Take a ticket, take a seat.

Today is another babyless day. We finally got the car seat situation worked out. There was a free program at the K-Mart in the boonies where they help you secure your car seat properly. The program was from 11am to 1pm and we arrived at 12:45pm. We were told that they were not checking any more cars because it was starting to rain. Once they saw Kristin's radiant pregnantness and found that we were due any minute, they made an exception for us.

The lady who checked our seat was wowed by our cutting edge selection - the New Fisher Price baby car seat! She actually was so excited to see this she called her colleagues over to bask in the glory that is the Fisher Price car seat. The lady pointed out everything that we did wrong in our attempt to strap the sucker in, but we soon learned the secrets that every new parent learns when making a restraining devise purchase.

It looks like Mo will be an October birthday girl - she only has 3 1/2 hours of September left. October is the school age cut-off. Looks like she will be one of the first in her class to get her driver's license. We're not sure if Aunt Carrie wants to share her birthday but it's looking like a real possibility.

The waiting is the hardest part.

No baby yet. We had mentioned that yesterday was our due date, but we actually had three due dates. Tuesday, the 26th was the due date per the ultrasound we had at 4 months, yesterday was the date that we were working with all along, and two weeks ago the doctor started up with some nonsense that the due date is today, the 29th. We dismissed his estimation two weeks ago, but now it sounds pretty good. This would be a good day; the Stones and Alice Cooper are playing Churchill Downs tonight. If anyone has two tickets they want to give away, it would make for a great labor story. Of course we would need clubhouse suite tickets. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

The photo shows one of the coolest presents - our good friends Jeff and Kristin gave it to us yesterday. Its not really a hat, but it could be!

Size makes the difference.

Today is the actual due date, but no signs of labor. I believe we both got a good night's sleep last night despite Kristin's many bathroom trips. The doctor was a bit perplexed yesterday about the pain in Kristin's side. She may have an infection on the lining of her lungs, or maybe she got a swift kick from the babe. Because Kristin has a tiny frame, he wants to do an ultrasound on Monday to see how big Maureen (if that's her true name) is. If she's nine pounds or bigger, he will probably want to do a C-section. If she's 7 pounds or less he may give us the green light to go the old fashioned way - all hopped up on dope. Right now she's not dilated, but there's a chance we may go into labor (the collective "We") before they get a chance to do the ultrasound. Kristin's feeling a bit better now.

I've included a photo we took this morning to show how big the baby's getting. Kristin didn't know what she was getting into when she agreed to have a baby with me - my mother delivered three out of five children over nine pounds - the whopper being brother Joe - I think he weighed 25 pounds (or so.) Maybe it was over ten. I think I heard that Kristin's brother Pat was over nine pounds too - I think that was probably all brain weight?

I realize a lot of this blog will probably bore some of you to tears - I know people have been having babies for many, many years and there's nothing stated here that you probably haven't heard before. We'd like to be able to keep this to show to our baby once she's older - hopefully she'll get a real kick out of it. We encourage you to add to this site to make it a fun read and to serve as a historical document. Please try not to use last names or locations, and don't forward to folks we don't know - I don't want 20/20 at our doorstep telling us how vunerable we are to the evil forces out there who prey on unsuspecting bloggers. And please refrain from putting a stork in our front yard announcing the birth. We are very paranoid right now!!

T-Minus ?

This is an attempt to document the pending birth of our first child whom we are 99.23% sure has the name Maureen. We are not quite sure what the middle name will be, but our top three contenders remain: Josephine (named for Kristin's Grandmother, Mary Josephine, and for my father, grandfather and brother (for that matter) Joseph(s)), Elizabeth (almost everyone on Kristin's Mother's side of the family (including the men?) have Elizabeth as part of their name, including her grandmother (Ellen) Betty (short for Elizabeth), mother Karen Elizabeth, sister Kathy Elizabeth, and my sister Erin's middle name is also Elizabeth), and Caroline, named for Kristin's sister Carrie (only if born on October 3 - Carrie's birthday.)

Our due date is tomorrow, Thursday, September 28; she may come this week, she may come in two weeks. We may have more of an indication after today's doctor appointment. We've had two rough nights this week. Sunday night I had the bright idea to carry out Indian Food (dot, not feather). Though we ordered medium spice, medium holds a significant heat index for non-injuns. By the time we went to bed I found myself timing Kristin's indigestion pains - they were approximately 15 minutes apart. It was good practice for me, a great deal of pain for Kristin.

Last night brought rib pains on Kristin's left side. They were so intense we had to call the doctor. We believe the baby's getting so big the cartilage in Kristin's ribs are being pushed out a bit. The pain is still there, making it hard for her to breath. It wasn't so big of a concern that we had to rush to the hospital, but she is going to the doctor today to get things checked out.

I believe we are as ready as can be expected - we have a ton of pink clothes for the little squirt. I never realized how much pink would become a part of our lives. Of course I was the one that had to know the sex of the baby. Paybacks are hell. We have her room ready to go, the color scheme is Sage Green, Navy Blue and Puke Pink (I made that name up!) We bought a funky rug to lay in front of the crib and Jezebel (the cat) has already given it a trial run and gives it two paws up. The pack and play is in our room, we have bouncy seats, a baby bjorn, excersaucers; things I never knew we needed. The only thing that is hanging over our heads is getting the baby seat base installed properly in the car, which I hear is a necessary step if you want to go home from the hospital with baby in tow. We'll get it done.

That's the set-up. Hopefully we'll keep this going. Please feel free to be a part of our blog by responding, or just check in from time to time to check on Maureen (what's her name's) progress.