Babywatch Update

Sue, our amazing midwife, came to allay my fears that my bag was leaking -- it's not. That is very good news at this point.

We were sort of confused as to where we were in this process -- the contractions are painful and regular, but just not... I don't know how else to say it... painful enough. Sue was able to clarify that we're still really early. She recommended sleep (yes, that would be the hope) and made some suggestions that will make that possible. We're going to try to sleep and then kick things back into gear this afternoon/evening. That is pretty welcome news because we're wayyyyy to tired to take on the hard part right now, and fatigue can complicate matters.

The official stats are that I'm fully, or nearly fully effaced, cervix is soft and favorable, dilation is only 2 cm, but that's progress from where we were! We're just happy things are moving forward....

Off to try some new things to get some sleep.

Babywatch Update

Decided to go the other direction from paying attention, timing contractions, etc. Put on "Cheaper By the Dozen." Now we're thinking we're gonna try again to get some sleep.

I'm very tired, but I have a total inability to sleep in any position other than horizontal, and horizontal seems to intensify the contractions. Soooooooo, I've got a conundrum. If you're still watching, pray that I am tired enough that I can sleep through the contractions.

Sue, our wonderful midwife, called to check up. We still think we're doing okay, too early for her to come. Eliecia is a huge help! It's great to have another set of hands and ears. :)

Babywatch Update

Contractions 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute each, getting stronger and closer together.

Eliecia is here. We called Sue, our wonderful midwife. We talked with her and decided we could wait it out longer without her coming. We're still doing really well, but I'm craving shredded cheese again....

Future updates may or may not be posted by Eliecia.

Babywatch Update

10 minutes apart, 30-45 seconds each, still hoping to get SOME sleep....

Babywatch Update

Contractions getting too painful to sleep, but not terrible yet. We're going to start timing them here shortly to determine when to call Eliecia and Sue, our amazing midwife. Jeff's filling the tub now....

Babywatch...

I totally hesitate to post this because we're working so hard at NOT getting our hopes up, but on the other hand we are true believers in prayer and we would really, really like everyone to pray.

I've had very mild contractions since about 1:30 this morning, and they've gotten a little more noticeable this afternoon. We started timing them while we played Yahtzee tonight and they were 7-12 minutes apart and pretty regular, but not very painful at all.

We went ahead and called our amazing midwife, Sue to ask if she thought this meant anything and to give her a heads up about what was going on. She said, "This sounds like it might be the beginning of the real thing." She told us to go to bed and get some sleep, and she'll keep her phone close in case.

I just want to ask for everyone's prayers that this is the real thing, and that the real thing goes very smoothly.

If you are praying and are willing, please do leave a comment. We find them very encouraging.

This blog is the first priority to update as things progress, but we've never been in labor before so we have no idea whether that will happen or not. We'll do our best!

Yesterday

Well, Lilia did not choose yesterday.

But I had a lovely day. My parents came down and we went to Tempe, looked at some vacant houses (no, we're not moving. Dad's a realtor.), had lunch, and walked around the Tempe Town Lake. It was very nice of Mom and Dad to come down and babysit me for the day! :) It gave me a lot more emotional energy to keep going.

Today Jeff and I decided to stay home and "take a personal day," which feels very good. We're still disappointed, but a little less severely so than yesterday and Friday. And tomorrow is the day we set with the midwife to look at some natural induction methods, so that's some comfort.

Here's hoping it's today or tomorrow!

The Roller Coaster

Last night was pretty rough. Jeff and I are both feeling so discouraged as we watch his leave time with Lilia slip away. Every time there's a "good sign" we get our hopes up, and as the hours tick away without any active labor we come back to reality. It honestly feels like the baby will never come. Well, maybe it just feels like the baby will come the day before Jeff has to be back at work. That would be so very sad for us, especially for him.

Last night we just begged God together to bring Lilia into the world today. I guess there's no harm in asking. If you think of it, please pray with us that Lilia comes very soon so she can spend some time with her daddy.

"Well, excited AND scared..."

(Title is a reference to "Into the Woods" if you're trying to place it!)

I feel that I've spent at least the last 2-4 months trying to create an accurate picture in my head of what it will be like to have a little baby in this apartment, and then a toddler (and probably another little baby... or 3!), and then kids, etc.... Anyone who knows me knows that one of my most defining character traits is the deep desire to know what will come next and to be well-prepared for it. It's like I was a boy scout on steroids in a former life. As you can imagine, this particular trait becomes a major source of frustration in my life, because the future is a tricky thing. Life doesn't always go as planned, does it?

Of course you can prepare for a baby, but you can't prepare. How will I feel? What will I think when I look at her? How will it change my relationship with Jeff? What will my days look like? What will the nights look like? Will she have my outgoing personality, or her father's gentle spirit? Will she share our love for stories and food and our dislike for television as she gets older? Will she hate me when she's a teenager?

I'm excited to meet and get to know our little Lilia, but I have no idea what to expect. I'm so jealous of Jeff, who absolutely loves not knowing what to expect. But alas, I hate blind corners.

Apparently, God does not.

Here's to embracing the unknown!

You Are Special

From now on, if there's no post entitled "I'm in labor," just assume I'm not in labor yet. If I keep talking about it, I'll lose my mind. So I'm going to talk about something else! :)

I was extremely excited to find a board book version of You Are Special, by Max Lucado, for the baby. If you haven't been introduced to this book yet, you need to go find a copy! It's such a beautiful story about God's love for all of us, typical of the very gracious Mr. Lucado. And the illustrations are fabulous. The only thing I would wish for in this book would be a little more diverse set of Wemmicks. Next edition, maybe?

Rather than do a more traditional review on this one, I'll summarize the plot for you because the story itself is the beauty of the book for children and adults alike.

You see, a man named Eli has made little wooden people named the Wemmicks. The Wemmicks all have star stickers and dot stickers that they give each other based on how talented or interesting or beautiful they are -- stars are a sign of approval and dots are a sign of disapproval. And poor little Punchinello has a bunch of dots and no stars. But he runs into a Wemmick with no stars and no dots -- they just don't stick to her! When he asks her why, she says she it's because she goes to see Eli every day. So Punchinello gives it a shot. Eli tells him that he loves him, and that it doesn't matter what the other Wemmicks think. Punchinello is special because Eli made him. And when he understands that, his stickers won't stick either! He asks him to come to the shop to visit every day.

So this is a story that fits one of the most fundamental values of our family -- that we are special because Jesus loves us, not because of what people think of us or because of what we do. We've already read this story to Lilia several times and I hope that it becomes a favorite of hers as well!

I Surrender... All?

This last Sunday at church was pretty intense. The message series is all about giving up the idolatry of consumerism in favor of a simpler, more peaceful financial life. I would say it's obviously a well-timed message, although in the B-D household we've really worked hard at that for several years already. It was incredible to see how it hit people.

Jesus said, "You can't serve God and money" but I think most of us who have spent time "serving money" didn't know it at the time. You go out to dinner and a movie because you deserve it or it's someone's birthday and you feel bad, you put it on a credit card. Your car breaks down and you suddenly realize you should've had an emergency fund, but you didn't so you either put it on a credit card or, far worse, get all emotional and go finance another car because you "need something reliable." Suddenly you get this sick feeling when you open your credit card bill and you have no idea how you'll get out of it. You're worrying about money 24/7, calling your bank to see how close to zero your account is hovering, working just to pay for yesterday's purchases. You are truly serving money. And you don't even know how you got there.

In the category of "bottom line," one of my favorite truths is that Christianity is not about trying, it's about giving up. But (especially in our society) it's sometimes hard to see what you're holding on to! We we sang a song about surrender after the message, I realized that I have some surrendering to do that is not financial.

I've been really having a rough time with the situation of losing Jeff's family leave time as we go farther and farther past the due date with Lilia. We've tried every natural way to induce labor that we've heard of, prayed like crazy, and worried a lot. Well, especially me. I feel like a really good wife would move Heaven and Earth to find a way to get this baby out so she can spend important bonding time with her daddy.

But this isn't about trying harder, it's about giving up. God knows everything about Jeff's leave and his new position, our timing, my body and Lilia's. And in His infinite wisdom he has chosen a time for her debut that is not now. So I continue to work on surrendering all....

Babywatch, due date plus 3

Lots of Braxton hicks and contractions, but nothing regular or "getting closer together and more intense." Went on a walk with my mom at halftime.... :)

Babywatch... Update?

No news. I hate to blog this every time, but I know there are a lot of people who wonder if I don't! So, no news. :(

I'm getting a little bummed, but I'm meeting my parents at the zoo so I'm excited about that! I'll do a lot of walking....

Babywatch Update -- No news is... frustrating

The only things that happened on babywatch so far today are:

--One big contraction that woke me up this morning, then nothing but Braxton-Hicks stuff.
--Had a non-stress test at the OB today (I'll have one every Friday until birth-day) and the baby is doing very, very well. Again, they mentioned that she's a very active baby! :)

I went on a long walk, I'm drinking water, and looking up all kinds of natural induction methods. Planning to eat pineapple, drink red raspberry leaf tea, take black cohosh root supplements, watch a sad movie, and anything else I can think of! As always, I'll keep everyone posted.

You know the thing about me and change?

This is a general update that I sent out to our small group today. So much to process for my little pregnant brain!!!

Hey guys,

Just a few updates from the ever-more-lively life of the Brooks-Dowtys:

--Having more and more pre-labor contractions, including two periods of time where they got regular and then stopped. But they're getting more intense with every "false start" so we're thinking things are getting close on the baby front. YAY!

--PRAISE #1: I sat down with my contract and my paystubs earlier and figured out that my school still owed me like $2500 or so because they paid me based on 12 months, but I worked half the contact in 5 months. That may not make sense, but anyway I got a paycheck today from my school that I didn't expect, and they still owe me like $500 so I'm really excited about that!

--PRAISE #2: Y'know the job that Jeff applied for "just to get his name out there"? They offered it to him today. They needed to know right away so we discussed and calculated fast and he took it.

--PRAISE #3: The increase in base salary for the new position makes up for the lack of commission, which is what we were praying for, so it looks as though Jeff has been able to move out of sales for good and just be in tech support, and we have a workable one-income budget.

--PRAYER #1: The new position is a graveyard shift, from 10pm-7am. It makes us a little nervous to make that leap, but it's very likely that it's only for 6 months or so. It's just kind of a big 6 months while we have a brand new baby. Please pray that we can handle it and make reasonable choices about our life. The great news is he'll continue to be able to do church and small group.

--PRAYER #2: The training for this new position is Monday. So we're not sure how that works with Jeff's leave or whether he'll need to come in one extra day or what. Please pray that they have another training he can go to that's more like 2 weeks away.

This is all happening so fast and I just wanted to ask for everyone's prayer and support while we navigate it all. It's a lot of change in a small period of time!

***************************UPDATE*********************************

Jeff got into a February 2 training class!!! YAY! Now we need to have this baby....