actual baby. I just keep thinking how lucky I am to have a hubby that cares so much about this pregnancy and becoming a dad that he will do anything it takes to get it right.

Shawn and I worked on painting the room this week. The ceiling has been painted and the top portion of the mural wall. Once we get the chalkboard portion of the wall done, we'll finish up painting the trim and Shawn will start building the shelving unit. Our mattress for our crib arrived this week. Actually, it arrived the same night that we found our travel system. Oh, that was wonderful. We had a black travel system picked out through Walmart online but we had stopped at Target to pick up a diaper bag that Shawn liked that was on clearance and while we were there we found the exact same travel system in a black/taupe plaid color for $54 less! Oh, we were thrilled! It is actually more cute than the original one we had chosen, but we got a much better deal and it is the exact same item! So we are set if Gabe decides to arrive early. We have our crib, mattress, two car seats and a stroller. His wardrobe is basically complete and I have his quilts and boppy cover completed. Oh baby, 7 weeks!

Week 32

This week I found out that I have one more 2 week appointment and then we are down to 1 week appointments. I can't believe the end is that near! Oh goodness, am I ready for this?? We had family come this week. Shawn's mom came to visit on Thursday. She flew in from Billings. We went out to a really nice dinner at Red Lobster. Then on Friday, Jo came to visit from Madison. It is nice to have family in town. Maggie is learning how to behave with company. We got a training collar for her as a last resort and it seems to be working for the most part. She still needs some work with it, but overall her behavior with our company has vastly improved.

Gabe has gotten big enough that he is waking me up in my sleep moving around in there. Shawn could feel him jabbing me through the flannel duvet and down comforter. It freaked me out the first time it happened and now it is happening more often. I also had my first Braxton-Hicks contractions this week as well. They are quite uncomfortable but thankfully few and far between.

Week 31

We have daycare!! Hooray!! One-on-one with a certified elementary teacher, $25 a day and we don't pay for days Gabe isn't there. The weekdays Shawn has off, we can keep Gabe home. Oh it is a beautiful thing!!

Christmas was good. Maggie ate one of my presents. Shawn woke up and asked what smelled so good and I told him it was Maggie. I was confused though because she smelled like peppermint and we don't have candy canes this year, so I asked him if he put food under the tree. He said no and then got mad. He went out in the living room and starting yelling some uncouth terms. I came out and a Burt's Bees gift set was shredded all over the living room floor and down the hallway. It seems that Maggie loves those all natural ingredients. The funny thing was, that present had been sitting under the tree for days and she never showed any interest in it until Christmas morning....

Gabe is getting bigger and I have to wear my maternity belt all of the time. I am really sore otherwise. I went to the physical therapist and she said that I don't have to go anymore since I have most of my pain under control now. Though, she did give me a free month at the Therapy pool so that I don't have to go back and see her. I'm excited about that. It really helps.

We started painting the nursery this week. The blue for the bottom of the walls is awesome. It is a really brilliant blue. It is going to be great!! I'll post pictures when we get it all done. It may take about a week and a half to two weeks, so be patient!

Week 30

Hello! This was a rough week! On Sunday the 14th, we had a huge winter storm come through. 48 mile an hour winds, -50 wind chill, blizzard conditions and warnings of life-threatening conditions from the National Weather Service and the Deptartment of Transportation. Needless to say, our District Manager decided we had to open up the store anyway. Oh yeah, that was fun. A four foot snow drift made friends with my car and now my defroster doesn't work. I have 1/4" of ice inside all of the windows. Shawn has spent the week attempting to unfreeze the defroster with a space heater inside the car during the day when he's home. The district manager believes that our lives are worth little compared to the $25 we pulled in that day. Yes, she actually told me that we needed to get over our fears of winter weather and come in no matter what the conditions are outside because it is a business and we just don't matter as much as that.

I went to the doctor this week. That went well. We talked about what I want in the delivery room and all of that jazz. Apparently I am slightly anemic, so I am taking extra iron as prescribed by my doctor. Gabriel is getting huge and I am having the toughest time bending over and getting up and down. It is quite interesting. We had an interview with a daycare provider today and are hoping to hear back from her soon. She was really great and it would be one-on-one with Gabriel. She has a little boy that she is homeschooling for preschool and is a certified elementary teacher. Her husband works for the school district. Oh the day is getting near!!

Week 29

Well, last week was alright. Grandma and Grandpa Weber came over to visit. Their trip was cut short by weather, so the butterball soup was never made. Shawn and I have been trying to find a time to make it in our busy schedule, but it has been to no avail so far. We ordered a crib while they were here and are waiting for it to be delivered. I heard several times about the disappointment of Gabriel being a boy and not a girl, but other than that the visit went well.

I started my physical therapy this week. On Tuesday I went in for my first appointment and my therapist showed me several excercises to help strengthen my round ligaments and back to relieve the stress on my back and joints. She also gave me a support band that is just amazing. I had been holding my tummy up when I would go up and down the stairs at work, but now I don't have to! When I take it off every evening it feels as though I have gained about 20 extra pounds to haul around. I went to the therapy pool on Friday and spent about half an hour doing excercises and hanging on a noodle to stretch my back out and get Gabe off of my hips. Now I will be going to the pool a few times a week on my own time and then on the day after Christmas, I will go in for another appointment with the therapist to see how things are going.

Week 28

This week has been pretty good. I threw up last Saturday while driving in the middle of town. That was an interesting experience. Thankfully I had a bag in my car to use while I was driving. I couldn't pull over because I was in the middle of town and in the middle of traffic. It was rather rough. I was so excited too, that I was finally going to be able to go to a doctors appointment and tell them that I hadn't thrown up at all since my last visit. Hahaha, so much for that!

I've been rather achy and sore. The doctor referred me to the physical therapists. I have my first appointment on Tuesday. I am also going to get one of those pregnancy support bands to see if that helps with the pressure on my sciatic nerve and the strain on my round ligaments.

Shawn went to Daddy Care Basics at the hospital where he learned that it is his job to protect me from decisions being made without my permission, crazy family members and bad nurses. They talked about making the house safe and what they hope for their children. He also put up the sheet rock in the nursery and shampooed the carpets. He has been really busy getting the house ready for Gabriel. He's working really hard in his spare time to make everything baby safe. He is so awesome!!

Week 27

This week was Thanksgiving of course, so we went to a friend's house and had dinner. Actually, in the morning we went to breakfast at one of the big truckstops here in town after we went and picked up a paper. We had breakfast and looked over the ads for Black Friday so that we could figure out what we were going to do for gifts. We then came home and relaxed for a bit and finished up making some food for dinner. Unfortunately dinner didn't go quite as planned and we didn't go over to our friend's house around 3-4 pm as we had planned but rather went around 6 pm which was about the time the turkey was actually put into the oven. Needless to say, we didn't eat until about 10 pm. It was good, but I was tired and we went home about 11 pm.

I got up at 3 am so I could get to Kohl's for the BF sale. This was a totally pointless endeavor as I ended up not purchasing anything there because I was refused service. Yes, the salesgirl actually refused to check me out. I won't be shopping there ever again after that incident. Then I went to Walmart where they didn't actually have everything that was in their ad, but I was still able to get a few things I was looking for. I headed over to Lowe's to see how Shawn was and found the store rather dead which I thought was interesting. I picked up some Christmas storage and a few extra gifts and then headed over to Kmart. I was able to get the rest of our gifts there and it was actually rather pleasant and not too crowded. I finished by going to Michaels and getting some Christmas decorations. Then I worked from 11-4. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I got home that I fell asleep rather early and woke up about 12 hours later still sleepy.

Gabe has been moving around like crazy this week and I am having lots of aches and pains lately. He is stretching the crap out of my muscles and it makes it hard to move around. Our next doctors appointment is this coming Wednesday and then we will start going every two weeks. It's getting closer!!

Week 26

This week has been a terror at work. I love the kids I work with, but I swear they were on sugar highs all week. They were rude and obnoxious and would not be quiet for anything!! It was rough, but it's done now thankfully. Next week is Thanksgiving break so I don't expect them to be great, but maybe after it's all done and we come back they will be better.

I went to a Mommy Care Basics class at Altru Hospital on Thursday. It was about an hour and a half. It was conducted by a physical therapist there at the rehabilitation center who showed us different ways to deal with all of the fun physical ailments that come with pregnancy and talked about how to deal with all of the fun stuff we'll have to deal with after birth. Then we went downstairs to the gym where we practiced excercizes that will relieve various pains. I talked to her about the sharp pains I've been getting in the past couple of weeks where my legs meet my pelvis. She told me that I should try going to the therapy pool two or three times a week for about a half an hour each to relieve the strain on my abdomen from growing Gabe. She said it might have something to do with how low he is sitting. So, for now, I will be literally rolling out of bed like an old lady and hopefully getting to the warm pool a couple of times a week. We'll see how it goes!

Week 25

Let's see here, I started a new job at Lane Bryant this week. On the one hand, I get a great discount on all kinds of great stuff. On the other, I am pregnant and can't buy clothes. So here I am with access to great stuff at great prices but can't buy any of it. I guess I'm just going to have to deal with the fact that Gabe is making me be financially responsible!! :) He is definitely getting bigger and my tummy is finally starting to show a little bit. I still look like I'm only a few months along, but at least there is something to see now. I started crocheting his layette this week and am excited for it to be finished! It will probably take me awhile since I'm working on it here and there, but it will be great when it's finished. It's going to be a little sweater, cap and booties and if I get time a little afghan. I'll post pictures when I'm finished, though like I said, it will be awhile.

Week 24 Continued

I forgot all about the great show we went to on Sunday last week! We went and saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra!! It was awesome! A little long, especially in the hard stadium seats of the Alerus Center, but still soooo great! I'm sure little Gabe was wondering why the world was vibrating. The light show was great and the music was fabulous! There was a Christmas program and then another separate music set. It was about 2 and 1/2 hours without an intermission. I was mad that Shawn had spent $42 a ticket before we went but after we got there he informed me that $5 of each ticket was an additional donation for the local Humane Society on top of what was being donated from the purchase of the tickets. That made me feel a little better and after the show I definitely felt like we had gotten our money's worth. I highly recommend going to a show if you get a chance!!

Week 24

Wow! What a week! On Monday, we had another ultrasound. What an experience! I drank 27 oz. of water, 5 less than I did for the last one. Before I even left the school I could barely walk (I didn't feel like that until after the last one...). Shawn picked me up and I was seriously uncomfortable by the time we got to the clinic (about 8 blocks away...) By the time I down to the ultrasound wing I felt like I was dying. The tech told me to lay down to try and make it better. It didn't, it just made it worse. The tech left to check our last photos and I spent about 10 minutes trying not to cry and in my crazy state realized that I am going to be really, really bad at labor. I mean, I can't even handle having to pee! When the tech came back I apologized for being whiny and he turned on the machine. He tried to look at Gabe but couldn't see anything because apparently my bladder was too full (a great irony since they tell you that if your bladder isn't full they will reschedule your appointment). So, the tech, my saint, let me pee. Oh goodness if that wasn't just a fantastic relief! Then he got to looking at Gabe and told us that Gabe is really low. That explains why I'm still not really showing and why I am only feeling him move at the very bottom of my tummy and nowhere else.

In other news this week, our candidate won!! Hooray for Obama!! I'm so excited to see what will happen, but apprehensive at the same time that he won't live up to expectations. There is so much riding on his presidency for so many reasons that I hope he is able to handle the pressure. We'll see! Gabe will be born into one of the great historical moments of our country and I am so thankful that not only I, but my children will be alive during this great moment in history!!

Week 23

Gabriel has been moving around like crazy. Shawn finally got to feel him for the first time yesterday morning! Boy, did I get a big kiss. I think Shawn may finally be coming out of his state of shock and denial that this is actually going to happen. He's been so afraid for me and that the pregnancy wouldn't be finished that he's been afraid to let himself get excited. The water heater broke a couple of days ago so I went without a warm shower for awhile. That was an interesting experience. Shawn and one of his SCA friends fixed it yesterday morning and for that I am so very, very grateful!! I finished my last week of homework for my literature class and now only have my final to take. Thank goodness for that! One less stressor in my life! I am working at a place called Party City through the first week of November and have begun gathering fabric and notions for making the nursery bedding. We are going to start purchasing wood and drywall to build the shelving unit and redo the wall in the nursery so I can start the mural. We have our next appointment and ultrasound a week from Monday.