1:18AM – All is quiet in the hospital room. We’ve checked in, so we’ll be here for the duration. They’ve monitored both mommy and Junior and all is well. The contractions are still mild to moderate, but we’re 80% effaced, so we’re progressing well. Jen’s in the bathtub, soaking. I’m preparing to take a nap.
On our way to the hospital
9:30PM Contractions are down to seven-eight minutes each. Cookies for the nurses are in the oven. When the cookies are done, we hit the road and head up to the hospital.
Jen’s Water Broke
On Thursday’s exam, Jen was already dialated 2cm. That’s a very good sign, meaning her body is getting prepared for a healthy natural pregnancy. Her water just broke (7:30PM). It looks like things are progressing towards a slightly early delivery. We just packed up our hospital bags and now Jen’s trying to rest up for the big event.
Stay turned, more details to follow.
Look what I found!
Somebody had a very thoughtful and loving way to say “Happy Anniversary” this morning. 🙂
Jen has an outie!
Another milestone in Jen’s pregnancy has been reached. Jen’s bellybutton is now an outie!
Home Maintenance
We’ve been working away at the house a fair bit lately. Nearly all the drywalling is done and we’ve finished up all the mudding and sanding. How do you know if you’ve been working with mud for too long? We’re not sure, but we figure it’s at the point where you begin looking for holes to fill that aren’t in the wall.
We’re in the home stretch now, all the walls are finished. Nearly all of them are primed and a few are painted.
The countdown
As of today, we have 34 days to the due date for little junior. The pregnancy is going as good as could possibly be expected. Jen is carrying the little Michelin extremely well, but you can finally tell that she’s pregnant.
Until this last week, she’s been gaining a mere 1/2 lb per week. This is the babies “plumping up” period and the weight gain has accelerated. Mama has developed a bit of amnesia, something other fathers have told me is quite normal. Personally, I think it’s quite fun.
Today she had the very first contraction that she felt. As I understand, it’s quite normal to have them sporadically in the last 6-8 weeks. I can tell exactly how far along she is by her answer to the “are you ready to get him out yet?” When the discomfort level exceeds the fear of giving birth, I’ll start keeping my hospital bag packed.
Baby News
We are 7 weeks and counting to Junior’s due date. I am excited and nervous both and feel like these last weeks are going by slowly. My belly feels large enough as is, and all the other mothers at work smile and say things like, “Just wait and see. It will get even bigger.”
Martha, Matt’s little sister, is hosting our baby shower in May. For those needing advanced warning, we are registered at BabiesRUs and Target. And no, we still don’t know Junior’s sex. We still want it to be a complete surprise.
This past weekend we experienced Junior hiccuping. The number of things you feel when a baby is growing inside you is quite amazing.
rogue waves
To myself, an inexperienced boater, I find the prospect of rogue waves fascinating. Violent water is “typical” in many areas (Cape Horn, Cape Hatteras, etc) and is expected there. There are geographic reasons such as underwater topography, tides, and other factors that create to turbulent water. Other reasons for huge waves is simply weather patterns, particularly storms. Within the class of violent weather is a class of waves known as freak, or rogue waves.
Only recently have scientists begun to understand their frequency, and the more they learn about them, the more light becomes shone on past events. They are closer now to having plausible explanations for things that defy a simple explanation, like the unexplained disappearances of 200 ocean going ships, and the Bermuda triangle. However, there is much still to be understood about rogue waves.
Many scientists believe that there may be as many as 2 to 10 of these rogue waves generated each year. The 965′ ocean liner Norwegian Dawn had just weathered out a storm through the night and as dawn broke and the seas calmed, a 70 foot wave arrived and blasted the ship. The captain of the ship had 20 years of ocean going experience and had never seen anything like it.
Although sailing through the storm may not have been the wisest choice (it tends to make passengers “uncomfortable”), navigating his ship through a violent storm and a 70′ wave with only a couple broken windows to show for it a remarkable achievement. My hearty congratulations to the captain. Many a ship has simply disappeared under such conditions.
Volleyball Championship
Jen and I have been playing an indoor co-ed volleyball league all winter. We wrapped up the season last month and our team had a good season, ending up as third of twelve teams. As soon as the season ended, we badgered the league’s organizer to make sure our bracket (the top level) played as early in the tournament as possible due to Jen’s pregnancy. The first tournament date was April 10th, so we spent most of Sunday playing volleyball.
So, we played our best and won the tournament, right? Not exactly. We started out playing much as we had all season, which is to say, competent, but not well. The tournament was double elimination so we started by winning our first game, and then losing the next two. Losing our first match set us up for the long road through the losers bracket before we could get a chance to play the top team for the winners seat.
After losing our first match, we started fighting, a little. Our lot in life was knocking all the other teams out of the tournament by handing them their second defeat. Our next couple matches were difficult. We played three games in each match, losing one but narrowly winning two games. Simply put, we played just well enough to avoid ultimate defeat. However, during those first three matches, we slowly began achieving something we hadn’t achieved all season, synergy. As the day went on, our team play got better and better.
Late in the day, we had earned our right to battle against the top team. Their first match was a bye so they were well rested, having played no more than 6 games in their two matches. We got to watch them play one game. Comparatively, we had already played 11 games in 4 matches. That’s what I mean by “the long road” through the losers bracket. We would have to beat the top team twice, meaning at least 4 and possibly six more games.
Having watched them, we identified their biggest threat and devised a plan to control him. Our plan was simple. Their big hitter was super fast, with an explosive attack to the net. We watched for it early and double blocked both their hitters on every swing. Here was the critical difference. As contrasted to our regular season blocking, our blocking matured dramatically during the tournament. It wasn’t just one of us blockers that got better, nearly every one of us did. Karl, Rhonda, Eric, and I all stepped up our blocking and put the smack-down on the hitters. We started it in our third match, employed it well during the fourth, and by the time we got to our fifth and sixth matches against the top team, we used it so well that we effectively shut down their offensive weapons.
As we kept blocking, their big guns were pulling back off the net, hitting from mid-court, and doing a lot more placement instead of big swings. We had one team shut us down mercilessly in regular season by blocking our every hit. This time I got to watch the block from our side and I’m beginning to understand just how critical the block at the net is. An effective block forces their offense to settle for a less intense attack. It’s easier for us to defend and get up a good pass to the setters. As our passes improved, our setting picked up, and so did our hitting. Our little guns were credible weapons and our big guns pounded them relentlessly.
We won the first match in 2 successive games. We didn’t just beat them, we demoralized them. In the second match, they commented, “maybe we should just sit over on the bleachers and watch you finish up.” The very same ladies that fed Jay set after set when he subbed in for them during the regular season were ready to pronounce him one of the devil’s own for pounding so many successive balls at them. “It’s not all about power”, they’d snide. They were feeling helpless, and we were riding the tides of victory. Our last 4 games were our easiest, and we won them by substantial margins.
We played from 1 to 7PM, with only one break between our first and second matches. We closed out the day by winning our 15th and final game, handing the 4th consecutive defeat to the leagues top rated team. For me, the victory was bigger than the tournament. I saw us achieve a level of unity our team had lacked all year, and we all played our best, together.