It's HERE!

I can't believe that tonight is the night when David and I will check in to St. Luke's to begin our induction! We're taking the day to do some last minute things and to greet my parents when they fly in later in the afternoon. We'll head to the hospital around 730pm, and the "prep" process begins.

Around 5 or 6am tomorrow morning, I will be given Pitossin and a big, fat epidural. My mom delivered Andy and me in 6 hours, so I'm hoping for a short delivery, but expecting at least 12 hours!

Finally, we will be this mystery man! YAY!

The Last Days

Only a day before we head to the hospital to begin our induction process! It's hard to believe the time is finally here!

Last night David took me to dinner at Cafe Annie - one of my favorite restaurants in Houston - for my birthday. We met a couple there, with 2 kids at home, who expressed the importance in still going out and having "date night" even after kids enter the picture! With that said, we've seen 4 movies in the past weeks and a half, and have visited several of our favorite restaurants one last time before having to pay for a sitter!

BIRTH Day and Healthy Babies

We're sitting here watching football on this beautiful fall day - David is obsessed, as you know. And in addition to being just generally obsessed, the Texas/Arkansas game is on today. I've learned a lot about the Big 12 the past few years - and feel somewhat disloyal to the ACC, but count on my Dad to keep me informed about everything going on with the Ramblin' Wreck. Having never cared about football other than the tailgating, I've found myself being a little more interested since I'm going to have a little boy in just 3 days!


This morning, I woke up a year older, but feeling the same as I did yesterday. I had always "planned" on having a baby at the age of 28(that's how old my Mom was), but a mere 3 days will separate me from following my little joke of a "plan" called LIFE! HA - serves me right! And, this is actually very typical... it seems that when I try to plan the most, God steps in just to say, "I'm the one in control, Aubrey... hold your horses and let me do my work."


I was reminded of this again this morning when I headed over to Texas Children's Hospital to volunteer. For Jr. League, we are required to complete 36 hours at TCH, and my rotation is doing puppetry for the cancer patients. Today, we had a good crowd of children - all hooked to IVs , most bald and swollen from steroids, and some in greatest pain you could imagine. They wear little booties on their swollen feet, because chemotherapy causes tender hands and feet, and they have bruises from being poked and prodded during treatments. Unless they are wearing blue or pink, it's always hard to tell the little boys from the girls, as they are all so swollen, bald, and in hospital gowns.


As soon as our music starts, and our puppets begin their show, the clapping and smiling begin. Sometimes it takes these children a few songs of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and "Celebrate" before they will let a smile peak through, but most of the time we are lucky enough to have everyone clapping and smiling by the time the CD finishes. Even though I have been pregnant the entire time I've been putting on these puppet shows, today it became clearer than ever that there is nothing keeping David and me from sitting in that same playroom on the 16th floor at TCH in years to come. Yes, we all want our children to be "healthy," but when you see the pain and sadness on these children's faces, there is nothing more that you want than to protect your child from ever having to feel what these children are feeling. With only 3 days until my sweet child arrives, I will be blowing out my 29 birthday candles tonight, praying for a LIFE of health for my baby.


Once again, God has subtly reminded me of who is in control.

Very Little Progress - almost 39 weeks

Just got back from seeing the OB and I have not dilated ANY in the past week! We scheduled the induction for next Tuesday the 30th. I'll arrive at the hospital on Monday evening, and will be induced early Tuesday morning. We're still hoping by some miracle that my cervix of steel allows us to deliver this baby without having to induce~!




39 weeks

Eggplant Parmesan DOES NOT WORK.

Whatever. I am SO OVER trying all these stupid old wives' tales on how to bring on labor. Last night I ate the nastified - Eggplant Parmesan. Imagine a slimy mushroom with seeds... exactly. I force-fed myself, as it was officially the last resort, and NOTHING HAPPENED besides 7 trips to the bathroom throughout the night.

I have 7 days until we induce - I want him to come before then, but I just have a feeling that he won't, so September 30th it is. Bah, humbug.

Sausage and False Alarms

Friday afternoon, a few neighbors and I went to see The Women - cute movie without a SINGLE MALE ACTOR SHOWN! The first 1/2 of the movie I honestly thought I was in labor, and was waiting on my water to break - how exciting that would have been! But, to no avail, I walked out of the theater 2 hours later with a baby still in tact in my larger than life belly.

Friday evening, there were a few gatherings at different homes in the neighborhood. At the final house we went to, I received the BEST PREGNANCY COMMENT YET! Seriously - this is called going out with a BANG!

Drunken uncle of the birthday girl says to me:
"I told your husband that it looks like you were having twins in there, but I don't know... It might even be a SMALL CALF!!!!!!!!"

Seriously - ARE YOU RETARDED or just SOCIALLY STUPID? WHO SAYS THAT???!!!!??? Blood rushed to my face and I could see David eyeing me, hoping I didn't go complete bonkers on this guys. He slowly put his arm around me and got me out of that situation very quickly!!! I knew one of us was about to punch this guys lights out, and i was READY for action!

Saturday was filled with clean-up and getting our bedroom somewhat back to normal. We had the carpet cleaners come Saturday morning to clean the entire upstairs, in addition to the spot that had water damage. Never in my life have I met 2 guys who were the epitomy of PCB or Bust (Panama City Beach or Bust)!!! After dirtying our carpet more (yes, they wore black soled boots on our carpet), we watched them like hawks then sent them packing!

Sat. afternoon, I headed to Sears to pick up David's pushing present....

He's enamored with it, let me tell you! ;)

Despite my 3 mile walks, spicy food, Raspbery Leaf Tea, squats, and prayers, Harrison is still tucked away. Saturday night I met some gals out to shower my girlfriend Sherri with lingere and to celebrate her last days of being somewhat single... we celebrated at a Mexican restaurant and I even loaded up on jalapenos (eewwww!). I started contracting a lot during dinner, so when I got home, I gave David two options - we clean the entire upstairs or go walking.... gotta keep these contractions growing.... STILL NOTHING! :0

So, after Mexican, jalapenos, and another long walk this morning, my fingers and toes resemble

Hopefully with a little lemon water we'll be back to normal tonight.... keep your fingers crossed for labor pains tonight!

The Aftermath of IKE

A few pics from the evening of the hurricane:

The Zorns with Nathan - 6 days old! (They stayed with us b/c they live on a flood plane, near a bayou...)

The skyline before the hurricane hit

Ryan savoring the power that we were about to lose

The Best Sport I know - Lisa definitely has been through a lot the past two weeks and they STILL DONT HAVE POWER so are now staying in their 4th bed since IKE.

David catching up on ESPN before having to go days without a fix!

Nathan trying out Harrison's swing!

Our house before... David cleaned off all my plants from the the front veranda, but that was all the outside preparation we could do. We were just praying the pine trees across the street didn't fall on us!

The morning after:

After: only 1 tree down!

So tired, with Nathan

David and Ryan went to check out their house. This is Brays Bayou, which you can usually see the bottom of.

Flooding

Lisa and Ryan's front yard - The tree limb was 2 feet from the baby's room!

Near our neighborhood

Close call near out neighborhood

The clean up begins..... I was able to put 3 big pieces of salmon that my dad brought me from Alaska in a neighbor's freezer who had a generator. Other than that, we pretty much lost eveything we couldn't fit in our two coolers.... eggs, turkey, milk, OJ - just the essentials!

Houston, we have a leak!
When we arrived home from Brenham on Tuesday, we found a leak that had soaked through the sheetrock and into the carpet. I was always scared of the huge window in our bedroom. We don't have a house built behind us yet to shield us, so strong winds are scary. This was the main reason I slept in the closet last Friday night!

Our bedroom before:

I took pictures of every room in our house before the hurricane for insurance purposes, in the event of major damage. You can see the window is huge and definitely creaks with high wind. Our builder said this was normal and they make big windows to "give" a little, but WHATEVER! I was not taking the chance!

The repair process - small in comparison to so many people, but still frustrating. We are sleeping in the guest bedroom to stay away from the mold, and hope to be back into our bedroom by the time Harrison comes... (who knows when that will be). They sheetrocked today and are painting and finishing up tomorrow. David has lined up carpet cleaners to come on Saturday, then we'll be back to normal in the Slye household.

As for power, last night (Wednesday), it was restored in our neighborhood!!! YAY! David and I were packed and head for his parents' house, but were able to come home and clean and do laundry instead. We had watched the crew work on the lines all day... many of them were from out of town and one that we spoke to was in from Kansas and had slept in his truck the night before. I fixed them goodie bags of snacks and stuck out my belly a little further (not that there is much room to do this) in hopes getting our power turned back on through pure sympathy and guilt!!!!! ;) The crews are really working so hard - there are trees down everywhere and traffic is a bear due to the lack of street lights working. Many of my friends do not have power, as we are definitely lucky.

My friend Sherri sent me this link that has some good footage from the storm - you can really see how devestating this was for Galveston and Houston.

http://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html

Baby Update:

Yesterday I went to my OB for a checkup and was contracting very strongly. Ofcourse, they are intermittent, but we know we are getting very close. I have begun to dilate and Damla is thinking within the next week we'll be meeting Harrison. Sometimes I think I have the cervix of steel because he still hasn't come, and if that is the case, we will be inducing on September 30th! So, there is some finality to this process and it's12 days away.

I'll be 38 weeks tomorrow, so he's a big healthy boy right now and we're ready to meet him!

I made it through my first hurricane!

Friday night was pretty scary, with winds close to 100 mph and sheets of rain pelting our windows like bullets. I moved into the closet a little after midnight and slept on some cushions David set up for me. Around 1am we lost power, and around 3am the worst part of the storm came through. David was up the majority of the night checking on the house and the pine trees surrounding the house. We were incredibly lucky to find no immediate damage to our house Saturday morning. Our friends, The Zorns, and their week old baby came to stay with us Friday night. Saturday morning, David and Ryan drove to check on their house, which thankfully had no damage except for several trees down in the road, driveway, and near the house. Saturday afternoon, we got our hopes up and booked a hotel room in Katy. As soon as we arrived, we were told that the booking agents should not have booked the room b/c they had no power or a/c. ahhh! PLAN C: go back home, shower in cold water and try to get through the night! On Sunday, David suggested that we call the B&B near Brenham TX (about and hour away) to see if they had rooms - thankfully they did and we came out here Sunday afternoon. It's been so pleasant - AC and cooked meals, lots of sleep last night! Right now we're in Starbucks and are just taking everyday as it comes. They are predicting weeks before we get power, but we are still very hopeful everyday. Harrison is nuzzled in, keeping warm and hopefully will not come for a few weeks - it would be miserable to bring him home to a hot and humid house.

All in all, we are safe and lucky that no one was hurt and that we had no damage. I have a few pictures and will post those when we get home to power. Thank you for your calls and text messages!

Here's a pic of David's building:http://www.click2houston.com/slideshow/17465520/detail.htmlindex.html?currentSlide=27&taf=hou This picture and the several that follow are all of downtown - it was destroyed!
He works in JP Morgan Chase Tower, which is the tallest tower downtown. Fortunately, the top windows are in tact, but the bottom windows were blown - a wind tunnel was created through downtown by the hurricane and wiped out so many buildings. David's on the 65th floor, out of 75, so I think he might be headed back to work on Wednesday or Thursday.

Back to Elementary School

Remember learning about barometric pressure a few 10 years ago? The lowest barometric pressure occurs at the center of a hurricane, and that's exactly what's coming our way!!! I've researched a little on the dropping in barometric pressure as it relates to going in to labor, and have found several people who swear that a pregnant woman's water will break more easily during this time.

We're stocked with necessities and prepared as best as we can be! Since we're on the "dirty" side of the storm, we're going to have 115+mph winds, with a lot of rain and flooding. As David says, "TRUUUUUCK!" He's counting on his 4 wheel drive to get us to the hospital if we need!


Nice - right to HOUSTON!

Here's an article I found about hurricanes:

Title Association between significant decrease in barometric pressure and onset of labor: Author King EA; Fleschler RG; Cohen SM Address St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Source J Nurse Midwifery, 1997 Jan-Feb, 42:1, 32-4 OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to determine whether there is a relationship between changes in atmospheric pressure and spontaneous onset of labor in term pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: All women admitted to Medical Center of Central Massachusetts-Memorial Hospital with spontaneous onset of labor at term and who were delivered on the service during a 12-month period represent the cohort for this study. Each maternal chart was abstracted to ensure that each member of the cohort met the inclusion criteria. Hourly recordings of atmospheric pressure made at the Worcester Station of the National Weather Service, Department of Commerce, were used as the meteorologic data points of interest. RESULTS: Three-hour periods of falling atmospheric pressure were less often followed by initiation of labor than were the periods with other types of pressure sequences. No association was observed between the onset of labor and days of low mean pressure. CONCLUSION: Although there was an observed statistically significant association between falling barometric pressure and onset of labor, the magnitude of the difference is not of clinical significance. This was a cut and paste article from the below article: http://pregnancy.a-bout.com/library/blweather.htm-

Ironically, they say the same thing about barometric pressure and full moons, and there is a full moon on the 15th! I promise I'm not superstitious, but it will be fun to see what happens. Harrison has proven to not like change in environment, as seen from our CA and Whistler trips, so this might not be any different!

The Waiting Game

Late this afternoon, I had an appointment with my OB and was able to determine a little more about what our near future holds for the Slye Fam! I am about 80% effaced and still having sporadic contractions that don't hurt, but I haven't dialted yet. On one hand, I was disappointed because I'm ready to meet Mr. Harrison, but on the other hand, I want him to gain as much weight in my belly, for as long as possible. Damla said that she would induce me if I really wanted, but not until closer to 39 weeks. She feels that it would not be risky at all for me to go full term, so why should we mess with nature and possibly deprive him of an extra week or two of development in the womb. David and I met for dinner and discussed our options and ultimately decided that we are waiting this out! Damla and her hubby are going on vaca on October 2nd, so if Harrison doesn't come by then we will induce before she leaves. But, right now we're waiting for labor to set in naturally.

I would love for him to be here for selfish reasons, but when I think about what is absolutely best for the baby, I know it's to keep him gaining weight and developing for as long as possible!

Perinatologist's Appt/ Lisa and Ryan's new babe!

On Monday, we went to our final visit with our high risk OB, who released us with a clean bill of health! He measured Harrison at 6lbs. 7 oz. (give or take a few), and confirmed all fingers, toes and mature lungs. YAY! Dr. Kirshon also informed us that, from the ultrasound, I'm over 60% effaced and 1 cm dilated. There's no telling when Harrison is going to decide to come - it could be this week or 3 weeks from now! He did recommend inducing me at 38 weeks (next Friday) because the longer I go and the bigger the baby gets, the more risky it becomes for a subsequent bleed. I will see my OB on Friday and she will be the one to make the final call on when and if I should be induced.

With the hurricane coming and a full moon on the 15th, I'm hoping that my body will respond naturally and I'll go right on into labor! We will see!

Lisa, Ryan, and Nathan

I've been so lucky to have 2 of my good friends pregnant with me at the same time. Everyday, I found myself talking to one (or both) of them for the past 9 months! Megan's delivered Sloane and on Saturday, Lisa had her baby boy, Nathan, by C Section! Lisa and I were 2 weeks apart, so Nathan came a little bit early (38 weeks), but is a healthy 6lb 6oz baby boy!

I guess this means that I'm next - and hopefully that will happen next week!

The Zorns! Nathan scared us on Saturday morning... Lisa noticed that he wasn't moving after her morning OJ, so she was instructed to go to L&D for an ultrasound and monitoring. The heartbeat was fine, and she could see him on the ultrasound, but a few minutes later was told that they were going to have to do an emergency C Section. Her amniotic fluid was a dangerous 1.5, where normal is between 8-20. At 2:30 that afternoon, she was on the table and her little boy was welcomed to the world!

Introducing the boys! Wait - that's what's inside me right now!!!!

Yes, David, we are REALLY going to have one of these pretty soon!

DING DING DING! 36 weeks

Yes, this is how I was woken up this morning. David was kneeling down by the bed, a few inches away from my face, chanting "Ding, Ding, Ding!" I opened my eyes and glared at him, as he continued on:

"Your baby is fully cooked! We can take him out of the oven now! Get the trivel."

"The what?"

"The thing you put the hot plates on."

"Oh, the TRIVET?"

"Yes, get the trivet! Ding, Ding, Ding!"

OMG - could have killed him. If I was a little more awake and 30 lbs lighter, I think I would have gotten out of bed and tackled him.

As you can tell, we are thrilled to have made it to 36 weeks. From here on, Harrison is basically gaining FAT - yay! I'm hoping I don't have to wait 4 more weeks until my due date for him to come - somehow smaller sounds better to me right now!

So, here's the 36 week picture - Harrison has definitely dropped and is now resting on my legs when I sit down. I'm Large and In Charge, but that's okay - he'll be here soon enough and I can start shedding my winter coat!

Harrison's Wife Has Arrived!

Sloane Ellis Williams arrived last night, 9/2/08 at 621pm and weighed a very healthy 9 lbs. 2 oz.! We are so excited that she's finally here.

Patiently awaiting the arrival of our babies!

Last night I spoke with my best friend who was admitted into L&D to be induced this morning!! She's currently in labor as I'm writing this. It's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that our lives are about to completely change. By tonight, she will have a beautiful little girl named Sloane Ellis, who will be totally dependent on her for nourishment, shelter, clothing, and love. From here on out, our decisions will be made based on the new little person in our lives rather than ourselves.

It really makes me think about how much my life really is about to change. David and I have truly cherished our time together recently because we both know that the biggest change we've ever had is about to happen in a few weeks. The anticipation is so great for both of us. I smile when I see him walk over to the swing, turn it on, and just watch it swing, and I know he's so ready to meet his little boy. My nesting instinct kicked in about 2 weeks ago, as I found myself cloroxing the refrigerater. Since then, I've cleaned out 2 bedroom closets, the coat closet, organized all my photos, and rearraged/bought some furniture. (ofcourse I've done most of this with the help from others) I guess it's my way of being orderly when complete chaos is coming my way!

This Friday, at 9 months, I will stop taking my Procardia XL for contractions. This drug relaxes the smooth muscle in the uterus, which slows/stops contractions. We are very interested to see if my contractions will come back with avengence, sending me into labor within a few days or if the process will take a little longer. I wish I knew what to expect, but the only thing I know for sure is within the next few weeks, Harrison will arrive!