Allyson at the hospital! Will Gavin be a February baby after all??

This is Melanie, Allyson and Ryan's friend, reporting on Allyson's progress with updates from Ryan. Gavin- we'll see you soon!!!

Sat. Feb. 28, 9:30 a.m. Allyson is doing well, she is about 4cm dilated now, she is having very hard and painful contractions every 3-4 minutes and is going to get an epidural so she can hopefully sleep b/c she has been in labor since yesterday at 4pm.
10:20 a.m.
Allyson is sleeping now. She just got an epidural and life is "glorious" as she would say. She can still feel the contractions, but the edge is off and she is resting very well. We haven't seen the on call Dr. yet, but expect to soon and hopefully get some good news to see how dialated she is.

About 1 p.m. They gave Allyson what the nurses called a "whif" of pitocin to hopefully speed up her progress. With that came stronger contractions, but Allyson has still able to rest. (When I talked to Ryan at 1:40, Allyson was sleeping!)

Update #2

So I called the doctor this afternoon to tell them I was having consistent contractions at 7 minutes apart. They told me to come in and do a labor check around 2:30. The monitor they hooked me up to showed the contractions at 4 1/2 minutes apart!

But...I'm not in enough pain. I'm just in pain in my lower back or like a menstrual cramp--not my whole stomach. So the doctor said it could go on like this all weekend! Hooray! :) She gave me some Ambien to sleep through the night with the contractions because I'm not ready yet. Still only 2 cm, almost a 3.
So I am in early labor, yes, but not real labor yet. So I'll try to make it through these fun contractions for tonight and maybe tomorrow and we'll see when Gavin decides to make his arrival!

Update

Just got back from my weekly doctor's appointment. Here's what's going on:

• I'm having consistent contractions--not ones that hurt, but tightening up. They hooked me up to a monitor for 30 minutes and I had them the whole time and Gavin's heartbeat is good.
• Easy 1 cm dilated--almost 2 cm. Still only 50% effaced.
  
• She did an ultrasound to check his fluid levels and movement and all is great!
• Weight: holy cow, 8 lb 1 oz from the ultrasound! I asked her what my likelihood is of being able to deliver an 8 lb baby and she said she's one of the most patient doctors at Parkwest and she'd do everything she can to make sure I have a vaginal delivery. I LOVE my doctor!
• She thinks he'll be here by this weekend the way my contractions were going, so we'll see! She's on call tonight, so wouldn't that work out nicely?
• If he does not cooperate, I am scheduled to be induced next Friday, March 6.

That's all I know for now! Stay tuned to see if these contractions turn into anything!

Due Day: 40 Weeks

"Happy Gavin's due day!" That's what I said to Ryan as we woke up this morning. I went to the doctor Thursday and am still only 1 cm dilated, he has not dropped, and she does not think he'll be here before next week. The questions I'm getting a lot are, "Are you discouraged?" or, "Are you miserable?" and thankfully the answer to both is NO! It is the kindness of the Lord to give me a few days extra to rest. And, not to mention, give Ryan the weekend to work on and hopefully (cross your fingers) finish our master bathroom project!! The tile will hopefully be done this weekend! WOOHOO!!!

Our good friends Peter and Bethany found this sign at Goody's and had to get it for us. Can I just carry this around in my car and put it up wherever I want to park??

We're going to bed every night thinking, "Is this the last full night's sleep I'll get?" It's just a big waiting game right now! We're just so glad he's cooperating so well so we can keep working around here! :) He's already being a good baby!

Oh, and my doctor will let me go 2 weeks past my due date before she induces me. So he could even be a March baby!! Woa, that's a crazy thought. Ryan's going to update the blog from the hospital, so we'll keep you posted when he does decide to come!

My Little Alien

I've been wanting to get Gavin moving in my belly on video for quite a while. Just like in the ultrasounds, he is quite camera shy! I hope he grows out of that when he's born! Ryan and I will keep getting the camera out to try to get him kicking on video and he always stops RIGHT when we press record! So Sunday night while I was watching TV, I was determined. I took video after video and finally got this one! This is really and truly what he does all day long! He doesn't really kick me much, just rolls back and forth, back and forth. These are his feet/legs moving from my perspective. I promise I'm not moving my stomach at all!

My Aunt Joanna sent me this picture in an email. I would LOVE to see this, but this is not me...
Have any of you pregnant moms seen that???? That's what Ryan kept saying in the video. "Lift your shirt up and see if you see his foot." You would think my little guy would be so crammed in there that we'd see this all day long! :)

Good-bye, Mrs. Hughes

Friday was quite an emotional day for me, to say the least. It was my last day of teaching after 5 wonderful years. Even when I was a little girl, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. It is not the easiest job in the world, that's for sure! But it has brought me so much joy over the years. I particularly love teaching kindergarten because they learn SO MUCH in just a matter of months and it is so rewarding to see their progress and know you had something to do with it!

I took a video of my classroom to remember it if you'd like to see (and beware: I look awful because I had been crying all day and I had worked a 12 hour day setting up for my replacement). Probably boring to anybody but me, but I thought I'd put it on here:


I was praying Friday for the Lord to give me joy that I would get to stay home with Gavin instead of being sad about leaving my kiddos. My long-time friend Jeanette said it best in an email yesterday when I told her how sad I was to leave. She said, "Right now there is just a 'your kids'-sized hole with nothing to to fill it." That's exactly right! So once Gavin gets here, I know I'll be so excited and not even think about teaching!

For those of you that don't know, I'm going to be a stay-at-home Mom for at least a few years! It is so kind of the Lord to provide Ryan with a job that allows me to not have to work. Now don't go thinking we're rolling in the dough! Hardly! We'll definitely have to cut back and budget much more tightly than we have been, but it'll be so worth it to not have to miss anything my little boy does!

So I'm looking forward to being able to rest and relax for a few days before the little guy decides to make his appearance. We'll be updating the blog as soon as he arrives, so stay tuned!

Winter Wonderland

My Mom and I have always been huge fans of snow--we're both teachers, so of course we love snow days! I think we wait for it more than the kids do. So when I moved to Knoxville 4 1/2 years ago, I told her I'd be calling her when I got out of school and she didn't. Well, it hasn't happened yet--until this week! Check out our snow from Monday!

I was determined to make a snow angel--even at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant. I needed a lot of help getting up! :) Check out the mound protruding from the snow. Wow. And notice my outfit--my regular ski bibs unzipped completely so my belly could poke through!

We had to get all of us dressed to play in the snow--even Dakota!

We finished our snowman right about dinner time. It's almost as tall as me! The snow was wet and stuck together perfectly!

It also snowed here a couple of weeks ago--pretty pitiful compared to yesterday. Dakota just LOVES the snow. She likes eating it especially. If you like dogs, you'll get a kick out of this video...

Look at this pitiful face.