Camden Everett

In the waning days of my pregnancy, I was given lots of advice on how to usher in labor. Walk, walk up and down on curbs, eat spicy foods, drink castor oil (really? do people really do that?), have sex, eat a whole pineapple, the list goes on. I tried some of those, but it turns out for me, I just need to have my car stolen. After our drama with the car in the wee hours of the morning of Nov 11th (Camden's due date by the way), by that evening it was seeming inevitable that before the night was through, we'd be checking into the hospital. What follows will be a recounting of Camden's birth - it may be more information than some are comfortable reading, but it is something I want to document - so why not throw it out there into cyberspace? Here goes.

I spent a large portion of my day on that Tuesday, Nov 11th dealing with the fallout of having the car stolen (long phone conversations with the insurance company), but in addition I spent a large part of the day being increasingly uncomfortable. Lots of aching in the back, legs and abdomen. It was similar to what I had experienced intermittently in the past except this time it was not going away. Keith was gone most of the day on a few jobs, and by the time he got home, I was pretty sure that labor was underway. I had him do a few last minute errands, take care of the dog, etc, then we sat down and started to really time the contractions, as at this point I was sure that's what they were as they were very rhythmic and not abating with any activity. Sure enough, after timing for about 2 hours, they were consistently occurring at 4-6 minute intervals. They still weren't super painful - I could talk through them, and we even baked a batch of cookies while all this was going on! The doctor had said to call when contractions were regular and 5 minutes apart, so we went ahead and called, and lucky for me it was my doctor who was on call. He said to come in at our leisure to the hospital to get checked out.

So we casually finished packing, called the parents to let them know what was going on, put a very concerned dog outside to wait in her doghouse and headed out. The check-in was smooth, and we were escorted to the "triage" room of the labor and delivery unit. After lots of formalities, paperwork and vital signs, we finally got the answer to the burning question....how far dilated am I? Drum roll please.....1-2 cm. Arggh! I was hoping for 3 or 4....I was 1.5 cm weeks ago! But she said I was fully effaced and the baby is low. She called the doctor, gave him the update, and he said we should go ahead and be admitted. It was a bit of a surreal moment, knowing that I actually wouldn't be pregnant that much longer.

So we settled into this room at the brand new hospital. The birthing rooms are huge - ample room for lots of people, room to roam, and a big bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. And of course a couch for the spouse to get some rest. At this point I'm guessing it is about 9 or 10 PM. But remember, we are both going off of very little sleep thanks to the car incident - so Keith is here trying to catch a nap before things get too intense.


At this point, the grandparents are all on their way - Keith's parents to check into our house and babysit the dog, my parents to come to the hospital so my mom can be part of the whole process. In addition, Jenn left her mid-week getaway at the coast to come be another labor coach for me. She showed up to the room at about 11:00 with a whole arsenal of stuff to help me get through the next however many hours we had. She has a new baby of her own to take care of so I tried to encourage her to go home and get some rest while I was still managing, but she had none of it and stayed put through the whole marathon.

Here's a really unflattering picture of me in the early stages of labor...and the only labor photo I'll be posting on the web...that's just getting too personal...


Over the next few hours (from here on out, I'm going to be pretty shady on time frames...looking back it is all a bit of a blur, until the end where my memory is still unfortunately clear) I worked through the contractions, which were definitely picking up in intensity, by walking around, standing leaning into Keith, using the jacuzzi and shower, and just lying in the bed. For me, the side lying really brought me the most comfort. But I was definitely getting tired, and starting to get very curious as to how far dilated I was now....because after all this work, things must be flying right along. So we had the nurse check me....and that was about the most uncomfortable thing yet. Apparently my cervix was way posterior and the nurses have small hands, so they had to really dig around (for lack of better verbage) to get to the cervix. So after that excruciating experience I was thrilled to find out that I was now 2-3 cm dilated. What? Are you serious? After complaining, the nurse reprimanded me for "focusing too much on the numbers". She tried to make me feel better by telling me things will go fast from here, she thought I was already in the transition phase (because of my frequent violent shaking that would overtake my body). I took a little heart in what she was saying, but asked for an IV anyway, just in case I might want that epidural in a hurry. I decided to wait on the epidural for now and see how the next little bit went. She said the doctor was coming in soon so he could check me again when he got there and see how I've progressed.

So on we went. I think some more shower time, lots of back rubs, drinks of water and little bits of food. Keith and Jenn were a constant presence and my mom came and went as she wanted. Helping a bit, and then checking in on my dad who came in once in a while but otherwise vigilantly waited on the uncomfortable couches in the various waiting rooms when not raiding the fridges - always a sucker for free food. Somewhere in there my phone rang and it was the police informing us that they had found our car and could we come pick it up within the next 20 minutes. Ummm....a little busy right now. Luckily it was the same officer from the night before and he completely understood why we wouldn't be able to make it that night. He was OK with my parents picking it up, so they went off to rescue the vehicle. Apparently it was dumped about 4 blocks from our house and nothing was taken or damaged except for about 20 CD's. I guess the sight of Keith in his boxers was enough to give them a good scare.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning of Nov 12, Dr Green rolled in to see how things were coming along. He checked me - a thing of note, Dr Green is a very tall man and therefore has big hands, so him checking me was so much less painful than those petite little nurses (more info than needed I am guessing) - and gave me the news that I am now about 3 cm dilated. You've got to be kidding me. We've been at this for almost 12 hours now, and that's all I have to show for it!? I still had that night shift nurse who I wasn't too thrilled with who again told me not to focus on the numbers, and the pace should really pick up now. Dr Green on the other hand told me that he thought it might be quite a while still. That was all I needed to hear. I was exhausted, had virtually no sleep for 24 hours and apparently had a long way to go. Epidural please. I had hopes of a natural childbirth, but I was also realistic. I had watched Jenn struggle for probably too long without pain relief and I know from nursing that sometimes your body needs a break in order to finish it's job.

Of course, with an epidural comes a whole host of other things. The IV was already in, so next comes the liter of fluid as epidurals make your blood pressure drop, the fetal heart monitor now is a permanent fixture as is the blood pressure cuff. And once I was good and numb, in went the urinary catheter. The anesthesiologist was surprisingly fast in showing up despite the high number of labors currently underway (the unit was crowded that night). The first try at the placement didn't take, so we had to do two needle sticks in my back. The second seemed to be placed right although my right side was becoming much more numb than my left - he assured me it had to do with the testing of the first placement and not to worry it would resolve soon (after placing the epidural, they give you a test bolus to make sure it is in right). After getting all secured down with all my new wires and tubes, I did feel relief. I laid back down in bed and actually dozed in and out of sleep while Keith took a nap and Jenn even got to go home for a while with strict instructions for Keith to call her when it was time for me to push.

And then, all of a sudden I could feel my contractions again. And they hurt. And I had this weird constant pain in my right side. And my left leg was still numb. And nothing else appeared to be numb anymore. And nobody was in the room. And nobody was answering my call light. It took about 5 minutes before Keith came back and at least another 20 until my nurse showed up. She had been at lunch and had instructed her colleague to check in on me, but that never happened. She called the anesthesiologist who came in and said there wasn't anything they could do about the placement and sometimes epidurals don't work evenly for all people (what? that seemed like a bogus answer if you ask me). He gave me a bolus of medication which made my left leg really, really numb, and took the edge off everything else for a while. Meanwhile, the nurse checked me and lo and behold I was darn near fully dilated except for a small lip of the cervix. She told me to wait about a half hour and we'd start pushing. She notified Dr Green of the status and Keith gave Jenn a call. By this time Keith's parents had come to the hospital as well, so Melody and my mom were in and out both helping with back rubs and I was actually starting to have hope that we'd be done soon.

When it came time to push, I had to be instructed on what to do as I didn't have great sensation down there and there was definitely no urge to push. I had also been informed a while back that Camden was posterior facing - which means the back of his head is against my back and usually means a harder time with the pushing stage of labor. So we tried me in various positions to get him to turn while I started pushing. He would cooperate and turn, but then would flip right back to where he was. So on things went. I never looked at the clock which is a good thing, and diligently did the pushing with lots of encouragement from everybody. I now had a nurse that I liked who said and did all the right things. Somewhere in there I think they had me rest and stop for a while, then we resumed, and I think now is when the contractions were getting mightily painful and my morale was sinking because this baby was not born yet, and it feels like we've been at this forever! My contractions were regular but farther apart than anyone wanted, so we got to introduce another bag of tricks which was the Pitocin to speed the contractions up. I was terrified of this because I was sure it would mean even more pain, but they assured me it was necessary and would speed things up considerably. In addition, they had to put an internal monitor on Camden as they kept losing his heart rate reading...add wire/intervention #48562.

I suppose the Pitocin helped - did my pain get worse? Sure. But I think it would have gotten worse regardless. The contractions definitely picked up pace. The nurse continued to be encouraged, promising me that we were making progress and Camden was moving on down. Eventually she said, "Are you ready to have this baby? I'm calling in Dr Green". That definitely gave me a mental boost, but it seemed like a long time before he showed up. When he did, it was all business. The first thing he did was completely change my pushing position, instructing everyone around me (at this point the labor support team was Keith, Jenn, my mom and Keith's mom all taking turns mostly holding my legs for the contractions). And he warned me that he would be drawing labs in preparation for a c-section if it ended up being necessary. From here to the end was awful. I had virtually no pain relief. The contractions hurt, and in between pushing, I still had immense pain. I am a pretty quiet person, and can work through pain without making a lot of noise, but somewhere in all this, that changed. I was one of those screaming ladies you see in the movies.

Everyone still promised me I was making progress, and there were shouts about being able to see the head which helped, but when another half hour passed and they are still saying the same thing, I started to get discouraged. Then all of a sudden I got an oxygen mask slapped on my face - apparently Camden's heart rate was high and staying high even in between contractions, so they wanted him to get a little more oxygen. On and on it went. It felt like an eternity and it got so unbearable I kept telling Dr Green that I was done. That's it. Not another push in me. I wanted to scream, "Just do a c-section, get the forceps, get the vacuum extractor, I don't care, just get him out!" But I didn't, and another contraction would come and I would somehow get through it. At some point, Jenn told me to touch Camden's head, which again gave me a small boost because at least then I knew for myself that he was close. Somewhere in there as well, Dr Green warned me that he had called in "the team" to standby and to not be surprised if Camden is sent straight to them when he is born. He was referring to a neonatal intensive care team as he was clearly worried Camden might have been under too much stress for too long from all the pushing.

Finally Dr Green told me he thought maybe 3 or 4 more contractions and we'd be done. And he was right. I took him at his word and gave everything I had and I think at the 4th contraction, with all my might, I finally felt sudden relief and he was out. And wow. What a feeling. I think my first reaction was, "Thank god. It's over". Then there was this screaming (and very blue), beautiful baby on my chest and people crying and shouting with delight all around me. I was too exhausted to cry right away, but when I finally turned and looked at Keith who was sobbing (Wait...am I supposed to tell people that? Because men don't cry, right?), I lost it too.

Our brand new baby. All blue and confused about being in this world. The blueness is normal, but I was still surprised by it and by how long it took his fingers to pinken up.


Everything was so easy after that. I did tear pretty badly, so some suturing was in order, but I sure didn't care at that point. Camden checked out just fine. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, and 20 cm, born Nov 12 at11:30 AM. Total labor time was something like 18 hours (not sure when you start counting), with a pushing time of 4 hours or so (that's ridiculous!). The main problem was that Camden decided to not bother coming out in that backwards position or even the normal way, but to give sideways a try - so his poor little head kept getting banged up on my pelvis which is why it was so hard to push him out. He came out with a very pointy (and bruised) head.

My labor coach and dear friend.


The whole gang celebrates.


The next half hour or so, was congrats all around as the grandpas were let back in. Pictures were taken, and then we were left alone for a while. I was able to successfully breastfeed - with little Camden latching on no problem. And I got to drink. Since the moment the epidural went in I was forbidden to have water or food, so by this point I was so thirsty, I think over the next few hours I drank 2 liters of water. Eventually, the remnants of the faulty epidural wore off and I was able to stagger to the bathroom for a shower, and then we were escorted to our new room on the Mother/Baby side of the unit. We settled in there and the exhaustion overwhelmed us completely. After eating like a horse, I think I was able to finally sleep.

Proud grandparents.


Proud parents.


And now we are full fledged parents. The 1 1/2 days we stayed in the hospital were non-eventful. We didn't sleep too much as there was this new creature next to us making all kinds of foreign noises. But we were happy. We couldn't get enough of looking at and holding our new little guy. And we were happy to go home after all the prodding, midnight interruptions and hospital food. Camden wasn't so sure about his carseat at first...

but once we hit the freeway, he was fine.

And then we had to reunite ourselves with Gracie and introduce her to The One That Will Take All of Her Parents' Attention Away From Her.


That first week home was all honeymoon. Both of us wanting to hold Camden all the time, and being so nice to each other - trying to get the other as much sleep as possible. So proud and excited to be parents and so very enamored with our new son. Not to say that now we are mean to each other and not enamored with him, but reality has sunk in a bit more and the hours of sleep deprivation began to catch up with us around Week 2 bringing out some more raw and variable emotions - and I'm speaking mostly for myself.

In all, we are managing fairly well. I have to give Keith a ton of credit - it is actually nice that he is not working too much right now, because having two around the house is so very nice. I don't know how people manage by themselves. We can't keep this house clean to save our life with two of us hear nearly full time! He has been so great about helping with everything, including holding off a hungry baby for an extra 30 minutes at 2:00 AM. Our sleeping situation is reasonable - we each get about 4-6 hours of sleep a night (however not consecutively), but it means we don't sleep in the same room. We quickly learned that sleeping in the same room as the baby means not a lot of sleep for the adults as it has taken us a while to adjust to tuning out his grunts, groans, squeaks and bleats that go on while he is sleeping. So we started taking turns. In between each feeding, we trade off - one gets the "sleeping room" and the other gets to sleep with Camden. It has worked pretty well, and Keith is so great about giving me a few extra "shifts" in the sleeping room. One of these days we'll be back in the same bed together...right?

And I have to give a lot of credit to the friends and family that have been so giving. I think I have cooked two meals since we've been home, and my mom and Jenn (and Melody while in Coos Bay) have been great about giving my arms a break once in a while so I can do "normal" stuff. And some credit goes to Camden, because he really only cries when he needs something. He'll have about one hour a day of cranky time where we can't figure out what he wants, but otherwise, he is pretty mellow in between meals. His rope is short though. He'll go from happy and content in his bouncy chair (which is such a life saver by the way) to screaming bloody murder because, "Hey mom and dad, I am hungry, and I am hungry NOW!". There is a very small window between that first suckle on the fist to an all out wail while I scramble to get settled and ready to feed.

Well, I won't go on about how we are taking care of our newborn. Most of you have been there more than once already and know all this already. And really there's not much to say - my life is now changing diapers, breastfeeding, consoling and trying to sleep. It is amazing how much of your day that can take. As I write this he is now 3 weeks and 1 day old and has changed so very much since we brought him home. He is already gaining a lot of strength in his neck and is making some crazy eye contact with us. And he's gaining weight like a champ - at our appointment this week he weighed in at 10 lb 12 oz! He's gained two pounds already! Our pediatrician calls him a "tank" and says I'm making cream instead of milk. Yikes. Hope that trend slows down a little - he's already growing out of some of the newborn clothes.

OK. I'll get another blog up soon to include Thanksgiving shenanigans and more updated pictures of The Baby. I'm hoping to get to a point, where I can post more entries, but keep them short. Good luck with that.

And now, a plethora of baby photos - all between birth to 11 days old.
Camden's first walk and a trial run in the bear suit.


Meeting Bea for the first time.


One week old. Looking at this today, Camden's three week birthday, I can't believe how big he has gotten already.


Chillin with Bea.


I love my Moby. Camden does too - he crashes whenever in it.


Gramma B is in town for the next month or so on a housesitting gig, so she will get lots of baby time.


I can't believe how big and cute and sweet these girls are.


Milk coma.


Is Gracie happy, scared, worried, sad?


John was nice enough to come over and take some higher quality photos of Camden while he is still tiny. They turned out very nice. I will post some to Flickr and here with the next entry.


Then he showed us that it's not necessarily the camera, but the cameraman that can make the difference in a good photo. He took this with our silly little point and shoot.


And some thrilling home video.


And the final pregnancy photo. I'm not real happy with how it turned out....oh well.

Take Two

We love our Honda. Much to our repeated disbelief and amazement, it consistently gets 40+ miles per gallon. It runs well. It has never given us any problems. It is a 1995 Civic. However, I guess it does have one major downfall. Number 1! Not just the Honda Civic, but the 1995 Civic. Well, we are helping those stats to hold true, as this morning at about 2:45 AM, our beloved little car was taken from us yet again. This time we actually watched it drive/skid/fishtail out of our driveway. Here's how it went down:

Recently we restarted a subscription to the daily newspaper (trust me, this is relevant). We don't have a newspaper box, so the newspaper lady (I don't know why I assume it's a woman) has to walk it up to our front stoop which not only triggers the motion light, but also puts Gracie on alert and she has to let us know every morning when the paper arrives. Another important piece of information for you to know is that our bedroom (much to our chagrin) faces right out to the road and driveway (can be loud when the school buses roll in) and we generally sleep with the window open. This newspaper is delivered disturbingly early - at about 3:30AM each morning. So each morning about that time, Gracie barks, we tell her to stop and roll over and go back to sleep.

So this morning, Gracie barked, and we woke up with the automatic words coming out of our mouths, "Gracie - No. That's enough". However, this time, Keith had a feeling something was off, so he sat up, pulled the curtain back and surveyed the street. I, in the meantime, looked at the clock, saw that it was 2:30 and said, "What are you doing? It's probably just the newspaper lady here early". But he continued to watch as he saw a car driving very slowly and suspiciously past our house after already making the turnaround in the cul-de-sac. He had spent yesterday cleaning gutters for some folks and had two pretty expensive ladders still strapped on the Explorer. He noticed a bright glare of lights coming from beyond our house (as if the car stopped and applied its brakes) about where the Explorer sat. So he got up, went to the garage, and checked on the Explorer and his ladders. He didn't see anything, so came back to bed.

Not 10 seconds after he got back in bed, I heard the distinct sound of our car starting up. The next two minutes were very surreal. I clumsily spit out the words, "That's our car! They're stealing our car!", as I am clambering over Keith to get to the window. Keith quickly clued in and was up with me. My instinct for some strange reason was to scream incoherent words in the most visceral way I've ever done while banging incessently on the window (what exactly did I hope to accomplish? Was the guy going to see and hear me, stop what he was doing, get out and say, "Sorry, I've been caught, I won't really steal your car."). In the meantime, Keith is also yelling, but at the same time, leaping out of the window and chasing after the car. As Keith is leaving the house, the guy has just started to back out, so Keith is able to catch up with him by the time he hits the road. Keith bangs on the window as the guy is shifting into first gear, but does not slow down and is able to peel out and tear off down the street, just brushing the side of Keith's leg. As Keith said later, "I could have pulled a Hollywood and jumped on the windsheild, but he wasn't going to stop".

While Keith is doing that, I finally clue in and call 911, in the off chance a police car is close. But by the time they get all of the information, the car is long gone. Keith went out in the Explorer in hopes they got so freaked out (because what car thief really expects the homeowner to leap out of the window?) that they dumped the car immediately. So he drove around a little bit, but didn't find anything. In the meantime, Gracie is pacing nervously and staying as close to me as possible. Have I ever said how much I love dogs? (No, she didn't exactly chase down and catch the robbers - or even follow Keith out the window, but she joined in our yelling and is the one that alerted us in the first place - she gets some credit for that). And that was that. As the police officer said that came by later to take the report, with Hondas like these, it's not "Gone in 60 seconds" it's "Gone in 6 seconds" because the thiefs find a key that works and just let themselves into the car, start her up and take off.

You might wonder if we learned any lessons from having this happen to us once before. We considered buying a Club after last time, but we know ourselves too well, and knew we would not be consistent using it. The only thing we did do is add comprehensive insurance to our policy. So at least now, if they don't find our car, we'll get a little bit of money. We did lose our car seat, some CD's and the new, albeit crappy, stereo and speakers that we bought after the last theft. I suspect if we get the car back, those will require replacing....again.

Quite the night, and in retrospect I still laugh. Mostly at me helplessly banging on the window and Keith jumping out of the window in his boxers. We think back and wonder a few things. How did the guy not trip the motion light (or did he, and we just assumed it was the newspaper delivery?), how did we not hear any doors opening, and how did we not see him when Keith was looking out the window? I guess these guys have done this more than once, and even though they might be high as a kite, they are still good at what they do. Looking back, I am glad I/we didn't notice anyone sitting in the car when we looked out the window, because I know Keith and he would have jumped out of the window and as he said, "beat the shit out of him". While I don't doubt Keith's strength and ability, that guy could have easily had a gun, and things could have turned out a lot worse. A car is just a car, and while it is not in our budget to get a replacement, I'd much rather deal with insurance companies than hospitals.

In lighter news, how about that election? Finally, this country got something right. Having not a lot going on around this house, we had our own little election party and played a "fill in the electoral map" game with each other. Prior to results coming in, we each filled out our own map, trying to predict the results. The winner was the one with the most states correct, which was Keith, by one state.


Meanwhile, we finally finished up our kitchen. It needed a few more cracks repaired, some texturing done and a last coat of paint. I've become so restless, I had to help out a little. Don't worry, it's good quality, low odor paint, and I really didn't do that much work.


And we've been taking lots of walks, and have found that Gracie likes to play in leaf piles. There are lots of piles around as people load the leaves into the street and wait for the city to come scoop them up for them. That provides us with lots of entertainment as we encourage our dog to do silly things.






Pregnancy news? Not much. Although all the excitement last night might have kick started something. I am quite sore, achy and crampy today. Who knows, maybe tomorrow will bring even more exciting news?

Waiting

I have to admit that my pregnancy has been pretty seamless. I never did have morning sickness, no medical complications, not even a lot of discomfort until late in the game. I've been sleeping well, eating well (probably too well), and able to do just about all the activity that I have wanted to. However, I can officially say that I am done. Now I am huge, uncomfortable, not sleeping very well, and generally just done. I want my body back and I would very much like to meet this little guy and start this next stage of our lives. I know we need to be enjoying these last days of "freedom" without being tied down by a child. But I would hardly call what I feel these days "freedom". I can't hop on my bike and go for a ride in this beautiful fall weather we've been having, I can't go run up the Butte with the dog, and even the thought of sitting for 2+ hours in a movie theater doesn't sound fun. So I say, "Come on out Bubba! We're ready!".

I actually thought I would have a baby in my arms by today. On Friday, I was feeling unusually uncomfortable with strange cramping, etc. but went to work anyway. After an hour and a half there, and being completely unable to get comfortable let alone focus on taking care of patients, I had to excuse myself and go home. I stopped by the doctor on my way home (since he is right there by work) and had him do a quick exam. Things had changed a little. He told me I was slightly dilated, but made it clear that it didn't really mean anything. He said I could very well "putter" along like this for a while. I, on the other hand, was sure the baby would be born this weekend. I mean how do you go from having no symptoms for 9+ months (never a Braxton Hicks contraction) to significant different 'stuff' going on and not have it be labor? So I called my Mom, told her to be ready, Keith quickly packed his bag and took the dog on a long walk in case she had to be abandoned later in the night. And then we sat around and waited for the action. And waited. And are still waiting. I guess I'm puttering.

Friday and Saturday were pretty uncomfortable for me with on and off cramping, then yesterday, nothing - back to normal (whatever that is). Today the cramping is trying to come back, but not to a very large degree. So I try to keep busy by going for short walks, cleaning and reading a novel (which has been nice - I am so sick of pregnancy and labor books!). In addition, Keith is home a lot now as he tries to land another contracting job, and work at the property has ceased with the change in the weather and the completion of the shed. Quick aside here from my all encompassing pregnancy - Keith is now a full fledged, independent, licensed and bonded contractor. He finished up the paperwork, testing and licensure last week and has spent the last few days starting to advertise in earnest and land a job. It might be hard to get a start with this, but if we can make it work, it will be a dream come true to be an owner of his own business and to have the degree of flexibility that comes with that.

At any rate, it means he does a lot of stuff at home now, and I won't go back to work at this point, so sometimes it feels like we are just sitting around staring at each other waiting for the big event. It's not really like that, but as the days go by and now that it is raining like crazy, and gets dark so darn early, there are definitely many times of the day where we both feel stuck in a bit of a rut. Him waiting for a job to come up, and me waiting for my body to get on with the program already!

Enough griping. Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks.
Like I've been saying, October was a beautiful month. We have had some of the most amazing fall colors I've seen in years and it has been sunny and warm without hardly a day of rain the whole month. November is starting out drastically different however - it's been raining for two days straight, and the leaves have been falling about as fast as the rain.

We spent one very nice afternoon strolling through one of the riverside parks here in Eugene and letting Gracie do her thing in the water.






I thought these parallel jet lines looked so cool with the fall colors, but of course I have no photographing ability, so the picture didn't really come out like I had hoped.


For Halloween, I thought it would be fun to paint my belly like a pumpkin. For our Halloween night, we were a bit preoccupied with the inevitable trip to the hospital and my general discomfort, so it didn't get done in time for the holiday. However, Corrine and the kids came over today and held me to my word of getting it done. It turned out pretty cute!


I love this double chin I have obtained!




It looks like I've been crying, but it's really just poison oak that I somehow got around my eye. Cute, huh?




I've had the chance to spend more time with Bea and Jenn lately as well. Bea is growing so fast. It is hard to believe she is 10 weeks old already. She is already holding her head up and really using her legs to 'stand'. Very active, cute, and animated baby!
We got a nice walk in among those lovely fall colors.






One last pregnancy photo (are you sick of these yet?). And the latest on the bump watch.
This is from Saturday night (38+ weeks). We do actually turn lights on in our house....we just happened to be on our way out the door at this moment.


Week 38


And finally, my new favorite song. Especially if you are in need of a pick-me-up.