I suspect that we will have our new addition in 5 weeks but the Due Date is exactly 7 weeks away. That means that we're getting all those things done that we've been talking about for months. Kitchen and Dining room cleaned. Buying replacement stuff. Digging out the infant equipment. Assembling a telescope (don't know why this made the list). Cleaning up the yard.

It just happens that the fits and tantrums of one entering the terrible twos is adding to the stress. But we're entering the landing pattern. Seat belts are fastened, tray tables are up, and the seat backs are in the upright position.

Hi Ben

Terrible twos were nightmarish for me, but they only last a year!!!!!!

Good luck with the pending safe landing. Maybe the telescope is to spot the Stork as it approaches?!?!

Love the telescope. Nesting is a hilarious and exciting and stressful time. Isn't it amazing how different the arrival of the second one is? Slightly more focus on logistics. Less anxiety, but more stress. Still exciting and amazing. A little preview of how different life is with two kids.

You guys are going to be awesome. Keep the details coming!

Rock on Ben. Savor the excitement!

So, the telescope thing. It was in the back of my wife's Equinox under the new stroller and it made it into the house with a load of other stuff. It's a Galileoscope that my MiL bought for our 18 moth old son. That means that it needed to be assembled so that we could throw away the box. It would be surprising if it

1. Survives to be used as intended
2. Actually works.

I have been lucky enough to be able to arrange a trip to Columbus, OH for a beer exam in a few weeks. I'm so very much looking forward to sleeping on someone else's couch. Will take the opportunity to stock up on other things like Stauf's coffee and a wide assortment of beers not found in our area. Gotta settle in for a long winter.

One thing I'll keep wondering about is why after telling us that my wife is barely GD the doctor prescribed a drug to control it. Diet was working. Why not do the drug right away? Well, now because of the medication, we have to go in for a 20 minute non-stress test twice a week. In this season, that's nearly impossible. But we'll struggle through it. My concern is mostly that the OB is hinting at scheduling an induction for no reason. I think not wanting to work on a holiday or weekend has a lot to do with it.

In our research, petocin leads to epidurals which leads to more petocin and eventually a caesarian. We'd like to avoid that as much as we can. The progression seems to be this way:

Petocin causes harder contractions instead of letting them build gradually.
The sudden extreme pain is unbearable so the epidural starts earlier than might have been optimal.
The drugs make the contractions and pushing less effective. So they increase the petocin.
The increased pressure of the contractions and the stuff in the way not having a natural time at stretching causes the baby to be under stress.
They wheel everyone off to surgery.

We aren't against C-sections as a rule, but any surgery is something to be avoided. Convenience for a doctor is no reason to have abdominal surgery. I get the feeling that the doctors are throwing in extra stuff to start down that path, though.

We'll see.

We've reached the point where she wants the doctor to keep her home from work. She's feeling cervical pressure and the contractions are starting to flex the whole uterus. I've offered to sleep in my den so she can flop around more in our king. It's an unheated room, so that's a big offer.

On our minds lately is this feeling that we're on a bobsled track that leads only to a C-Section. The biggest worry is her recovery. She took three hours to come out of the anesthetic for her laproscopic gall bladder surgery. Then she couldn't go to work for three weeks because she couldn't walk. Normal recovery is 45 minutes from the initial surgery and a few days to a week before returning to work. She was still experiencing pain a few months after the procedure. Nothing went wrong. She just recovers that horribly from abdominal surgery. So I'm concerned.

The plan is that for tomorrow's OB check-in, the kiddo is going to stay home with his grandma who is spending this week with us so that I can actually pay attention during this appointment. Tending him takes all of my focus, making me useless.

Otherwise, things are going well. We still need to assemble the bassinet and clear room in our bedroom. I'm taking a trip this weekend to retake part of my beer test and I'm taking the opportunity to do some shopping and to stock up on necessities like Stauf's coffee and cigars.

Ben--

I have to confess that I and pretty against scheduled births and induction in general. I always wince when I hear a couple talking about their doctor scheduling their birth. I agree that I think this is most often done at the convenience of the doctor. I've even heard couples say that they are scheduling a delivery because their OB is going out of town. Makes me nuts.

Our oldest was born by emergency C-section. My middle was born naturally. My youngest -- my wife allowed them to give pitocin, which led to a too-late epidural. Of the three, the natural birth was by far the most satisfying and happy.

So keep fighting for that birthplan.

Big sigh of relief as we were able to tag team our approach with the OB today. She flat-out side that they would schedule an induction at the 39 week appointment because of the GD. That's a long way off and she was sort of startled when we mentioned that that would be the week before Christmas. So it's not in her plan at least.

I'm now starting to plan for my big weekend out of town. Staying with a buddy in Columbus Friday before my beer test 9am on Saturday. He's become a member of the cigar club at a store and has a locker with liquor. We're supposed to make a showing there. But I also get to see a display of Christmas lights that encompasses a whole neighborhood. And then there's the stopping in at my old hang-outs and getting resupplied for the next few months. Coffee, baby stuff from the main Once Upon a Child store, JCPenney Outlet stuff, and cigars. There's a big sale on Saturday at one of the best pipe shops in the country. So the weekend is scheduled.

MiL is here to hold down the fort, but probably not to anchor the sanity.

ben wrote:

Petocin causes harder contractions instead of letting them build gradually.
The sudden extreme pain is unbearable so the epidural starts earlier than might have been optimal.
The drugs make the contractions and pushing less effective. So they increase the petocin.
The increased pressure of the contractions and the stuff in the way not having a natural time at stretching causes the baby to be under stress.
They wheel everyone off to surgery.

That kind of seems EXACTLY how things went with us. Now, we were told that his head was just too big... so reading the above, I wonder if maybe, yea, it was too big because the natural stretching was hindered, but also, he DOES have a big head.

So that really makes me wonder...

So anyway... I too am against choosing the kids birthday. That's the one thing they get to decide... We were told that because she has had a c-section, almost every doc would want to schedule the birth (and probably another c-section)... I believe the # given to us by a nurse was 42 weeks was the absolute longest they'd let anyone go... so, if we have to schedule, we're making them schedule it late late late, to give the kiddo plenty o' time to choose their debut.

It's funny. A month ago I was being told that some December singing events were expected of me and now I'm getting emails that they are optional "at my convenience" with citings of the baby on the way.

I'm liking that. December was going to leave me voiceless. One weekend has two Holiday Pops concerts on Saturday with Handel's Messiah on Friday. There is also a "Run Out Concert" where the symphony and chorus hike out to a city an hour away to do a shortened concert on the prior Wednesday evening.

I'm actually hoping to miss all four. Is that so bad?

We're probably two or three weeks from D-Day.

Combining what seemed to be synergistic occurrences, I was able to get to Columbus, OH for a Saturday BJCP exam. The down side is that what most made this possible was that my Mother-in-Law stayed with us Tuesday through this morning. Overall, she's fine. This few days has shown me that her presence (threatened for two weeks after the birth) might be a disaster. She's unreliable (disappears and doesn't notify of plans or changes to your plans), drinks a quart of half & half daily, stinks, and knocks everything down, tripping on her own feet. Then she decides at the last minute to undertake major projects that will make living in our house impossible for hours at a time. Having her here will mean that I'll be taking care of four people.

Expressing this to my wife in as gentle terms as possible brought out a defensive streak. "She cleaned the kitchen," she says. But I could live with the kitchen floor as it was but having all of my necessary kitchen tools stored in the back of under cabinet cabinets and other rooms of the house, I cannot live with. She stored baking sheets in the back yard, for crying out loud. She used a quarter pound of $20/lb coffee to make a pot that she drinks in a solution of three Tbsp of sugar and 2/3 half & half.

It costs us a lot of money to accept her "help" and I just can't stand her attitude. I referred to someone as mousey and the next half hour was spent with her explaining that I meant to use the word "insipid". Do you know what that means? She doesn't. It means tasteless, as in uninteresting or boring. She thinks it has something to do with a wallflower or being agoraphobic, which she also think mean the same thing. Now, I can accept her being wrong, even wrong with conviction. But when it turns a simple conversation about what I did over the weekend into a struggle to prove that she's smarter, I'd rather leave.

Now I'll remain irritated until I've relocated the things I need and clean up after her "cleanup". Then the baby will come and I'll consider tent camping for a few weeks after the baby's born. It wouldn't be a problem if she'd just stay elsewhere. But she somehow feels that she has privilege over me when she stays here.

I definitely need to chill, but I'm now aware of how stressful this will be. I'm not looking forward to the coming confrontation.

Daddy Clay? Do you happen to have a waiver on file for something like this? I may need to hire an attorney for this one.

Week 37 check in today. First things first. 1.5 cm. We have initial thrust, gentlemen. It could take some time to build up exit velocity, but we're probably inside of 2 weeks.

She mentions that one leg seems more swollen then the other and on comparison, one looked like a thin, kosher Hebrew National and the other a kielbasa. The doc thought it would be wise to check for a blood clot. We scrapped the day's schedule, took the toddler to Grandpa's and spent some quality time with an ultrasound tech at the hospital. Everything checked out.

Had a rehearsal for some concerts this weekend. My mind has been other places, obviously. The concert that I thought started on Friday, actually start on Thursday. Tomorrow is the final dress rehearsal for five performances that I'll be in. There's a sixth that I'll not be going to. It's on the road, an hour from here. Well, this causes some concern. For three hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday, no one will be home to drive to the hospital, should the need arise. Seems a likely time for a child to want some attention. 1.5cm. Just a start, but it doesn't have a long way to go, either.

I may need to reevaluate my commitment to the chorus... We'll have to see. It would make things much, much easier, truth be told.

Okay, this is getting exciting. Good luck with juggling everything. Was Duncan born via C-section? If not you might want to stick close a the date draws near -- second babies can come much faster. What are the media coverage plans? Do you do still photos? Video? Can we ship you a Flip camera? We want pics around here.

We have a Sony Handycam that will be there with a tripod, so there will be some aftermath shots, vid and still. I've been a bad dad. I don't have my bag packed. That goes on the list of what to do in my sleep tonight, I fear.

With Duncan, we made a little pre-birth video at a garden. It got lost, so there's no pressure to do one for this child. By lost, I mean into the ether. It wasn't on the camera HDD when it got downloaded a few months later.

I'm feeling guilty.

My wife has a pregnancy crush on Mike Rowe. Dreams about riding around in a pickup with him, mostly. So, I just ordered this.

If it arrives in time, it goes in the recovery room sometime when she's inconvenienced. If not, it get's a Santa hat.

Their FB fan page has a link to get 10% off, so it's worth a look if you're interested in anything in the Discovery store.

Woke up to my wife getting ready for work. she was fully dressed and said that she wasn't feeling too good. took a while for her to realize that she was having contractions (not hard ones, to be sure) and they were 6 minutes apart. Over the next hour, they came down to about 4 minutes and we packed up, called her dad to watch our toddler, and made our way to the hospital. Got down to 2.5 minutes on the way. Went into triage and hooked up to their monitors. Only a couple contractions were noteworthy. So they got our information and sent us home. We came home and my wife went to bed to rest. I got us caught up on communications and went out to get things we needed to pack.

An adventure, to be sure.

At least I was back from shopping to see DL live!

Nothing new. Contractions are still happening and they're close together, but not strong very often. Have an OB appointment this afternoon. We may be staying there. If not, I'll be singing in the Philharmonic's Holiday Pops concert tonight. Need to find my tie.

First bad news of the pregnancy. At 37.5 weeks, the baby is breech. We're scheduled for an external cephalic vesrion for Tuesday. We're hoping that some walking this weekend will help flip the baby around. The placenta is attached in the front, so pressing on the baby has to be done just right. It'll all be fine.

Shortly after writing that that was the first setback of the pregnancy, I realized that I forgot that the GD diagnosis wasn't a good thing. But it does show me how the pregnancy and labor and birth anticipation can dial back your pessimism.

We're T-1 for this whole External Cephalic Version thing tomorrow. My wife asked me to put an ultrasound machine on the grocery list since she keeps thinking that the baby's moved into the locked and loaded position. If the ultrasound tomorrow morning shows that the baby's ready for liftoff, it will be quite a relief.

But I did find a moderately comforting video of ECV on YouTube.



In other news, because the FiL has plans tomorrow, we had to call in the replacement from the AAA squad down South. MiL is driving up tonight to watch Duncan tomorrow morning and is staying until birth (maybe + 2 weeks). This is not a good thing. If the baby turns and we're looking at a birth this weekend or early next week, that's three weeks with my MiL living in our living room. One weekend was bad enough. I must sound ungrateful, but the simple truth is that we're a family of three turning to a family of four. It's starting to get crowded compared to two years ago. If she was any help or made our lives simpler when things weren't complicated, I might not be feeling this way, but edginess from having a newborn in cold weather, adding sleeplessness and general intruder anxiety, it would be best if she "visited" and didn't take up residence.

And it's not just me. My wife is preparing for her own firefight. It could get exciting. Maybe we could do some reality show filming to up the ante a bit.

Ok, so let's recap...

MiL arrived last night and I made sure to be asleep before she got here. At least I was in bed. In my defense, I was beat. I wrestled with the 20mo for nearly 2 hours in the morning and he took a 3 hour nap while I went out to resupply our stock piles. But, yeah, I avoided contact.

Did the same this morning. My wife, God bless her, used the excuse that my back hurt. While getting my breakfast ready to run out the door, MiL confronts me about her restaurant plans and my sciatic nerve starts throbbing. We're five minutes late already and I can't feel my left leg. Do the one legged race to the car and we head off to the hospital.

We arrive. Get signed in. Are assigned a room. On the walk down the hall of labor, my wife, hereafter named Deborah, tells the nurse that she thinks the baby turned. When she gets hooked up to the fetal monitor, the heartbeat is below Deborah's belly button. Seeing this as a good sign, they hold off the anesthesiologist until they can do the quick ultrasound. 2 second ultrasound and everything's aborted. The baby's locked and loaded. We clean up, coat up, and high tail it... to a diner for breakfast. Like we're going to waste a free hour of babysitting and a potential dirty diaper.

So, we're back to the regular countdown. As I understand it, if we make it to the Friday OB appointment, we're scheduling induction for Monday for two reasons. 1) the Doctor wants to deliver around 39 weeks because of GD and medication (and a rising trends in Deborah's blood pressure) and 2) Later than Monday would mean being in the hospital over Christmas (and probably still over Christmas if it goes to a C-Section.)

After Duncan's nap this afternoon, we all went to the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory for some old fashioned walking. Shaking the baby loose, if you will. It's where my lights are at. So we got to see Duncan dance to the lights and music and enjoy the conservatory mostly to ourselves. It ended up being a good day.

We'll see about tomorrow.

Uggg. I'm losing my mind. I feel like a prisoner in my home.

I'm going to lose it if the baby doesn't hit the eject button soon. It would be all ok, if the list of grievances agains the MiL wasn't too big to store in my iPod Touch. (That's 32Gb, btw)

And it did get worse. Being nagged by your wife isn't good, but tolerable and understandable. Being nagged by your Mother-in-Law to do something she very well can $*@(%&*^& do herself, however, is not.

My strategy today has been avoidance which is only causing this to be a stew instead of a flambe. The question is whether I can stay away from my lunch until I can fly out of here for a dress rehearsal for The Messiah tomorrow night, still avoiding contact.

Issues that keep me from telling her to leave:

• My wife would be under even more stress.
• It was my wife's home long before we were married so I feel that she has a natural right to veto something like this and I already know how she would need to vote, for now.
• I'm not really that cruel.

Birthing a baby near the holidays with extended family living in your home should be legislated.

I feel like my son won't recognize me when I next see him.

Fourth time in L&D this pregnancy. First time it was to monitor the baby and get fluids into mom while she got through a stomach virus in the middle of the H1N1 outbreak. #2 was last week and the first OMG! The Baby's Coming! Event. (2 minute contraction spacing for four hours). Tuesday it was for the External Cephalic Version that didn't need to happen (baby flipped before the procedure). And tonight it was because the contractions were hard and 3 minutes apart for hours. 2cm 75%. And steady. We're back home again. Hey, at least I got out of the house and away from my MiL for a few hours. The chairs in triage suck, though. Gonna pay for it in the morning.

If I can make my plan work tomorrow, I'll take Duncan by myself to the library for Toddler Story Time and we'll have a good time. Then we'll come home, leave him with grandma and I'll take mommy to her OB appointment or to L&D.

HANG IN THERE! ALMOST HOME, BEN!! YOU'RE AN AWESOME DAD!!!