Baby Jonah was born on June 1st, 2006 at 9:50 pm.  He weighed 8 pounds, 4 and a half ounces and was 21 inches long. 

We are all home now and doing well.  I will update with details and pictures soon (maybe tonight or tomorrow).

Thank you all for your prayers.  He's beautiful!!!

Here we are - 6 days past my due date and still no baby!    I actually started having contractions Saturday afternoon (3 days ago).  They admitted me to the hospital at about 2:30 that night.  I continued to have contractions throughout the night and the next day, but they were not at all consistent, ranging from 2 to 8 minutes apart.  The baby's hearbeat looked good and he was handling all the contractions really well.  By 5:00 pm on Sunday, I had only dilated to about 5 cm and I was about 90% effaced.  The contractions pretty much petered out on Sunday, so they finally decided to let me go home around 9:30 pm on Sunday. 

Since then, I've had lots of teeny weeny contractions and a big one once in a while, but still no consistency.  Today was my most recent checkup with the doctor.  She checked me and I was still 5 cm, which didn't surprise me.  She hooked me up to the contraction/heartbeat monitor for about 20 minutes.  During that time, I had one BIG contraction, and the baby didn't like it.  His heartrate dropped, which concerned the doctor.  She sent me back over to the hospital to be monitored a little longer.  We stayed over there, hooked to the monitor for about 2 1/2 hours.  I didn't have any more big contractions and the baby looked fine the whole time.  They did an ultrasound to check everything and a non-stress test.  We scored 10 out of 10 on the non-stress test, so that was good!  My amniotic fluid levels all looked good and the baby is still head down.  The guy doing the ultrasound estimated the baby's weight at 9 pounds 5 ounces!   WHAT???  At my last ultrasound (4 weeks ago) they estimated 5 pounds, 9 ounces.  I have a hard time believing he's packed on 4 pounds in a month.  I know that they're estimates can be off by a pound or more, so let's hope he's not quite that big.

My doctor is going to be on vacation next week, and she really doesn't want me to go that far over my due date, so the plan right now is this - if nothing happens before then, the doctor is going to break my water Thursday morning.  Hopefully, since I'm already dilated 5 cm, this will get the ball rolling.  If that hasn't worked by Friday morning, then she'll want to induce me with pitocin, which I do NOT want.  Today, I've been losing big chunks of my mucous plug, so hopefully that's a sign that something will happen soon.  

So, basically - I'm still here, I'm still pregnant, but at least there is an end in sight.  I'm still praying that I'll go into full-fledged labor ON MY OWN before the doctors try to intervene.  I hope that anyone reading this will continue to pray for us.  God bless you all!

~ Mandy 

I am now 2 days overdue, and still no signs of labor.    I had lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions yesterday.  They were usually about 30 minutes apart, but never got regular.  My lower back has been SOOOO sore for the last few days.  I'll be glad when that pain is gone.

Jonah was really calm and quiet again most of yesterday.  I only felt him moving a handful of times, which is really unusual for him - he's usually a rowdy little guy.  At one point, I started to get worried because I hadn't felt him move in several hours, so I shook my belly to try to get him moving.  He reacted within a few minutes to let me know that everything was okay.  He's such a good boy already. 

Well, I'm just praying now that our little one was waiting for the holiday weekend to make his debut.  Hopefully in the next day or two, we'll have him in our arms.  Keep praying for us and good luck to all the other Mommies due about now!

Well, the day I've been counting down to is finally here...and nothing's happening.  People at work are driving me batty, coming by to check on me.  Everyone asks the same two questions - "You're still here?" and then "How are you feeling?"  After hearing this over and over for the last few days, the lady that sits across the aisle from me got me 2 helium balloons.  On one of them she wrote "I'm here!" and on the other one she wrote "I'm fine."  Then she taped them to my filing cabinet, so they're floating above my desk for everyone to see.  I thought it was pretty funny. 

No major signs of impending labor yet.  Still lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions and I've been a little crampy on and off, but not consistently in the least.  My low back has been hurting more too.  I can tell that Jonah has dropped even lower, because I've been feeling a lot more pressure down there.  Speaking of Jonah - he's been really calm yesterday and today.  I've heard that babies move less and calm down in the days before labor starts, so I'm praying  that that's a sign he's saving up his energy to be born - the sooner the better. 

Well, that's about it for now.  Hopefully, things will start happening tonight and I won't have to come to work tomorrow.  Pray for us!!! 

~  Mandy