Election Day Baby
Tomorrow morning (Election Day 2008), we are supposed to call the hospital at 6am to confirm Julie’s appointment to induce labor. The appointment is at 7:30am, but because it is an elective induction we can be bumped down/off the schedule for various reasons. Based on past track record, once they break Julie’s water, she will likely be in strong labor within 15 minutes. And if the past track record continues, this should be a very quick birth…possibly by mid-morning even.
Thanks to everyone who prayed over the last few days for labor to hold off til Tuesday. God chose to answer your prayers with a “yes”.
Check back on the blog sometime around mid day or in the afternoon. I expect to be able to post the birth announcement with pictures from the hospital.
Our former next door neighbor in Orlando really wanted to see what Julie looks like at nine months pregnant and was bummed when we were moving at seven months pregnant. We promised her that we would put pictures up of Julie at that point, so here you go. Jenn….the picture to the right is just for you. It is Julie at the beginning of the ninth month.
Baby Davis – Coming Soon!!!
We were at the doctor for Julie’s weekly OB checkup. We had already been talking with the doctor about scheduling the birth. With Julie’s history of rapid labor (two babies…a total of 5 hours and 20 minutes of labor), we are very concerned about just getting to the hospital in time. On top of that…Julie has said that with Marybeth she wouldn’t have realized that she was even in labor until transition…which was 20 minutes and a couple of good pushes from birth.
[Stop rambling Jarvis…get to the point of the post] (also…if you don’t want pregnancy details…stop reading now)
Anyway…during the checkup, we were talking with the doctor to schedule the birth for next Tuesday (November 4). When she checked for dilation/effacement/station, she got this surprised look on her face and said, “Wow! You are three centimeters, and the baby is REALLY low. I hope you make it til Tuesday.” We were a bit surprised…Julie was 2cm on Friday and hadn’t had a ton of strong contractions since then, so we weren’t expecting that.
Now…this is where you come in. We really need you to pray that this baby holds off til Tuesday. The hospital won’t schedule an elective induction before that day…and we really don’t want to have the doctors that are on call before Tuesday.
So…check back Tuesday/Wednesday. The hospital has wireless internet, so I should be able to post the birth announcement with pictures here reasonably quickly.
Ultrasound #2
Last week when we went in for the monthly OB checkup, the doctor said that Julie’s belly hadn’t grown as much as expected. Probably nothing, but she wanted to send Julie in for an ultrasound just to make sure. The ultrasound was this afternoon. The ultrasound tech (Megan) was fantastic. Definitely the best experience we have ever had in an ultrasound. I made sure to brag on Megan to her boss.
Towards the end of the ultrasound, Megan switched the machine to 3D. WOW. It was really cool. I hope to get more pictures up in this post later tonight, but in the meantime, check out the picture of my son eating his own foot!
Ultrasound Pics
We went in for our first ultrasound today. It was a fun experience getting to see our first glimpses of the little life that is growing inside Julie’s belly. The ultrasound equipment at Winnie Palmer hospital is much better than when we had ultrasounds with our two daughters. But that was several years ago also. Seeing our baby’s little fingers, arms, heartbeat and all of the movements was a really neat experience. We also found out that we are having a little boy! We were all kinda hoping for that. Laurel and Marybeth were running around quoting a line from “Lady and the Tramp“…”Oh boy, it’s a boy! Oh boy, it’s a boy! Oh boy, it’s a boy!”
This also serves as the complete answer to my youngest daughter’s prayers. Back before we got pregnant…and keep in mind that we were not planning to have a third child at the time…Marybeth prayed for a brother. I don’t know what it is about that child praying…but God seems to do backflips whenever she prays. She not only prayed us pregnant…she prayed herself a brother. (And yes…when she later started talking about twins…we both cringed.)
So…what does our baby look like now? Here are the five pics the hospital gave us (three are after the break). Also…if you don’t want to see the proof of “boyhood”, avoid the last picture.
My wife is back
Today around 12:30PM, Julie came up to me and asked a pretty simple question:
Would you like left over lasagna for lunch or a pork chop sandwich?
Simple question, but also very significant. That question marked the first time in more than two months that Julie had offered to fix a meal for me. It was the first time in more than two months that she felt up to it.
Still not 100%, but my wife is on the way back. It felt good to see her able to do things that she hadn’t been able to do in so long.
I gave her a big hug and had the sandwich.
When the belly button pops…
Julie saw a shirt recently that read “When the belly button pops, you’re done!” I was highly amused.
Anyway, last night as we were going to bed, I reached over and had my hand on Julie’s belly…she has a little “bump” which is how I’ve been referring to the baby…”bump”. It just so happened that the way my hand was positioned, the tip of my middle finger was on her belly button. Then she coughed…and I felt the belly button pop out. She coughed again, and it popped out again. I started laughing, but she had no idea why. Once I told her, we both were dying laughing. We laughed so hard that we both ended up going into coughing fits after a few minutes.
It was so nice being able to laugh with her. That is the first time we have laughed together in the last couple of months because of the morning sickness. It was fun seeing her laughing and enjoying something related to this pregnancy!
Pregnancy Turnaround
For all those who have prayed for Julie’s morning-sickness, thank you. It appears to have broken on Saturday. We were talking that morning, and Julie mentioned that she really wasn’t sure if the anti-nausea medication that she was on was really doing any good. Matter of fact, there were times that she felt more sick after taking it, so she stopped taking it on Saturday. That evening she ate a full meal, and asked for dessert, and did NOT feel sick afterwards. First time in two months that has happened.
Sunday was an okay day. Then came Monday. I walked in the house after work and immediately went “Wow”. Did we hire a maid that I didn’t know about? Julie had a phenomenal day and had cleaned the entire house. This from the woman who just the week before was getting sick moving from the bed to the couch and back. She has been feeling really good all week. It has been so nice seeing some life in her eyes and hearing some spark in her voice.
Just tell me it will be fun someday
I know that eventually this pregnancy will be fun. I know that I will love this child more than my own life. I know that I will cry at his/her birth and be amazed at each new little thing that happens with this baby.
Eventually.
Right now this pregnancy just isn’t very fun at all. Julie is in the midst of another “bad day” (morning sickness). Some days are good. She is functional on those days. Some days she is almost normal. This is not one of those days. She is sick. She barely feels like moving at all. Taking care of our five year old involves moving. Thankfully I am able to work from home, which I am doing today. But then…if you read yesterday’s post, I’m not feeling all that great myself.
But really…how I feel is nothing compared to how bad Julie is feeling. We would still very much appreciate your prayers.
Our Baby’s Heartbeat
Julie had an OB visit today. While there we got to hear our baby’s heartbeat for the first time…right around 160 beats a minute. I took my MP3 player in and recorded it. I was going to link to it in this post, but my hosting provider doesn’t allow uploads of audio/video files unless you pay $20 for an upgrade. The only reason I would need the upgrade would be to add that file. I’m cheap enough that it’s not going to happen. :-)
One cool thing that happened today is that Julie and I both started to feel more of a connection with the baby. This has been much slower in coming with this baby than our two daughters. I think it is mainly because this one was such a surprise to both of us. It was cool seeing that connection take place with Julie today. With as sick as she has been lately, it was nice to see her getting some enjoyment from the pregnancy.
[Update: I figured out how to get the heartbeat on the blog. I used MovieMaker in Vista to combine the soundfile I had from the MP3 player with a picture of Julie and my daughters to create a movie file. Uploaded it to YouTube. Pretty simple. Should have thought of it sooner.]
Gestational Fuel
When Julie was pregnant with our first child, the food that she most often requested was egg sandwiches. Laurel “gestated” on egg sandwiches.
With Marybeth, the gestational fuel of choice was Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers from Wendy’s. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the number of times that I jumped in the car at odd hours to run to Wendy’s to come back with the golden food of that pregnancy.
This time around we are back to gestating on egg sandwiches. I’ve gotten pretty good at whipping one up in just a couple of minutes.
Why didn’t we ask for prayer sooner?
Last Friday we posted asking for prayer because of Julie’s extreme morning sickness. First of all…DON’T stop praying! Second…thank you. We should have asked for prayer sooner…one of these days I will get it through my head that prayer should be my first response instead of my last.
People started praying on Friday, and on Saturday morning Julie was able to eat a full breakfast…heck that was the first full meal she had eaten all week. She was able to leave the house for the first time in four days that afternoon. She was even able to go to church on Sunday (where we got to tell our LIFE Group that I teach). She is doing a lot better, but everything is still very tentative. We don’t think she is out of the woods, but we are hopeful.
Thank you again for talking with God on our behalf.
Our Little Surprise
A little more than a month ago I came home from work and was talking with my wife about what had gone on that day. In the midst of the conversation she said that she felt like something was poking her through her clothes and asked me to look to see if I could find what it was. When I started looking I saw this:
That picture may not mean much to some of you. It’s a pair of “precious feet“…a lapel pin the same size and shape of a baby’s feet at 10 weeks after conception. Julie had used this same pin to tell me that we were pregnant with our youngest daughter. To quote my friend Jason, “Holy Schnikey!”
Now I know what some of you are thinking…I thought Jarvis said they weren’t going to have any more children. Well…what I actually said was that since our first two children didn’t sleep through the night til they were almost two years old (and sleep deprivation is a very effective form of torture…even if inflicted by a small child), God would have to speak very clearly for us to have another child…birth control would have to fail. Uh…well…God spoke.
Julie is currently 8 weeks pregnant, and we are still a bit shellshocked. This little one is definitely a surprise. We are adjusting to the fact that our family size is going to increase around the beginning of November or so. It still hardly seems real except that Julie is experiencing the worst “morning sickness” that she has ever had. BTW…has there ever been a bigger misnomer? “Morning” sickness? Please. I beg you…give us sickness that is just in the morning. This stuff is “24-hour-a-day-sickness.” And it is killing us.
We were originally planning to keep the pregnancy a secret for a bit longer, but at this point we really need your prayers. This sickness is brutal…on Julie and the rest of the family. Because the sickness has been so strong, Julie has barely been able to get off the couch most days which means that she hasn’t been able to do the things that she normally does around the house…so those things fall to me after I come home from work. We are both simply exhausted. I don’t know that I can remember a time when I have felt more fatigued.
So, please pray for us. Specifically you can pray for:
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Safety/health for our baby. While we have been too sick/tired to be joyful yet, we are looking forward to meeting this little person and want the best for whoever he/she may be.
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For the sickness to let up soon. Like I said…this is killing us.
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For strength for me as I try to be both Dad and Mom to our two daughters (who are eight and five years old). I am desperately trying to not let my tiredness bleed over into being impatient/snappy with them. Some days I do well…some days I don’t.
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