Rolling Over!

The average age a baby rolls over is three months. Today, Ace is 41 days old, a solid 6 weeks old and he rolled over from front to back. :) Yep, he’s already ahead of the curve in many ways, and now we’ve got it on film! Loving Husband was adjusting the snaps on his outfit while he laid on this tummy and Ace just flipped right over. I missed it and so LH propped him back on his tummy and Ace did it again… and the third time is the video you can see. Ace also is eager to walk. If you hold him under his arms he will put one foot in front of the other and walk toward you. We only have video of one step though at the moment because he became fussy – when we have more steps, that video will be posted as well.

Other events in the last two weeks include discovering Ace’s affinity toward the color orange. He is infatuated with it – and when you take it out of his eyesight he becomes instantly fussy. This began a week or so ago with a pumpkin. I was at QFC with the stroller and picked up a small round pumpkin and stuck it on the tray. Ace was zoned in on it the entire time it was on the cart… followed it through checkout and as soon as it disappeared into the bag, began to cry. I put it back on the stroller and he was a happy guy again. I thought it was a fluke or simply a bright color… not particularly orange. He’s less than 2 months old why would he already have a favorite color? But it was solidified for me when out to lunch with Vanessa at the mall we were in the Disney store and Ace was looking all around and when we got to Nemo he followed it as I pushed the stroller on by and was craning his neck to see him. I put him in his stroller and he stared at him intently. Needless to say that little $5 Nemo came home with us. So it’s the perfect time of year for my boy who loves the color orange.

Loving Husband’s now fully back into the swing of things with work and is quite happy when he is home and gets to hug his family. Yesterday, Ace had his 6 week pictures and they turned out great! They will be ready on the 18th and I can’t wait for them to be here. Stay tuned for more updates as Ace continues to bust through all those averages and smoke all the other babies in his age group. :)

One Month Old

It’s hard to believe that at 4:14am one month ago, my life was about to change forever. It seems like Ace has been with us forever, yet only one month has passed since he joined us in this outside world 31 days ago at 4:15am. It has been a blessed month and I will always remember my first month as a mother, a role that I love dearly.

Ace’s fourth week of life came with some additional firsts: His first trip to trivia! His first bottle. His first outdoor wedding in the rain. He outgrew newborn diapers.

We also discovered/confirmed in this fourth week of Ace’s life that he is afraid of the dark. You say impossible to know? We disagree! It came to our attention that he’s never been in entire darkness since his emergence from the womb. When we were in the hospital, there was always one light on (not terribly bright, but not simply a “nightlight” either) since coming home Ace sleeps in our bed between us, and because of this we’ve always had a small desk lamp on. The first time Ace was in pitch blackness (more or less) was on our drive home from community group one night. Some of the roads that we take don’t have street lights on them… he became extremely fussy as we drove down those roads – similar to his cry of hunger, but as soon as we got back to street lights… he calmed down. Just a few nights ago, he was laying on my chest to head back to sleep after being changed and fed (he usually sleeps on me for at least one of his sleep cycles) and so Loving Husband decided to turn off the light (he doesn’t sleep as well with light on) and the second LH turned off the light our little guy started to cry. We turned it back on and he calmed down. Poor little guy, guess we’ll have to slowly introduce him to the dark.

Much of this fourth week of life was starting to get into a pattern of what most of our weeks will be like. Monday, September 15th Ace made his first trip to trivia – we didn’t make it there on time, but we didn’t really try to either. We went for an hour and Ace was wonderful he woke up and enjoyed everyone’s company and said hi to Matt our favorite trivia announcer. :) Tuesday night was community group – Ace’s second trip to CG. Wednesday, Ace and I went to do some errands and that went very well. He slept through his trip to Target and woke up at the end of our trip in BabiesRUs which was ok because they have a mother’s room, so we just stopped in there for a snack and then were on our way to get me some food and then head home. Wednesday, September 17th was also a first for our little man: his first bottle. Loving Husband and I (mostly LH) got my pump ready and working and so I pumped Ace some milk to take with us when we headed out for dinner. He was quite agreeable to take the bottle; the milk just has to be warm enough for him. Currently he is not a baby that enjoys cold or room temp milk, and that’s ok. Thursday was a relaxing day for all of us, enjoying one of the few days left on Loving Husband’s paternity leave. We went grocery shopping! Friday, Ace and I met Sabria and Vanessa for lunch at the mall and to pick up our pictures from JCPennys. We enjoyed a little shopping at the mall and then Ace and I left to go do a bit more shopping another trip to Target and then to Fred Meyer and Ace was great the whole time. The ability to carry a bottle around also helps me out and doesn’t make me quite as fearful/stressed to take him out.
Fall has also started to arrive this past week. We saw our first good rain on Saturday; unfortunately it also coincided with our friend’s wedding. So we bundled up our little guy and headed to an outdoor wedding in the rain. It was still very pretty and actually not that cold of a day so it worked out well. Saturday was also the first day I was able to fit back into my wedding rings! My diamond had been shed in late May, so it had been quite a while since I had worn it – and then my wedding band no longer fit in mid June. I told LH, it’s nice to be married again! :)

Sunday was a lazy morning and afternoon followed by church in the evening. Monday marked the first day of fall; Ace’s first season change! It also marked another mile stone in our household: Loving Husband going back to work. Monday was a very transitional day for us, considering the fact that I slept until 10:45 and Ace until 11:30 and then we left the house at 1:30 to go meet Loving Husband down at work, where we picked him up. :) So really a short time. Tuesday, was another trip to community group – Ace was very alert and relatively happy. It also marked a first for mommy! Due to the lovely pump AND for Claire getting a new job (yay Claire!) mommy was able to enjoy a glass of champagne! Yum!

Today marks Ace’s one month birthday! This was topped off with a trip to the doctor. Ace weighs 10lbs 4oz (63%) and he is 22.5” long (84%) and his head circumference is 38.5” (57%) he is a very healthy average baby. He has a little knot under his right nipple which the doctor believes is a gland exasperated by existing maternal hormones that are still working their way out of his system. We’ll keep an eye on it, but most likely it will simply go away on its own. He also has developed baby acne; again the doctor is not concerned and says that it is pretty normal. He likely will outgrow that before his next appointment.
Truly it’s hard to believe that an entire month has gone by. Ace has started to smile and truly does recognize both of our voices and faces. Sometimes I wake up and just stare at him. He’s growing so much and changing every day. He’s going to be crawling before we know it. Stay tuned for more updates!

Three Weeks Old

Three weeks! The days and now WEEKS are flying by. Already Ace can hold his head up more than he doesn’t. He is trying to crawl already, in fact if you put him on a blanket and allow him to push his feet off your arm he will scoot as long as you let him go. He gets tired/frustrated after a while because he can’t just go – he knows the process should be easier. :) And he likes to stand and work his leg muscles. His hair continues to grow and grow – Loving Husband really wants to cut it and I continue to refuse. He’s growing up too fast, a haircut already?! No!

The third week of life also introduced a new event for Ace. Showering! Yup we’ve found that when both parental units are home and able to coordinate shower time together it is the easiest way to get the little man clean (along with ourselves) Often we end up running out of hot water toward the end (poor Loving Husband) but both mother and son are able to get fully clean and rinsed in the warm water. Ace actually loves the shower. He’s done so well, and doesn’t fuss at all when his face gets wet.

Most of Ace’s third week of life was spent with his grandma and great grum from California. They were here from Tuesday through Friday and spend the days and evenings at our house cuddling with Ace. We went out one afternoon and enjoy some sun and spent some time at the local tourist shopping center. It was a great visit and we all agree that we wish they were closer to us so that they could see Ace more often.

Also this past week Ace enjoyed a “play date” with Sabria. AKA Vanessa and I went to lunch. In fact it was a riveting outing for Ace who slept through the entire thing; which was nice for mommy for sure. :) Ace also attended his first community group and did very well for the most part. He even spoke his mind during prayer for a short moment.
Saturday was spent sleeping in and for Ace sleeping most of the day away. Catching up after all the visitors we suppose. He still prefers to sleep on someone or near someone so it doesn’t leave much freedom for one of us (typically me) to be free to move around and do other things, but that’s ok – I love to be near this little guy. He makes the most adorable noises when he sleeps, stretches, well pretty much all the time. His eyelashes have also started to come in – and they are long and luxurious like his dad’s :)

Today is another nice and sunny weekend day. Loving Husband and I were able to sleep in until 11:30 (of course we were awaken at 4am, 7am and 9:30am for diaper changes and feedings) but the in between times were plenty to store up some good rest. We then went for an outing to return a few things and get us some food and then back to the house to watch some more recorded Olympics (we’re down to the final day, which is good considering we had 30+ hours recorded) We are currently getting ready to go to Ace’s second church service. He did very well at his first for the most part, he needed a feeding and a change in the middle, but that is to be expected.

Ace is growing happy and healthy and seems to be doing a-ok. It’s hard to believe in another week our little guy will be one month old! I’ll be taking him back to get more pictures done (as I hope to do every month as he grows this first year.) He has his one month check up on the 24th with whom we hope will be his primary pediatrician (the woman we saw the last two visits was nice… but doesn’t have any children of her own and we’d like someone that has kids.) We shall see. Loving Husband’s last week of paternity leave is upon us and so this week to come we’re going to try and get on a “work schedule” for sleep. We shall see!

Two Weeks Old

Another week has come and gone! Ace is two weeks old. He’s growing so fast, and starting to make more eye contact and look at more things. More firsts for Ace as time continues on.
Monday, O and B brought us dinner and brought their almost 6 month old little girl. She’s adorable, and growing like a weed. It makes me sad and excited to see what Ace will be like in 5.5 months.

Tuesday, Ace got to meet Vanessa and Sabria who brought me lunch and spent a few hours here. It was good to see her. Sabria just in two weeks that I haven’t seen her already has grown so much and is smiling like crazy – she is adorable and hard believe that she’s over two months old already. Claire also stopped by to bring us dinner which was very sweet and we’re still enjoying it even today. Delicious! Loving Husband and our neighbor T also were able to fix our garage doors that have been broken since April!! It’s great to have working garage doors again!

Wednesday was a low key day just stayed at home and took a walk to see the duck ducks! No visitors just a day for our family. It was nice.

Thursday we all got cleaned up and made our way to JCPennys to take family photos! They will be ready on September 19th and they all turned out great. 12 days old and he’s already quite photogenic. Loving Husband is convinced he will be the most photographed baby on the planet – it’s probably true. Only on his 15th day of life and I already have over 300 taken. Many duplicates of the same pose – but he’s only this size once in his little life.

Friday was Ace’s second doctor’s appointment to check his weight. He has grown another three quarters of an inch and is now 22” tall! Which places him in the 93% for height. He gained another 8 ounces for a whopping 8lbs 7oz total placing him in the 46% for weight! He’s doing just fine and looking adorable. This past week he’s started to develop his little milk gut – looks pretty cute in all those onesies he’s fitting into. This week he officially out grew one outfit, and really it was simply due to poor craftsmanship – because the only place he’s outgrown it is in the arms. At least he got to wear it once. :)

On Saturday we enjoyed Ace’s first trip to a wedding. Our friends from community group, Dan and Celeste got married and we attended with our little man. He slept through the ceremony and did very well all through the reception. It was a short wedding, so that was good for his first one. He looked adorable in his little polo shirt. We have another wedding in two weeks, an outdoor wedding! On Saturday, we also stopped by to meet the latest arrival of Johnathan, born on Thursday to our friends Brian and Jayme. He was a 9lb+ baby and doesn’t look all that different from Ace – lots of hair and adorable. In fact they both got fussy and hungry at the same time. They should be good friends.

Today we have enjoyed relaxing and giving Ace some tummy time and watching him inch along the blanket on the floor and turning his head from one side to the other, trying very hard already to try and crawl. Here in a bit, we’re headed to church for Ace’s first church service. We’re loving every minute we get to spend with this little guy as he continues to grow.

One Week Old

It's truly hard to believe that Ace has been here a week+ He already is learning so many things and (as most parents say) he is ahead of the curve. He is already grabbing and pulling at things, mimicking his daddy who sticks his tongue out at him, and very alert. Two nights in a row we've managed to get decent sleep with him waking up twice to feed. He sleeps in the bed with us, so it's really easy to lean over give him what he wants and fall back asleep for a while as he enjoys his 3am and 6am snacks. He wakes up around 9am and stays mostly awake with some short snoozes until late afternoon and then sleeps soundly for about 3 hours. Then repeat short snoozes and awakeness until bedtime.

He had his first outing on Wednesday which was a trip back to the hospital for a mommy and baby check up. He passed with flying colors and mommy was deemed to be on the road to recovery. After the trip to the doctor he was tuckered out and so while sleeping he ventured to BabiesRUs with Loving Husband and I, who picked up a few more items to add to our supplies for baby Ace. Then it was back to the house. J

Friday was Ace's first doctor's appointment. He was one ounce away from being back at birth weight and had grown another quarter of an inch. He's in the 88th percentile for height! Perhaps he'll be like Uncle Derek, because he certainly isn't getting the height from myself or Loving Husband. He also received his first Hep B shot and took it like a trooper. I think taking the bandaid off was more traumatic than the shot itself, poor little skin. After the trip to the doctor we headed home after getting mommy and daddy some Jamba Juice, yum! Later that day we headed to Target for more diapers and a few other essentials that we needed around the house. Another trip to BRU to get more diapers was also necessary since Target didn't have any. Friday night this week was a far more pleasant evening at home, as I was not in labor and could just enjoy the company of Loving Husband and my little boy. We watched a little Olympics and started to watch a movie in bed until Ace fell asleep and we followed in suit.

Saturday was a nice day we slept until about 9am and then spent the day entertaining and snuggling with Ace. Then we took him for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a nice day with sun breaks off and on, so it wasn't too hot or too cold. Ace was bounced around in his stroller some, but he didn't seem to mind. He got to meet the neighbors who have all been on baby watch for a while now. We drafted a thank you for the nice neighbors that brought over bread on the day we brought Ace home (yummy bread too!) and delivered that to them and then we were back inside for the rest of the day. Well at least I was.

Ace decided to cause quite the havoc though after his walk. Which really was mommy's own fault, but still I was trying to help the little guy out. After our walk we stopped at our neighbor T's house (two doors down from us) introduced him to Ace and then Ace and I went home, leaving Loving Husband to talk to T about our garage door predicament (springs are broken). I took Ace upstairs to change him and to nurse and when I changed him his little bum was a tad red, so I figured I'd let him air dry for a bit, we've done it plenty of times with no issue. I cupped a washcloth around him to be safe (ha!) and started to feed him. I was feeding him on my right side, when all of the sudden my left leg felt wet, my left breast was safely tucked away and so it couldn't have been milk... nope I look down and my little man had pooed quite liquidly into the washcloth, onto my pants, the pillow he was on, down onto the wood of the chair and onto the floor… and Loving Husband was outside with T. Crap! (literally) Luckily Loving Husband came up to grab something for T and I said take him, he attempted to argue that T was waiting, and I explained that a biohazard took precedent. So he took Ace and I stripped out of the soiled attire and washed my leg and then went to mop up the chair. The pillow itself had been spared it was only the pillow case that had gotten it, so that was good. Loving Husband merely put a new diaper on him and put him in his crib and ran back to work with T, but I had to get the stuff cleaned up… so an unhappy Ace was crying away in his crib. All in all not so terrible – got it cleaned up and went back to nursing. The rest of Saturday was relatively uneventful, some more Olympics watching and bath time for Ace, then off to bed between 11-12am.

Sunday, August 31, 2008 – Ace has been in this world for a week now. It just doesn't seem possible that this much time has gone by. Today we will be introducing him to Grandma Carol and Aunt A, along with Troy and Jackie and Brad and Angie. Celeste and Dan from community group will be bringing us dinner tonight, which we are very thankful for and looking forward to introducing them to Ace as well. It's a busy day with many visitors. Happy One Week, Ace!

Ace's Arrival

The story of Ace's arrival into the world begins with my final trip to my doctor on my due date, August 22nd. Dr. C was hopeful that he'd arrive on his own and that induction would not be required, and so when I was at my appointment she messed with my cervix to begin the process of prodding him along. Remember when I left my appointment I was 75% effaced and 1.5cm dilated. My appointment was at 3pm and for the rest of the evening I was generally uncomfortable with some cramps and light bleeding from her messing with my cervix. I spent the majority of the evening in bed, messing with pictures and drafting the blog of being due. Around 10pm I started to have contractions. I didn't have high hopes that they'd lead to much of anything since I had previously had some in similar strength. They started to come in intervals of 25 minutes, the next would come 10 minutes later, then back to 25… and were lasting close to a minute each. I was chatting with Carrie off and on – she headed onto bed and wished me the best (aka that the contractions would stop and start promptly at 9am after a nice night of sleep.) :)

Around midnight – 1am the contractions were relatively consistent and coming about every 10 minutes and lasting the 45-60 seconds in duration. Both Loving Husband and I (night owls that we are anyway) continued to go about what we had been planning for our Friday evenings. I enjoyed myself some Law and Order on netflix and Loving Husband continued to enjoy playing WoW, he continued to check on me as the hours continued to press on. The contractions around 3-4am started to get closer together and were around 6 minutes apart. One joyous addition to these contractions is that I had to pee literally after every one of the contractions. I must have peed close to 300 times by the time we finally went into the hospital. Around 4am Loving Husband laid down to get some sleep, and I having lost the attention span for Law and Ordered laid down and tried to doze myself between the contractions. I had some minimal success. Between 5-6:30 they were consistently 5 minutes apart and occasionally only 3 minutes apart. Finally, around 6:15am on Saturday, August 23rd, I had Loving Husband call the hospital and they were able to assess that it would be fine for us to come in and get checked out.

The ride into the hospital wasn't too bad and I was hopeful that they'd tell me that I had progressed considerably and that Ace was well on his way. We arrived and checked in and I was on monitors by 7:06am, right at shift change. J We met our nurse Cecy and she started monitoring everything and finally checked me out. I was 80% effaced and 1.5cms dilated!!! You've GOT to be KIDDING ME?! I had been laboring for 9 hours at this point and I had "progressed" 5% on effacement?! Needless to say I was beyond discouraged. Cecy called the doctor, who didn't even need to see me to know to send me home to continue to labor some more at home. I was experiencing non progressive labor.

We head home and I try to eat some watermelon to help me stay hydrated and get something into my stomach. Mind you my contractions are still 5 minutes apart, lasting now from 60-90 seconds each. I try different positions to help the baby align as suggested by Cecy, mostly before then I had been contracting while laying on my side. So I tried my knees, standing and even sitting in the tub for a while. At some point I threw up a half dozen times, and finally after being in labor now at home for an additional 5.5 hours, I told LH to call because I was getting to my ropes end in being able to handle the contraction and the vomiting and the unknowing feeling that I wasn't progressing. LH called the hospital and actually the doctor called us back with a few options: meds to stop the labor, narcotics to dull the pain, etc… but to come on back in and we'd assess where we were.

At 2pm we were back at the doctor, Cecy checked us back in and hooked me up to all the monitors again. Ace was a happy baby in utero and his heartbeat was a steady 150 as usual. I had progressed to 90% effacement and 3cm after 16 hours of labor. I saw the doctor and she said they'd keep me. They also ran through my options of drugs. Both LH and I were opposed to any narcotics and so I asked if it would be too early to get the epidural. It had been my goal to get to 5cms before requesting it… but I also had planned that my labor be less than 16 hours total. Things just weren't working out as I had foreseen them. As we were walking to my room, my water started to leak. Excellent!

We got set up in the room, you are assigned one nurse during labor and delivery, so you have constant round the clock care. So for the remainder of the shift (7:30am-7:30pm), Cecy was our nurse. She got me all hooked up and ready to go for the epidural, rushing because the anesthesiologist was going into an emergency c-section and that would have delayed my epidural. Needless to say, I had to wait five more hours for my epidural. I finally got it put in place at 7pm. Between 2pm and 7pm I'm not sure what all went on truly. I know that we did some initial check in questions, LH ate dinner – I was in no shape and had no desire to eat. I basically was in and out of consciousness. Sadly NOT unconscious for the contractions which were quite strong and still 3-5minutes apart lasting 60-90 seconds. The only good thing is that the having to pee after every one had subsided earlier that afternoon.

At 7:30pm epidural in place, I felt great! I finally was awake and couldn't feel a thing. I was pretty wired up to monitors by then due to potential complications that come with epidurals, but luckily I was not affected by any of those. We were nearing 20 hours of labor and shift change. We said goodbye to Cecy who said she'd stop in the next day to meet our little guy and were introduced to Molly. She was very nice, she checked my cervix and I was nearly completely effaced and 4cm. 20 hours and 4cms…. But I didn't really care anymore – I couldn't feel anything. I took some time to rest and sleep a little, but not much. I saw Dr. Whitman again (the doctor on call for the weekend, Dr. Chein would not be delivering our baby) and she recommended some pitocin to get my contractions to moving closer together, so they started that drip.

1am rolled around and Molly went to check my cervix and she was like oh wow, I wasn't expecting that… and to be honest after all that I had gone through, I was guessing I'd be at 6cms or something equally discouraging, but she said that I was 9.5. She had another nurse come in to verify and she was in agreement, so they had me lay on one side to get that to help that specific target area and away we went. Now between 7pm and 1am the epidural had been completely numbing me and at others times I was starting to feel the discomfort of the contractions again, but I had a button to push for more! They checked me out and I was fully dilated. Time for pushing. Molly had gone to take her lunch and so another nurse got us started on the pushing. I pushed for 20 minutes and then Molly returned it was about 2:30am and I could feel a lot more than I should have and the button wasn't helping, so the anesthesiologist came back and gave me another dose. I requested a breather until 3am to just enjoy the numbness and doze off for a tiny bit. At 3am we started to push again, I had major hip pain in addition to the contractions that I could still feel to about a level 5 pain scale. Around 3:30 Ace's heart rate went way up to 190, and so it became more urgent to get him out. At 4am Dr. Whitman came in and they agreed they needed to use the vacuum to get him out. They only had so many tries with the vacuum otherwise they would have had to take him by cesarean, but I was able to push him out and only have a slight tear at the perineum.

Ace arrived into the world at 4:15am on Sunday, August 24th, to a room full of nurses urging me through my pushes and a very faithful, attentive and loving LH. Due to Ace's elevated heart rate, we had the labor and delivery nurses in the room as well as the NICU nurses to check him out immediately after he made his debut. Loving Husband was not able to cut the cord because the doctor wanted to get Ace checked out ASAP, she plopped him onto my stomach for a moment, he was so warm and beautiful and then quickly out of my arms. He was quite gurgly, but other than that he was perfect. Everyone said they were amazed at how big he was and how strong he was. Scored an 8/9 on the apgar test and passed all the other tests with flying colors and then I was able to hold him again. After 30 hours and 15 minutes of labor Ace was here and very much loved in my arms.

Thank you for all your support, love and encouragement through this whole pregnancy. It has been such a blessing to have everyone so interested and eager for his arrival. Every day is a new experience and LH and I are enjoying every minute of it. Continue to pray as my body heals and Ace continues to grow. He's such a good baby! New pictures will be posted at our website as our little one continues to grow and get more and more handsome (we're not biased, much :))

DUE!

40 weeks, I am officially 10 months pregnant! Now entering into the elephant phase of pregnancy, Ace is holding strong to the inside of my uterus. I had my latest doctor's appointment today and I am 75% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated. The doctor poked and prodded for a while to help things along… and while extremely uncomfortable, if it causes him to get a move on – all the better. He's fully dropped down and ready to come. The doctor believes that he's between 7 and 7.5lbs at the moment. She expects to see me at my appointment on Tuesday (aka unlikely for him to arrive before then) so it's quite possible he'll be a hardy 8lbs upon delivery.

The weather around here has been considerably more tolerable than recent weeks, and therefore the last few days have been manageable and I haven't been beating my head against the wall screaming "get out!" as everyone is aware, we had hoped he'd arrive around 38 weeks. There was hope at my appointment early that week when I was 50% effaced, it could have happened… but no dice and certainly no Ace. J

To recap cravings throughout pregnancy, I didn't really have many. In fact the only things that I craved with a strong desire were: cupcakes in the first trimester, where I HAD to make them at 11pm, which required Loving Husband to leave the house to get oil… Watermelon has been delicious more so than I recall in previous seasons, but I wouldn't say I've craved it… and finally I had a specific craving for oatmeal cookies and green grapes a week or so ago. That was a very satisfying craving fulfilled. Besides that I haven't had a hankering for anything weird or strange. I couldn't stand the smell or taste of butter in the first trimester and eventually that slowly tapered off and I was able to enjoy it again.

Loving Husband and I enjoyed our last (hopefully) baby-free date night for a while on Wednesday, plus an early birthday dinner at PF Changs. Our waiter was really nice and of course (as most people who ask out of the blue "when are you due?") he got quite wide eyed when we said Friday. He brought us three fortunes one for each of us and we enjoyed opening them up. LHs wasn't anything to speak of and so we moved onto mine and then Ace's. My fortune: Everything will now come your way. Ace's fortune: Good news will be coming your way; it will be here any day. We're still holding to the idea that he will be here any day!

I continue to contract and await those contractions to start lasting longer in duration. I think it's the only time in someone's life they are seeking to be in pain. A strange phenomenon. As I continue to wait I am keeping busy with reading. I am currently read three different baby books and breezing through the October book club pick. I also have been contemplating more and more what he looks like… such as hair color, does he have hair, eye color, are his earlobes attached or detached, will he have his daddy or mommy's nose…

Many people are eager for his arrival, and we both appreciate it, but no one is more eager than I am to have him here in my arms. We certainly will let you all know as soon as he is here. Until then, continue to pray for Ace's health, our sanity, and the impending labor that is nearly and FINALLY almost upon us.