4 days left

Well, nothing new has happened for quite some time.  Everyday we keep hoping that it will be the day that something will change and that Whit will go into labor.  She's been having contractions now for 2 weeks.  They're getting more intense.  Tomorrow she has another doctor's appointment so we'll see what he has to say then.  She's not officially due till Thursday though.  We're both growing impatient, though I think I show it a little more sometimes.  We bought an air mattress from walmart.com the other day though and we're just waiting for it to get to our walmart.  We got it pretty much just for people that come and visit (especially to see the baby) so that people won't have to sleep on the floor or on our couch.  We're quite excited about that too.  So I suppose it's a race to see which will get here first:  Carter or the air mattress.  I'm pulling for Carter.  I think he's going to be really smart because the other night I had a dream that he was here already and he was maybe a year old at the most and he talked a lot and was really smart.  So I think he's going to come out talking.  Anyway, Whit is sure now that he has dropped (and she's in more pain because of it).  So that's good.  I suppose we'll have a better idea of what's going on after her appointment tomorrow morning and I'll try to keep you posted.  Pray that he comes sooner rather than later (if nothing else for our sanity)!

SUPER EXCITING!!!

Ok, the title for this post was sarcastic because NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.  After those last few crazy posts, things have kinda calmed down.  Whit's still having contractions and she feels most of them I think (meaning she definitely knows they're happening, but they're not necessarily painful).  She does have painful ones every now and then.  We've both just accepted the fact that she's never really going to have this baby.  I'm pretty sure it's just been gas...that's what's been in there the whole time and that's what's been kicking.  Perhaps it's gas with a penis (since we managed to catch that little...i mean big part on the ultrasound).  Whitney did think she broke her water Thursday night.  She felt a little trickling and wasn't sure.  It wasn't very much at all and stopped pretty quickly, so we know for sure it wasn't her water.

ON A GOOD NEWS NOTE (MAKE SURE TO READ THIS):  For anyone who hasn't heard (which I'm guessing is most of you since it happened so late), Amy McFarlane went to the hospital last night at about 1:30 or so.  She was having contractions about 5 minutes apart I think so they went in.  As of 7:30 this morning, they were still there.  She's dilated 7 cm and they were breaking her water.  So the baby's definitely coming out today.  So we'll get to meet Juliet very soon.  Congrats to them!  So I guess the title wasn't entirely sarcastic.

oh, and P.S.  We saw "The Blindside" last night.  It was good.  Go see it.

False alarm

Last night we got a little nervous.  Whit's contractions got really bad for about 15 or 20 minutes and they were lasting pretty long and weren't very far apart.  But then they slowed down a lot and became a lot less intense.  We packed Whit's bags and got as much ready for the hospital as we could so we could be ready in case it was go time.  We now have the car seat installed in our car.  Anyway, like I said, her contractions slowed down and calmed down, so here I am waking up at 7 to go to my 8 o'clock class this morning (which I was hoping I wouldn't have to go to today because I'd be in the hospital).  So I guess now we just wait and see what happens...again.

Snot

So here's the latest update about Whit:

This morning she lost her mucus plug.  While this is exciting, at the same time it's almost more frustrating.  It feels like she took another huge step in the direction of labor.  However, losing the mucus plug really doesn't mean anything.  Basically she could go into labor today, or she could go into labor three weeks from now.

To all of you wondering what a mucus plug looks like, let me try to describe it.  Let us explore two scenarios:
1.  Imagine you have a really bad cold or sinus infection.  Your nose is running.  You blow your nose into a tissue and look at it (because honestly, who doesn't look at the tissue after they've blown their nose).  The snot is really thick and off-white/yellowish with some darker patches in there (which, from my understanding, if your snot is anything but clearish/whitish, then you have an infection of some sort).  Anyway, that thick, yellowish, off-whitish, brown speckled spectacle is more or less what the mucus plug looks like.
2.  You have a really bad cold and a nasty cough that just feels like you really need to clear your throat because you can feel there's something in there.  So you cough and you cough all day.  Then finally, you get one really good cough in and you happen to cover your mouth and out pops that mucus from your throat, right onto your palm.  That mucus is also somewhat similar to the mucus plug.

Now, to all of you wishing I had taken a picture so you could see what it looks like for yourself and compare it to various other sorts of mucus, I apologize.  I would have taken a picture, but Whit was too fast and flushed it before I got the chance.  And I'm pretty sure she would've killed me if I took a picture and posted it.  Oh well, next time I suppose...

Dilation

Well, Whit had her doctor's appointment today.  He said that she's dilated about 2 1/2 cm and 2/3 effaced.  So he said that most likely she'll deliver early!  But that could be anytime between now and her due date still.  So I guess we'll see here in the next week or two!

Update

So Whit's still having contractions today.  They still aren't very painful (with the exception of a few that have been slightly painful).  She called the doctor today just to kinda see what the heck is going on.  He just told her not to worry, but call if the contractions are 5 minutes apart for an hour, then they'd have her go in and be put on a monitor.  So we still have no idea if she's in early labor or what is really going on.  We just have to wait and see.  Like I said before though, she does still have a little over 2 weeks until her due date, so it could just be a false alarm.  Hopefully we'll find out soon!

New Blog

So as you see, we recently decided to start a blog to post stuff about our new parenting adventures.  We were convinced by a friend so we'll see how it goes.  It'll probably get a little less dull once we actually have the baby.  Until then I guess we can use it to give updates on Whit's progress.

Enjoy...

Contractions

So last night, Whit started having contractions at around 8:30.  They got more frequent and more intense as we were walking around the mall and then literally walking AROUND the outside of the mall to get back to our car.  They continued pretty much all night until we went to bed.  Then they may or may not have stopped while she was sleeping.  When she woke up in the morning, they continued and have been occurring all day until now.  For the most part they've been pretty irregular and apparently not painful.  I did make her go on a walk with me around the block after church though to see if they would get more intense.  While we were walking around the block, she was having them about every 2 minutes or so and they were lasting for around 45 seconds, with some being quite intense.  Anyway, apparently they're slowly getting more intense, so who knows.  This could be the real thing or it might not be.  We'll see!  She is still 2 and 1/2 weeks away from her due date.