To hear the baby's heartbeat click here http://shaneanderika.com/heartbeat.mp3.

Littlest Bean Hickey Pictures, January 22, 2004.

1-22-04 Entry: We had some ultrasound pictures taken this morning. They are all very similar to one another, to enlarge any of them, please just click on them. I'll quickly get the journal up to speed and then try and enter new things whenever they happen. December 26th was the date of the home pregnancy test, which was shockingly (to an extent) positive. Baby Bean was pretty unexpected, and after the first couple of days of shock wore off, the excitement set in. We are both very excited for the arrival in August. The due date has been set anywhere between August 24th and August 27th. We've heard all of these dates, so don't really know which one is accurate, and probably never will...since that is the way it tends to go with due dates.

If you are confused as to what you are looking at in the ultra sound pictures above: The baby's head is on the right, and Bean's lil body and legs are on the left hand side. Bean's arm moved this morning and the little heartbeat was going like mad. We could see the cord and some other real neat stuff. It was very surreal up until this morning, but seeing everything made it all much more realistic and exciting. Bean is officially 9 weeks and 2 days old as of 1/22/04.

I'm excited to be sharing pregnant-time with a couple of very close friends, and probably more "in the works". Everyone has been extremely excited as the news has spread. So once again we are entirely too lucky to have so many close friends/family members that are supportive and awesome to love this new little one.

Papa decided this morning that the baby at 9 weeks and 2 days looked like a Jellybean so I'll refer to him/her as Bean until we have more information about the sex. Much better than "it".

The first doctor's appointment was January 14th, just a few days after returning from a visit to Florida and a cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. The appointment consisted of drawing some blood, peeing in a cup and some other standard tests. They found everything was very normal with Mama's blood and urine and lookin' good. We were excited about today, which is one week and a day later, to get to actually see the little Bean. So that about gets us up to speed. Mama has been a little sickish...but much better now that she isn't on a rocking cruise ship. Just tired quite frequently, and we take a lot of naps.

2-13-04: Mama and Papa got back from an awesome visit to Mazatlan with Bean's Great Grandma and Grandpa Bender. It was the first time in a long time that Mama felt better. No more waves of nausea every single day. She's getting some really good breaks now and starting to regain energy too! Good deal for Mama and Papa too I'm sure, since he's been a busy little bee to make up for everything that Mama hasn't been motivated to do.

2-17-04 Entry: We went to meet our new Nurse Midwife this morning. There are going to be two that we work with, but we only met one of them this morning. Her name is Sharon Delaney and she is so sweet. We both liked her immediately. The appointment today would normally have been the first appointment we would have had, because they do not even take you, at this new place, until you are at least 12 weeks pregnant. Today we are 13 weeks pregnant. I think the highlight of the appointment today was when we got to listen to the heartbeat. They smeared some cold gel on my belly and searched around for a while with a small instrument. It was one of the most touching experiences of my entire life. It was much more intense than the early sonogram. I think being able to hear the little heart beating is something I'll never forget. It sent Mama into a real whirlwind of tears (big shocker). It is the most intense and crazy feeling in the world to know there is a little baby that is a part of us growing inside of me. She told us today that the baby is completely formed at this point, so Bean has every organ, finger, toe, etc...and is just going to start growing and making his/her organs start working from here on out. We didn't have any more pictures taken today, and we didn't ask when the next sonogram would be, so I figured since we didn't have our own picture taken, I would put a picture of a 3 month old baby here, so you have something to compare Bean to. This is not Bean, so don't be confused. (You can click on the picture below to enlarge it.)

My uterus is tipped back so it will take a bit longer for me to show at all, but I'm getting excited to start showing, I think that will also make things much more real than they are now. We will start putting pictures of Mama's belly on here as it starts to grow. Sharon told us that the baby would start growing like crazy during this stage of the pregnancy...so will Mama.

The doctor's appointment consisted of once again peeing in a cup, and just getting weighed and a whole lot of talking, it was very informative. Then of course getting the opportunity to listen to Bean's heartbeat at the end!

I knew we had made the perfect decision to go with this Midwife when she sat down and just started talking to us at the beginning of the appointment. She wanted to know things about us and took breaths in between what she said. The woman we saw prior to this did not take many breaths, although she was a very nice person, I just did not get the same comfortable feeling that I did today. She even hugged me when we were leaving. So I'm very happy with the decision we made.

We are going back in to see her in three weeks, on March 10th. After that appointment we will go every 4 weeks, so watch for updates every 4 weeks.

*Oh and I think we also decided that we won't find out the sex of the baby in advance. We were going to originally but I think we've decided to be surprised instead.*

3-10-04 Entry: We had another check-up appointment today. Mama gained the weight back that she lost at the beginning, so we are on the way to getting bigger. Pants have been starting to feel tighter in the past week. We met the other Midwife we will be working with today. Nancy Everett is her name. Our visit today was so brief that we didn't get to spend a ton of time with her, but probably the best piece of advice she gave us was that she believes that What to Expect When you are Expecting was written by Nazis so we shouldn't live by that book.

We got to hear the heartbeat again today, which was very easy to find this time because the Bean is so much bigger than the last appointment. She put the doppler on my belly (which was pretty cold) and the baby started kicking that cold spot. So we could hear kicks mixed in with the heart beating. The heartbeat was considerably slower this time than it was the last also, but she said as the baby grows the heartbeat will slow a bit. I wish we had a recording of it to share, maybe we will soon. She asked if I've felt fluttering or the baby moving at all, and I don't think that I have, although sitting here just now I could have sworn that I felt some movement, I'll be able to feel it more and more though over the course of the next couple of weeks. It is hard to tell if you are feeling a baby moving or just normal bodily functions. I can feel the Bean now when I lie down on my back or on my stomach. The way I would describe the feeling is like a hard ball right in the middle of all of the normal stuff one feels when they lie down. It feels pretty strange. I can't actually lie comfortably on my back for very long at all anymore. The Bean puts a lot of pressure on Mama's bladder and bowels (ew) so that part is a little bit tough to deal with, I am still getting up between two and six times a night to pee, little bugger!

 I noticed in the shower yesterday that the left side of my belly was sticking out a bit more than the right, and Nancy told us today that the baby seemed to be hangin' out over on the left hand side of me right now. So, that was kind of neat, that I could actually see that before we were told what it was. It still isn't really visible to anyone else that I'm pregnant, but I guess that's alright. It's like a little secret.

So many changes happen to your body when you are pregnant, just about everything that you used to do without a challenge (such as going on a really long walk) are now a little bit more difficult. Papa and Mama went on a walk that we try to go on quite a bit and it was a little bit of a struggle on the way home for the Mama today. Holy. Mama doesn't feel sick anymore, at all, which is the best! And I'm much less tired than I was in the first trimester. We are 16 weeks and 1 day pregnant today. We scheduled our next appointment for April 14th (Auntie Melissa's Birthday) at 2:00 and it will most likely be the most exciting appointment because that is the day we get to have our ultrasound! More fun pictures. That will be two days after I get back from a visit to Wisconsin for Easter.

3-17-04 Entry: I wanted to just do a quick entry because I've been feeling the baby move around the past couple of days. It is just like I was told, it feels like small flutters and just flipping right now, and it isn't all that often, but it once he/she gets started it happens for a little while. It is pretty wild. I started to second guess myself yesterday because I wasn't feeling it quite as much, but today I'm feeling it quite a bit again, like I was on Monday. So I think I've completely convinced myself that is really what it is now. It's so neat. I got a device that I should be able to record the baby's heartbeat with in the next few weeks or so. I tried to use it today and I think it is just too early yet, but maybe closer to twenty weeks it will work. I'll put the sounds on the web page for everyone to hear...probably not for a few weeks though. I'll start trying every day though, so maybe it will be sooner?

4-6-04 Entry: 1/2 way day: We sent Papa some flowers today from Wisconsin to wish him a happy Half-Way Day! Hopefully he got them and knows what the heck that means. I've been feeling a lot of movement lately, and since I arrived in Wisconsin only on Saturday I think my belly has grown quite a bit. We've been shopping for maternity clothes like crazy, thankfully we've found some awesome buys and I got some pretty cute stuff, I probably won't have to get anymore for quite a while, and who knows maybe this will be enough for the entire pregnancy. The baby has started to kick up higher now, last night while I was sitting in front of the TV, I could feel the little bean
kicking near my bellybutton. Up until then most of the kicking I felt was much lower. I guess it could have been punching. heh. I'm looking forward to going home and trying to listen to the heartbeat with papa. I think it
won't be long now before I can share the kicks with everyone. The baby seems very strong so I'm sure others can feel the kicks too with some patience. Things seem to be going very well. I set the camera up and used
the timer to take some belly shots, so I'll try and keep doing that for a while. Just so we have record of the crazy growth, I've been told between weeks 20-23 there is a pretty big growth spurt. I heard this from a Doula I think we'll probably be working with, her name is Charlotte.
For those of you that may be wondering what a Doula is....

A Doula is a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after childbirth. Trained Doulas understand the physiology of
birth and the emotional needs of a woman in labor. Generally, Doulas believe that pregnancy and birth are normal, natural and healthy processes. This includes preparation for birth helping the laboring woman with encouragement, comfort measures, relaxation techniques, and an objective viewpoint, as well as support after childbirth, such as help with breastfeeding. www.doula.com

4-10-04 Entry: We had a baby shower for Bean today with our Wisconsin family. It was so fun. Thank you everyone for all of your sweet gifts! We really all of the treasures! To see some baby shower pictures you can click here WI Baby Shower. We were fortunate enough to have Great Grandpa and Ali and Great Grandma there, as well many of the Great Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

4-14-04 Entry: Today we got to have the "big" ultrasound. Normally it happens when the baby is 20 weeks old, but since I wasn't in town we had to wait until today. Today we are 21 weeks and 1 day. The ultrasound today dated the baby a little bit older than that, but they don't change the due date unless the dates are off by more than 10 days...and they were only off by eight, I think. So the due date is still August 25th...somewhere between the 18th and the 25th. It seemed like everything was alright. The people that performed the ultrasound were ultrasound technicians...so they didn't really say much while we were in the room. The radiologist reads the ultrasound pictures and they call the midwife in the next couple of days if anything is amiss. When we got in the room, they put gel on my belly and immediately you could see the baby's head and features. It was amazing. I think we were in the room for around 45 minutes. So we got to watch the baby move around, he/she moves like crazy. They took pictures of the size of the baby's abdomen, all 4 chambers of the baby's heart, brain, spine, legs, arms, hands, feet, face. They also did measurements of the baby's head and based on all of those things they get different due dates. They checked the placenta, and where the umbilical cord connects to the baby. They also had a really cool ultraviolet-type light that showed the blood flow through the cord into the baby. He/she opened his/her mouth pretty much right away, it sort of looked as if he/she were trying to put his/her foot in his/her mouth.

Sharon (our midwife) told us that the baby will be able to hear us at about 26 weeks, so in about a month, she told us to start talking to the baby a lot and familiarizing the baby with music and Papa's voice. We had an appointment with the midwife following the ultrasound and she told us that everything looked normal. So, hopefully that is the case. I've been a little bit apprehensive about this ultrasound for some reason, so as soon as we know all is well, it will be a relief. Everything looked okay today though, so I'm sure it will be. It was really fun to be able to see how big the baby is. We listened to the heartbeat again with the midwife, when she puts the doppler on my belly we can instantly hear the heart beating. We have a little stethoscope type dealy hear at home and the past couple of nights we've been trying to find the heartbeat, and when we do, we will record it and put it on here for all of you to hear. So far the sounds that we can detect easily with our little contraption are kicks, which are so frequent anymore, that I'm starting to adjust to it. He/she likes to kick the bladder the past couple of days. I've been having some contractions, not that frequent, and they aren't very painful, but it is a pretty bizarre feeling. Mostly they are in the middle of the night when I get up to go to the bathroom. Sharon told us today that is common if I have a full bladder. So, nothing to worry about.

Oh they also measured my belly for the first time today. It was 22". When they measure it they start at the top of your pelvic bone and just measure to the top of where the baby sits, so the top of the uterus. Oh and they told us the baby weighs 1 lb.

Papa was able to feel the baby kick the day I got home from WI. The baby started kicking when my belly really started to grow and all of that happened when I was in Wisconsin. So some of my family members got to feel the baby kicking before Papa...but he got to feel it on the 12th. The kicks are visible too, so that is kind of neat. I actually haven't been able to see them because my belly sticks out too far and they are down below my belly button...but I hear they are visible. heh.

My belly is really starting to grow like crazy. I actually look pregnant now. There are some pictures of Bean (who isn't really much of a bean anymore) and some pictures of my belly on this page, just so those of you far away from us can see what is happening. The ultrasound pictures are so cute. They told us our baby was "picture perfect" while we were having the ultrasound done. They might say that to everyone, but I'd like to think we got something real special goin' on.

The pictures above show a little bit of progression, the crazy thing is it was happening daily. These were all taken while I was in WI. So between the dates of April 5th and 10th. The baby is growing like crazy.

Hopefully we'll have a heartbeat sound for you real soon. He/she just moves around like crazy, so it is hard to capture the heartbeat...but we'll keep trying, because we want you all to be able to hear it.

Oh and Happy Birthday to Auntie Melissa today!

5-3-04 Entry: Things are going great. I'm feeling awesome. We don't have another appointment with our midwife until the 13th, but I wanted to put some pictures up of the baby's nursery. I've spent quite a bit of time working in there lately. It is so much fun, painting and making it cozy and fun. It's pretty colorful. We haven't gotten the crib yet, luckily we get to use the crib from when I was a baby, so it has quite a bit of sentimental value, so we are just awaiting the arrival of that. Otherwise things are pretty much done, furniture-wise in the nursery. I've done a whole lot of spray painting and stenciling. So I'll just put a few pictures here for you to look at if you are interested at all. The baby kicks like crazy. I have a feeling that it is most likely going to be a boy so I tend to call the baby he/him. I have been walking every morning on a road near our house. It's beautiful here but it really needs to rain, or we are in for a miserable summer (most likely going to be very smoky). I guess this might be the summer we invest in a small air conditioner for our bedroom if that all proves to be true.

Below there is a link for more nursery photos.

The only bummer is that I've been getting some heartburn lately. It's not unbearable, just a little annoying, but I am enjoying every second of being pregnant. It feels so awesome. I feel so healthy and happy. It is fun to feel the baby move around and to watch my belly grow. We can see the movement when we are lying in bed at night. He rolls all over the place. It's amazing to watch. So things seem to be going well. The next appointment we have they do a glucose test to check for gestational diabetes.

I just quit my job at the Western Montana Chapter, so I'm just working from home now, although I haven't done much work since my job ended last week. Shane was working up in Columbia Falls last week, so I tagged along and went to Glacier for a bit and spent a day in Bigfork. It was really relaxing. I am still planning on teaching art classes through the summer...and as I mentioned before just helping Shane anyway I can from home. I am also planning on getting started on some more stained glass projects. I've thought about making a small business out of that as well. We'll see though. I have to have a lot of time to fulfill that dream, and my time will be much more limited a few months from now. Everything is progressing so quickly now. I couldn't wait to start showing and/or be in the fun stages of pregnancy before and now I don't want it to end. I suppose my feelings will change on that when it is 110 degrees outsides. Right now though, I feel like being pregnant is something I will miss when it is over, but at the same time, we'll have a precious little baby, so maybe not. I'm definitely not in a rush for that to come though, I'm planning on enjoying these last few months to the fullest and getting the very most out of them.
Here are some belly pictures and a few from Glacier..

5-18-04 Entry: We met with our doula Charlotte today. It was a great meeting. Shane really hadn't been able to spend any time with her yet, and get to know her, so I think it was a good experience for everyone. She came out here and got a little tour of our house, then we went to lunch and just chatted. She tells us a lot of stories of different experiences she's had. She really gets me excited about labor and the birth. I know it will be the most intense experience I probably ever have, but it is going to be so amazing for Shane and I. Such a bonding experience and I'm really looking forward to that part of it. She showed us how to use our little stethoscope contraption, so we should be able to put a heartbeat on here real soon for you. We were able to find the baby's heartbeat pretty easily with her help. Shane and I just didn't really know what sort of a sound we were looking for, since we've only heard it with the doppler at the doctor's office, we were having a hard time tracking it down. Basically it sounds just like my heartbeat so it is a bit hard to decipher, we actually have to use a stopwatch to count the beats in order to determine whether it is mine or baby's. There was a spot on my belly where we could hear both at the same time while were were listening...it was a really cool, but bizarre thing to hear. It amazes me to no end that there is a little guy growing inside of me. After spending a few hours with Charlotte, Shane and I decided it would probably be beneficial to have her there. She's very knowledgeable, and will be able to help us write our birth plan as well as just be an extra helping hand in the delivery room, so I just need to let her know that we want to do it.

5-22-04 Entry: I finally had my prenatal appointment. It got canceled twice because the midwives were delivering other babies at the time it was scheduled...which is completely understandable, but it began to make me nervous, like maybe they'd over-booked themselves...but I guess you never really know when a baby is going to come and several just happened to come when I was scheduled to go in for a prenatal appointment. I talked to Nancy about it yesterday and she said when it came time for me to deliver, I would be the queen and they'd be calling all of the woman scheduled for that day in the office so they could be with me. So I was probably worrying over nothing, but it did make me nervous. I guess they are supposed to be much less busy in August which was also a concern that I had...so we should be just fine. I went to my appointment yesterday without Papa, it made me sad to go alone, but he's on a little mini tour right now with Volumen and the Oblio Joes. Since my appointment had been rescheduled twice we decided I should keep this one and just go solo. I guess it wasn't that big of a deal, I was just extra emotional yesterday, so it was hard to be without him. I just got over a nasty ol' cold that lasted a couple of weeks and Papa and Mama both got the stomach flu...which was a little bit scary to me. Papa called the doctor though right when I started getting sick to my stomach and made sure there weren't really special precautions we had to take. He talked to Nancy and she said it was good to throw up and rid my body of the bad bacteria...so we both trudged on through the flu, it was a relatively short one. I'm feeling 100% normal again today. Yesterday morning I was still a little rough around the edges, but today I feel great.

The baby has been growin' like mad. They measured my belly yesterday and it was 30". And even after having been sick I weighed in a good healthy 170-171lbs. Sort of seems like a lot, but it has been a normal/healthy weight gain. They drew some blood yesterday as well, I won't know the results of the labs for a few days and they said they'd only call with any bad news. I had to drink this nasty ol' drink called a glucola drink They have you drink it within 5 minutes of receiving it and then they draw your blood anywhere between 55-65 minutes later. The test determines whether or not you are at risk for gestational diabetes. If the test is abnormal they call and reschedule a 3 hour test, so I'm hoping all is well. They also checked me for anemia and double checked my Rh. Nancy followed-up with me on the ultrasound which happened at the last appointment 4-14. She said that everything looked really normal with that as well, which was very good to hear. They told me yesterday after we listened to the heartbeat that the baby is bigger than average right now, which could change, but he/she is growing well, big and strong. At least he/she feels pretty strong, I really get some good kicks from time to time. It is pretty amazing lately, you can literally watch the baby roll over in my stomach. My stomach will bulge up and pretty much move from one side to the other. The baby is still small enough to be floating in the amniotic fluid, so he/she can be pretty mobile still and boy does he/she move about.

The coolest thing happened the other morning...we were still lying in bed and I had my belly up against Papa's back and the baby got hiccups, I'm pretty sure it was hiccups because of how repetitive the motion was. It has happened a few times now. It was enough to wake both of us up though. It was a pretty crazy feeling. The movement has definitely increased in intensity over the past couple of weeks. Papa took a couple of pictures on Tuesday last week, which was the beginning of week 26. The beginning of the third trimester (according to some books anyway).

I was telling a couple of friends last night that I started getting weekly emails to tell me how far along I was and how big the baby probably is, etc. Well I got one on Tues. the 18th and it said you are 27 weeks pregnant today, in actuality I think I'm more like 26 weeks.. Only 13 more weeks to go (assuming I don't go over my due date) and that is only 100 more days! heh. 100 more days sounds like an eternity to me. I know it will go by quickly because I feel like it has all flown by, and since I've really enjoyed being pregnant I know there are going to be things that I miss, but 100 days seems like a long time.  My belly button, just over the past few days has really started to stretch out. It also depends on the position of the baby. Sometimes he/she lies right there and really pushes the button. According to one of the books I'm reading currently, the baby is about 14 inches long and weighs around 2 lbs. I don't know if that is our baby's height and weight specifically, but it is approximate. Maybe our baby is bigger, since the midwife told me yesterday he/she is above average? Alrighty, more to come soon, we have some big events over the course of the next week. Grandma and Grandpa Voss are driving out from Wisconsin and should be here sometime tonight with baby's crib. It is the crib I used as a baby, so it has a lot of sentimental value. Then I heard a rumor that Grandma Hickey is going to be making an appearance as well :). My friends are also throwing a baby shower for the Bean on the 27th of May, so next Thursday. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post then.

Another exciting piece of news...on June 19th, Auntie Beth is getting married in Venezuela. The family is going to the wedding, but unfortunately being as pregnant as I am, I cannot go. She is marrying Daniel Arturo Vieira Luarte at four o'clock in the afternoon at El Cristo Mountain in Choroni, Venezuela. Another exciting piece of news is she's going to be having a brand new little baby near the end of the year. She's due on the 25th of November. She's promised to send home some ultrasound pictures, so hopefully I'll be able to post those on the site as soon as I get them...and I will also put some wedding pictures up for all to see.

6-3-04 Entry: I have a ton of pictures to put up from our recent visits from relatives, but this morning while we were still lying in bed we recorded the baby's heartbeat for all of you to hear, so if you click on this link, it should take you there. http://shaneanderika.com/heartbeat.mp3. Please let me know via email if you have troubles hearing it. It's pretty cool. We took some photos of my belly this morning too, we are 28 weeks and 2 days today.

We had a great time with our family in town. Grandma and Grandpa Voss arrived on Saturday the 22nd of May and we started on projects the very next morning. They brought the crib that my Dad and I cleaned up in the rain. We had a wicked spell of rain for a while here, which we desperately needed, so it was actually good, but it rained the entire time our company was here. So we cleaned the crib out on the deck and brought it in and put it together. We thought we would have to paint it, but I decided I liked the more "rustic" look, it made it look older...so we left it. Below are some pictures of the crib assembly.

Grandpa also put up a clothesline for us to hang our diapers on this summer. So I'll put the pictures of the yard work and clothesline assembly as well as the aftermath below. We were busy little bees.

Shane's mom also arrived on the 26th of May for a surprise visit. She came for the baby shower that my friends had for me on the next day. The baby shower was out at Rock Creek at Sheena and Drew's house. We had a huge turn out. If you are interested in looking at some photos from that shower you can click here. This was the cute cake they got for us. It is so colorful and fun, just like Bean's room.

The nursery is complete now (already, I know I know, I got a little bit obsessed), so there are quite a few pictures of that on here as well, just click on the nursery photos link if you'd like to see them. We started child-birth classes on Tuesday night (at Community Hospital), and they go through the month of June, and then we actually start another one (taught by a local Midwife) that goes through July...so I'm sure I'll have a bunch to say about those real soon. I bet they'll differ from one another quite drastically.

That about wraps it up for now. There will be more to come real soon.

6-23-04 Entry: We had another appointment with the midwives yesterday, we actually saw Sharon. My appointment was supposed to be last week, but it ended up being canceled again, and after our brief (very brief) appointment yesterday on the way home we decided if we have any other babies that we'll probably have them at home with a midwife. Apparently there are at least 20 babies that Sharon and Nancy are delivering in July, so more than likely our appointments in July will be bumped too. We took in a list of questions to ask yesterday and she had us ask a couple of questions and that was all she seemed to have time for, she left sort of abruptly...I guess she was just really busy yesterday. July 8th is the next appointment, that's when Auntie Melissa is here, so she'll be able to tag along if she wants to, at least she can hear the heartbeat, because they don't do much of anything else, besides weigh me and measure my belly. By the way my belly measured at 32" yesterday. Yesterday I was 31 weeks pregnant exactly. So the next time I go in for a visit I'll be 33 weeks + a couple of days, and then again on July 21st, I'll be 35 weeks, and then we begin weekly appointments up until the baby arrives. So, for now it is bi-weekly. We're getting closer and closer. It is hard to believe it is just around the corner. Only about 8 weeks to go. I don't know why they don't admit that a pregnancy is actually 10 months long. They always just say it is 9, and that's crazy talk. It's typically 40+ weeks long and that is 10 months. So I never know what to say when people ask me how far along I am. The baby has been very active the past couple of days. He/she doesn't have a whole lot of room to move around, but when the movement happens, it is very strong and still mostly on the right-hand side. It usually stops me right in my tracks now. I couldn't tell if Sharon knew which direction the baby was laying yesterday or not, she seemed to think that the head had settled down low (but that she'd be able to tell in a couple of weeks) and that his/her body curved in a C shape around my belly...most likely with his/her back on my left-hand side, which would explain why I wasn't feeling as much movement on that side. I have been gaining weight, since the last time I was there, and I'm sure there is much more of that to come. I weighed in at a whopin' 180 lbs yesterday.

Auntie Beth got married this past weekend in Venezuela. I received one picture this morning, so far, because my family just arrived back in the states, to enlarge the picture you can just click on it. In order to see the rest of the pictures you can click on www.bethanddaniel.com, in the next few weeks I should have the site complete. *Surprise Beth!*

My friend Rachel took some belly pictures for Papa for Father's Day, but they were taken last Monday, the 14th, so since my belly has grown I'm sure. I mentioned before that I receive a weekly pregnancy update email that tells you approximate size of your baby. I thought there might be some confirmation yesterday, but I didn't get much...so the email told me that the baby is about 14.5 inches long and probably about 4.5 lbs right now.

My friend Elisabeth had her baby girl Mariposa Moon on the 16th, so a week ago today. She had the same midwives that we have...and she actually had Nancy do the delivery and she said she was an awesome coach, so that's encouraging. And, any day now my friend Amy should be having her baby boy in Bozeman, maybe right now!.

We finished our hospital birthing class last night and we actually start up another one tonight. The new one is with a midwife, so I am sure it will be much more informative. This class lasts 6 weeks and the hospital's course was 4 weeks long. There were some good things about the hospital course, like we got to have a tour, so we know where we'll be having the baby, where recovery happens, where postpartum is...and what facilities they have. That was a definite plus, just so we know what to expect. Otherwise they showed us a video throughout the 4 weeks and then we'd have discussions based on the portion of the video we'd watched that day. Everyone in our class was very quiet, so we never really had much discussion, but it was good to see what happens, rather than just read about it. I didn't feel like we learned a ton though, just because we have been reading like crazy since we found out we were having a baby. So it almost made the class feel like it was more geared toward people who don't read a single thing.

I guess the class helped us have a clearer definition of what we'd like and what we don't want...in regards to pain medication and monitoring the baby and the things they do in the hospital to an infant after birth, also what we want and what we don't want them to do to our baby, etc. We still have a ton of questions to ask our midwives, but I guess we still have a couple of months left to ask them in.

Taken June 14, 2004 by Rachel Tracy

I wanted to include a picture of Andy and Joanna's wedding, they got married on the 26th of June at Syme's, where Shane and I got married. Andy actually married us (he was the "marrier"), and the two of them got engaged the day of our wedding.

Above you'll see pictures of Joanna and her Dad, Andy, the ceremony, Auntie Ashley (Uncle Colin's Girlfriend) and Mama, Mama and Papa, and big Mama laying on the chaise at Syme's.

7-13-04 Entry: I meant to write after our last visit with our midwife, but I haven't had the time to. The appointment was 7-8-04, and everything seemed to be just fine and dandy. We saw Nancy this time and we were able to talk with her for awhile, which was refreshing compared to our last experience which was quite rushed and very impersonal. We actually have another appointment next week on the 21st and then start to go once a week after that, so there will be plenty of updates near the end here. Today I am 34 weeks along. So we're really counting down now. I weighed in at 183lbs. (like I'm involved in some sort of a competition). I have slowly been getting bigger. Shane took a few quick shots last night, so I guess you can be the judge.

I feel a lot bigger and a lot more uncomfortable lately. I have been feeling so much movement, I have to push the baby down quite often to give my ribs some relief. My belly measured 34" at my appointment, so that was at 33 weeks and 2 days. We heard the heartbeat with the doppler as usual and the baby put on a little show for Nancy. Started moving around like crazy, pushed his/her butt right up in the air. Nancy said you could almost feel butt cheeks. Right after the appointment we did a little folfing, so here are a couple of pictures from that. Auntie Melissa, Uncle Mitch and Uncle Steve were all here for a visit, so I braved the Blue Mountain folf course. Real flattering picture of me below. heh.

We did some more organizing while they were here, so I'm feeling really prepared to bring a sweet little baby into our house...at least in that respect. Of course I have my fears and am feeling nervous about things, but I know everything will go just fine. Nancy really set my mind at ease at our last appointment, she's very laid back and I think it makes all the difference in the world when they take the time to answer questions and just sit there with you. Shane and I have had several questions lately, so it was nice to get some of them answered. We are enjoying Dolly's birthing class and feel like we are learning quite a bit. We are 1/2 way done with that now too, we only have 3 more classes left and one is tomorrow. It has been very informative, much more so than the classes we took at the hospital.

So things are going well, we're reaching the home stretch, working on our birth plan and just about to start packing a bag for the hospital, maybe that's jumping the gun a bit, but my email for this week (from Pregnancy Weekly) said that 60% of babies come early, so it is better to be prepared in advance.

Entry 7-19-04: We haven't had another prenatal yet, but we went to Erin and Aaron's wedding this weekend and there were a couple of pictures I wanted to put on here.

The first picture is my friend Katy Zacher's dad from WI, who was at the wedding. His name is Dennis. I just think the picture is pretty hilarious, so I wanted to share. There are also a couple of pictures of Shane and I and some wading in the water pictures, the wedding was at Holland Lake.

Above are also pictures of Aaron and Erin and Katy and Katie, Erin and her Dad, and Ryder and Posie (Erin and Aaron's little ones).

We have another prenatal appointment on Wednesday, tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be 35 weeks. The baby is still moving around a lot. He/she doesn't have much space to move around in, so it is pretty intense. I'm still feeling really good though, swollen, but good. I have water aerobics tonight, so I'm looking forward to that. I've been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions which is good. I can really feel them lately. They are much more intense than they have been. I'm getting pretty huge...and I feel like it is my entire body lately, so it really feels good to be immersed in water, even a bath feels great. It has been pretty hot here, and actually really muggy the past couple of days, so water is also an awesome relief. All is well though as far as I can tell, I'll have a little bit more to report on Wednesday following our appointment.

7-21-04 Entry: I had an appointment with Sharon today and following that I went and pre-registered at the hospital, so we don't have to go through the long process of checking in now after labor begins, we can go directly to the OB and get right in. My appointment with the midwife was great. I gave our midwife our birth plan. We went through the entire thing and she told me what normally happens during labor and delivery as well as what happens with the baby following the delivery. She said our birth plan was great, "we should publish it." I'll attach it below for anyone interested in reading it. It just covers what we want and don't want to happen during labor and delivery and with the baby after he/she is born. We are by all means aware that circumstances may arise where our birth plan cannot be followed, but for a normal (as normal as it can be) labor and delivery this is how Shane and I have decided we want things to go.

Birth Plan

I weighed in at 190 today, holy moly! I am definitely retaining a lot of extra water right now. My feet and ankles, as I mentioned before, have been super swollen...and moreso on my right hand side. This happens because of the way the baby is lying in my belly. It is normal and she just recommended I spend some time with my feet up, drinking a ton of water. She also told me that I should start doing my kick counts daily. I should feel the baby moving a lot and I should feel him/her move 10 times in a 4 hour long period, so she suggested I fill a cup with 10 beans and take one out each time I feel movement, this should be during the baby's active time. I guess the baby was a little bit sleepy this morning when we went in, normally we go closer to the evening for our appointments, so he/she is much more active later in the day. Today he/she wasn't moving around much yet...so she moved the baby around and woke him/her up to increase the heart rate, just to reassure herself that the baby is in fact moving around enough. When we started listening the baby's heart rate was at 132 and after we got him moving around it jumped up to 144, that seemed to satisfy her. She was making me a little bit nervous actually, but made me feel much better after we woke the baby up. She also measured my belly and it was 36" today, so gettin' real big. She said that I probably wouldn't go over my due date, my belly is measuring a little bit bigger than average, but not to get my hopes up. I told her about Doug and Kia's wedding on the 22nd, so we are going to check me the week before that...on the 19th of August to see if anything is happening yet, that way we'll have a better idea as to when the baby will come. Of course the baby will come when he/she's ready, but we can see if I'm dilated at all, or effaced. So I've scheduled the next 3 appointments 8/4, 8/11, and 8/19 and I decided to wait on the 8/25 appointment, because that is the actual due date, so if nothing is happening yet on the 19th, I'll schedule that appointment. I start going every week now, yipes, it's sneaking right up. We decided today to wait two weeks before I go in again, we could have scheduled the next appointment a week from now, but she didn't seem too concerned so I just made it for 2 weeks out. Sharon asked whether I thought we were a week more pregnant than we'd estimated, and I said I had no idea, so according to the schedule they've had me on today I'm 35 weeks and a day. It's impossible to know whether or not that is accurate though. The only other thing I had to do today was the normal urine test and a Group B Strep culture (GBS Test).

 Alrighty, I think that wraps it up.

Oh, Shane and I went to Hot Springs yesterday for part of the day and I figured it was time for a bikini shot, so here it is. tee hee.

8-4-04 Entry: I'm round about the same size as I was in the picture above, actually my belly has grown another inch. I measured in at 37" today. So I'm still getting bigger and heavier.  I gained 3 lbs from the last visit to this one. I've been really feeling some pressure over the past 5 days or so also. I haven't noticed that the baby has dropped at all, but the midwife thought that he/she had today. Shane and I both agreed though that we didn't think that was the case on the walk back to the car after the appointment. But, a drop would explain the increased pressure down low. I do have to say, not that I'm complaining, that I'm becoming increasingly uncomfortable, but it is really good that that happens at the end of pregnancy, otherwise I would probably never want the labor and delivery part to arrive. I'm sure not many people would. Water aerobics and the river are really the best things in the entire world in my opinion right now. We try to go jump in the river as often as possible, and I've actually done some floating too. It's probably pretty funny to see me in an inner tube.

Nothing really eventful happened at the midwife appt. today. They took my blood pressure like usual and it was normal, it has been the entire time...so that's really good. The baby's heart rate was nice and normal. It was about 136 when we started listening and it jumped up to the 150s when he/she started moving around a bit. The baby still moves a lot and holy moly are the movements strong. They are painful sometimes. She asked me if I wanted to be checked today for any dilation and/or to see if I'm effaced at all, but we are just going to wait until the next appointment. Today I am 37 weeks and 1 day, she said they normally start checking you, unless requested earlier, at 38 weeks. So after our appointment next week I'll be able to tell you if anything is going on in that respect.

I'm still having contractions quite a bit. Nothing painful at all, but definitely noticeable. It is crazy to think that our due date is less than 3 weeks away. Obviously, that doesn't mean that the baby will arrive on the due date, but I can't believe we are getting that close, we've reached the final countdown.

I was talking to my friend Leslie this afternoon and she mentioned that it is difficult to roll over in bed. Her baby is due right around the same time as ours. It's so fun to have a close friend that is pregnant and going through all of the same things that you are. It pretty much takes every ounce of my energy to roll over actually, and another strange thing lately is lifting my legs, it is really hard to lift them up at all. Getting out of bed and going to the bathroom every hour throughout the night is pretty rough too now. I really don't mean to complain at all, because of course every one of these things is worth it, but it gets a little more tough to get around toward the end.

I'm planning to do a belly cast very soon, so that will be a fun keepsake and reminder of how big my belly has gotten. I can't believe that a person's belly can reach the capacity that mine has (and that pretty much every pregnant woman's does), plus there is probably still some room to grow...and who knows if the baby will even come on time, I may explode. heh.

We've started putting together the things we'll need to take to the hospital with us...we have quite a list, and we still have a lot more packing to do, just to make sure we have the necessities.

We met with a pediatrician yesterday, we kind of waited until the last minute to do that, but it is really hard to remember everything. We decided to just go ahead and go with her, we'll know soon enough if we want to stick with her or not, and we can always change our minds, so for now, it is just comforting to have someone.

We were trying to take some pictures of my belly with both of our hands on it, on our own, and realized we need some help, anyway these are the attempts from the 31st of July. Shane's dad is a photographer, and he'll be here on the 19th of August, so if I haven't had the baby by then, maybe he can take some neat pictures.

We'll have a much better one real soon. The attempts were to avoid everything, but the belly, and as you can see, that didn't work so well, so I'll put the good one on here when we have it. That's a pretty big 'ol belly though. We'll take a side view to share in the next entry.

8-6-04 Entry: I don't have much new news to report, but I wanted to put just a couple more pictures in here. We went on our last pre-baby girlfriend excursion. We were only gone for the night last night, and we just got home today. My friend Leslie came along with us, so we have a couple of bikini shots. We are due, as I mentioned before, right around the same time (only about a week apart), so it is interesting how differently our bellies look. Here the are though. Sorry about the profile shot, it's a little bit blurry.

8-9-04 Entry: We don't go to the doctor until Wednesday, but our friend Sydney took some pictures yesterday, (the belly pictures we were attempting to take on our own)...they ended up turning out a lot better with her assistance. So these are from 8-8-04.

Also a really pretty picture of Mama's fatty feet. heh.

8-11-04 Entry: We had another prenatal appointment this morning. We've been seeing Sharon almost every time we go in lately. Not that it matters which one we see, but it just has been working out that Sharon is the one lately. Our appointment went well. I gained another 2 lbs since the last appointment, which was just last Wednesday, so I'm seriously getting huge! Sharon decided to check me today, they like to start checking at 38 weeks. I'm 38 weeks and 1 day today, so 14 more days to go until the due date. Apparently I'm 80% effaced, and it seemed like she was having a hard time reaching my cervix, because everything is so tipped back, so she didn't tell me whether or not I was dilated. I got the impression that I wasn't, either that or she had a hard time feeling whether or not I was. My blood pressure was good, and the baby's heart rate was healthy, it was 141 and increased when Sharon made the baby move around a bit. Right now the baby has hiccups, which is a daily occurrence, sometimes several times throughout the day. Things are going well overall, as far as we can tell, pretty normal. She reminded us of the warning signs again, when we should go to the hospital, etc. It was a good reminder, we plan to stick around here as long as possible after labor starts, so we aren't walking the halls of the hospital for hours and hours on end. We'll see how it ends up working though. Everyone's labors are so different, so I really don't even know what to expect. We have our hospital bag packed though, so we are ready when we need to be.

My friend Suzanne did a belly cast of me yesterday, she's actually going to take the plaster cast and make a clay sculpture out of it, fire it and glaze it. So I'm super excited to see the results. She's going to start making them and selling them so she asked if I would be her model for the brochure. So any pregnant friends that are interested should let me know. She's only going to be in Missoula for another month or so before they move to Minneapolis. So, let me know soon if you are interested. She'd be more than happy to do one for you too. It was so crazy to see how big I am. I'm planning to do another (just plaster) belly cast and do something fun on it, like maybe a mosaic (using glass). On a side note, I also spent a good few hours walking yesterday. I walked to the market with Suzanne and Joanna, and later Syd and I went to the fair and walked around for a couple of hours. I've been trying to get exercise in some form, daily, working on getting that baby dropped and on his/her way here.

Someone asked us today if anyone has placed any bets on the sex, and/or date the baby will arrive, but right now, I don't know of any. So far based on what people say to me, usually complete strangers, the sex is 50/50. I'm just hoping for a very healthy baby. I honestly don't have a preference as to what the sex is. It is hard to go 20 weeks without seeing the baby, via ultrasound I mean, everything was fine during the ultrasound, but it has been quite some time since then. The only things we have now to base the health on are: movement, which is quite frequently, and the heart rate which has been healthy at each appointment also. Oh and I'm forgetting growth, which seems to be really good. I measured in at 38" today, so I grew another inch in the past week.

Since I've been putting a picture on here with each entry, I'm going to put a picture of my friend Elisabeth's baby up. She was born 7 weeks ago, and she's a cute little one. Her name is Mariposa (Posie). They just moved away, so we're all going to rely on pictures until they finally decide to go ahead and move on back here. Anyway, here she is, happy little one!

Lots of our friends have been having babies, seems as if there is a big baby boom going on right now. I can think of 6 new babies born in the past couple of months to friends of ours. Lot's of new life and new little people in the world!

8-20-04 Entry: This is going to be a really short entry. It's late, but I wanted to get something in here before bed tonight. The prenatal appointment went well yesterday afternoon. Everything looks fine, normal. My blood pressure was good, even though I'm swollen like a tick. My belly measured at 42", apparently the other midwife doesn't really know how to measure a belly. We had Nancy this time. We heard the baby's heartbeat and it sounded good, as usual. Nancy said she could feel his/her little butt again, and the head has been down for a couple of months...so he/she is in a good position. I gained one more pound, but I don't really feel like there has been a ton of growth in the past week. She did check me, but I was only dilated about 1/2 cm, so that's not a sign that anything is going to happen anytime soon. We've still been walking a lot, trying to do things to start up labor...but it sort of seems like it will be awhile. That is probably alright considering tomorrow is Doug and Kia's rehearsal dinner and Sunday is the wedding. We still have 5 days left until our due date, so I am guessing the baby won't come until after that. Who knows though, maybe I'll be surprised. Shane's parents are here right now, in town for the wedding, and of course they are hoping the baby comes before they leave, but he/she's going to decide that on his/her own. Alrighty, off to bed!

8-24-04 Entry: Welp, we made it through the weekend without having a baby, and Doug and Kia's wedding weekend was amazing. I'm so happy that we were able to go to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, perfect, and they are already off on their honeymoon. Maybe by the time they get home they'll be an Aunt and Uncle.

The weather has cooled off quite a bit lately, which is a rarity for August, but it is actually kind of nice for a pregnant person. The due date has arrived! Well it is like 10 at night on the 24th, so just a mere 2 hours, tomorrow is the big day. Our family started up a little pool. Here is what everyone thinks so far...

  We don't have another appointment until Thursday afternoon, so I will hopefully have more to report then, unless of course we have the baby before then, apparently no one thinks we will though.

8-25-04 Entry: I just got a couple of new pictures from my friend Amy (who lives in Bozeman), her little Fynn Andrew James is about 2 months old. I didn't have a picture of him to share with everyone before, but I do now! This is him and his big sister Luci, and then just one of him by himself, little sweeties. I can't wait to meet him and see the little Looch again..

Even though we've reached the big day, so far no signs of labor. It's hard to believe it is already here. Time has flown by. It seemed like it would never arrive, way back in January, but it really has flown by, it's amazing. Anytime now I could be holding our brand new baby in my arms. Shane is still really busy with work, so I'm hoping, I think we are both hoping, things slow down a bit before the baby arrives. I guess the baby is going to come when he/she wants to whether Papa is busy or not. We'll be sure and take some final belly shots over the course of the next several days, or however long the baby decides to stay in. The midwives won't let us go too far over our due date. I may have mentioned this earlier, but they will let us go 1.5 weeks over before they do an ultrasound (to make sure the baby still has sufficient fluid, etc.) and then talk with us about induction methods, and when we should plan to be induced. Hopefully the wee one decides to come before we have to have that talk.

We decided today that we'd start up a web site for the baby as soon as he/she arrives. Hank (who works with Shane now) said he'd do the site for us...and he's a lot more talented than Mama, so it should be pretty neat. We'll put the link on here as soon as it is all ready.

I'm heading upstairs to clean out the pantry, my latest project. We are planning on going and getting a video camera today, so we'll have plenty of video of the new baby when he/she does arrive since you can't all be here with us.

One more quick thing...Mani Mars and Harper June are celebrating 1 year birthdays, Hip Hip!, Mani (August 19th) and Harper (August 28th)...so I wanted to wish them both a Happy Birthday and put a picture of each of them up. These were taken at Andy and Joanna's wedding at the end of June. So cute!

8-26-04 Entry: We just got back from our midwife, and she actually had an assistant check me, but there wasn't a change from the last visit a week ago...as far as she could tell. Bummer. But the baby can't stay in there forever, so I guess it is just a matter of being patient. We are going on a walk right now to try and get some good contractions going and then probably heading to Tipu's for dinner (spicy Indian food) apparently they have a dish that is supposed to start up the labor. My belly measured 40 1/2", so who knows how big the belly really is. It's always something different when we go, I'm pretty sure it isn't shrinking by any means. heh. We took a couple of pictures last night, just because it was the official "due date", so I'll put those below. Hopefully it has reached it's max. I have to go back to the midwife on Tuesday. They want to see us every couple/few days now, until the baby arrives, I guess they do that when you go past your due date. At a week overdue, we have to talk about some methods of induction, so I'm sure we'll start talking about that on Tuesday when we go back in, if we haven't had the little one yet. Alrighty, I think that about wraps it up. We just got back from our walk, I think if I just kept walking, I'd put myself right into labor. We made quite a few stops along the way. I have plans to go on a walk tomorrow morning too, so hopefully all of this is helping the process along. Oh and Auntie Melissa, you can relax, we got the video camera finally. Shane actually said when we got back in the car after making the big purchase..."Alright, you can go into labor now, I know you've been waiting until we got the video camera and now we have it, so go ahead." *If it were only that simple*.

I also decided to put a picture of the Mama fully clothed at Doug and Kia's rehearsal dinner above, along with the cutest Papa ever, so those are the middle pictures taken 8-21-04.

8-30-04 Entry: Still no baby, I'm 5 days overdue today. We have another appointment with our midwife tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll be discussing possible methods of induction. I am really going to try and avoid, at all costs, being induced with Pitocin, that's my goal, so hopefully she'll have some more suggestions for us. Overall I'm still feeling well, and the baby is still moving around enough, so nothing to worry about. I guess they start to get concerned after the baby is too overdue that he/she isn't getting what is needed, so they want to get the baby out. It has been a little bit hard around here, all of the anticipation and thinking about the arrival, and the things we are afraid of, the extra time has just brought on some emotions, I know Mama has been extra emotional the past several days. I'm sure it is normal, and I know eventually the baby will come, and I'm actually completely fine with waiting as long as it takes, unfortunately they only let you "wait" for so long, that's something I'm afraid of. I don't seem to be getting any bigger, I think the little one has probably reached capacity. I don't even have a guess as to how big he/she is. I feel pretty big, but maybe the baby will only be in the 7lb range, you never know. Nearly everyone's guesses for the arrival date are past. Shane's Aunt Elizabeth put in a guess for September 4th, maybe she'll be the closest one. I was thinking though, tonight is a full moon, so maybe the baby will come on the full moon. We'll see I guess. It's already after 8PM and I don't feel anything going on. I'll probably go on a walk in a bit because that is one thing I haven't done yet today. Thank you to everyone that is keeping us in your thoughts and prayers, I'm sure we'll need it. We'll be sure and start spreading the word when things start happening. Our phone continues to ring in anticipation. I know everyone is excited, and again thanks for keeping us in your thoughts. We tried to spend quite a bit of time out of the house this past weekend, just to make the time pass more quickly. Movies, eating out, going on walks, etc. Those things all seem to help somewhat. Maybe I'll have more to report tomorrow after the appointment with the midwife.

8-31-04 Entry: We just got home from our appointment a little bit ago. It wasn't quite as magical as the others have been. Our midwife stripped my membranes today because I wasn't really progressing at all. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, she was having a really hard time finding my cervix, and actually the past 3 times I've been checked they've had a hard time finding it. We also found out that I have to go in on Thursday night at 9PM to have a gel put on my cervix, and stay the night for monitoring, and be induced with Pitocin in the morning on Friday. We told her we'd rather go home and spend the night after the gel, but she said we'd have to stay at the hospital. They originally set this to occur on Wednesday and Thursday, but after a little freaking out on the way home in the car, we decided to call and try and put the induction off a little bit longer. Our midwife told me she would let me go one more day, but didn't feel comfortable going any longer. I'm not exactly sure why because they did a couple of tests on the baby today and he/she looked okay. We had a stress test done and an ultrasound and everything looks fine. I guess something is making her nervous about waiting too long though. The risks for the infant increase the longer the baby is overdue. So she wasn't comfortable waiting until after the weekend. The stress test in case you are wondering, I think it is actually called a "non-stress" test, but what they do is hook you up to a fetal monitor, monitoring heart rate. Then I held a button on my left hand and pushed it whenever I felt the baby move. So it records the movement and the increase in heart rate with each movement. If there isn't an increase in heart rate with movement then they worry, but the test results were fine. Then we walked down the hall and had an ultrasound. Basically all they were checking for was adequate fluid, and it all looked just fine I guess. The ultrasound tech took a couple of pictures too, just because we got a cute little profile shot, she was impressed. So here are the pictures. Profile and face and hand of the little one.

So we are just going to hope and keep our fingers crossed that labor begins naturally, so I don't have to have Pitocin. I guess the most important part though regardless of what ends up happening is that the baby is healthy when he/she is born. I'm going to keep my attitude positive and try and stay as relaxed about everything as possible. Thanks everyone for your suggestions on induction, all of the natural methods, we've been trying, so far, we haven't had a lot of luck apparently...but we still have a couple more days! Send good wishes our way, we need them.

10-5-04 Entry: I've been meaning to do a final entry into the journal. Simon Alton Hickey was born on September 3, 2004 at 5:46PM. He weighed in at 9 lbs 1 oz, pretty big boy. He was 22" long and he had a real big head. Mama ended up having to have a C-Section and pretty much nothing went as "planned". Everything ended up just fine and dandy though. Simon was/is really healthy and that's the most important thing. He's the joy of my life. I adore him, every second of the day I love him more and more. He's amazing. It still blows my mind that he was in my belly, and that Shane and I created him. He is by far the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. If you want to see Simon and learn all about him, his life, and his day to day activities (which right now consist of: staring at stuff, pooping, eating and sleeping) check him out at www.simonalton.com. He has his very own web site, he doesn't have to share with his Mama and Papa anymore. Hank did an awesome job designing Simon's site...and we've been adding new things (pictures) nearly everyday!

Thanks to everyone for all of their love and support. We love all of you and can't thank you all enough.

Shane and Erika's Home Page