phewww!

We avoided having our baby born on the same day as Saddam's death....thank goodness.

Still no baby. We're hanging out at the Ronald McDonald house. Watched Oregon State pull out the miracle Sun Bowl victory yesterday. Some friends of ours came over to stay with us from Salem, OR. We seem to be doing all right in the midst of everything. Pretty soon however we're going to have to figure out how to move all our stuff out of our house in Bozeman. Our closing date is Jan 15th. That could get a little stressful. We've got amazing friends who I think will pack up our house for us if need be...so thats good.

We're bummed we're missing our winter conference in Portland. We keep getting updates and it sounds like it's going really well, but it's weird not being there. This will be only the second time we've missed a winter conference since I was a sophomore in college! There's nothing like praising in the new year with 800 college students. It'll be a bit more quiet this year.

Jody's doing well. She continues to have contractions. She'll go through spurts of a couple of hours of having contractions every 10-15 minutes. She's definitely getting tired of dealing with the physical discomfort. She is amazing. She doesn't complain at all and doesn't even look like she's in pain. Apparently she has an amazing pain tolerance. All it'll take is her dialating a little more and they will let our little girl be born. Could be anytime! We'll keep you posted.

to and fro

...back out of the hospital again. Yesterday after about 4 hours in the hospital and some more medication along with a new prescription we got released from the hospital again. Everything slowed back down and we actually got a good night sleep. Praise the Lord. The doctor told us if Jody dialates anymore they won't stop the baby from coming. So really it could be anytime now.

The good news is that they have a golf cart here that I can drive really fast across the parking lot to the hospital.

Thanks for all you prayers, phone calls, emails and visits! We love you all.

Back in the hospital

We're back in the hospital. After a fairly quiet day yesterday, a mean game of Rumicube last night with Jody's parents (in our sweet room at the Ronald McDonald house) we've checked back into the hospital. Jody had contractions all night last night and by this morning decided to come back in. Her contractions were about 8-10 minutes apart and now she's dialated a bit more. So apparently we're back in jail for the time being. We're in good shape but it's just a waiting game now, but I have a feeling we're going to have this baby before the new year.

We'll keep you posted!

Moving day

I think they're going to let us move across the street to the Ronald McDonald house today. How exciting! I think it made a big difference in the doctor's mind that at the end of today we'll be at 34 weeks. The Ronald McDonald house is really nice here and a heckuva lot cheaper than the hospital. Jody continues to have contractions but nothing else is really changing. We'll be back in to the hospital on friday for a checkup.

We're missing our winter conference this week which is a bummer. We have incredible friends that will be there that we had been looking forward to seeing for a long time. I guess they'll survive without us.

Feel free to call us anytime. If we don't answer it's probably because we're asleep or busy, but we'd love to hear from anyone! It helps us pass the time.

More room service

After a super quiet night before last and Christmas day...last night was busy. Jody had contractions all night between 10 and 14 minutes apart. Thus we hang out in the hospital some more.

Continue to pray for us please. Tomorrow is 34 weeks for our little one. So at this point it's still early but we're in pretty good shape. We would love for things to slow down enough to get out of the hospital or for things to progress and have this little bundle of joy. Being in a holding pattern for a week is starting to wear on us a bit.

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all the rich blessings of the Lord today! Merry Christmas!

Jody had a good night last night, so things are good with us. We are opening our stockings here shortly then family is bring breakfast brunch over for us. Jody got to see Santa last night too!

no baby yet

Still no baby yet. Jody is now 33 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Every day counts at this point. She continues to have contractions and get medication. It seems like the contractions are getting stronger too. We might end up having a Christmas baby. The hospital is getting a little old after 5 days now. We're getting tired of it, although now I have a puzzle to work on now. Christmas eve in the hospital is strange. I kind of want to go steal one of the decorated tree's in the lobby and bring it back to the room.

Please pray for endurance for Jody and I...and the baby. We know it's better for our little girl to be inside Jody for as long as possible, but we're getting impatient and tired of being in the hospital.

We love you all!

Another day

Sounds like we'll be spending Christmas in the hospital. Jody's contractions continue to be pretty serious. I wouldn't be suprised if we have a baby soon. But, who really knows...I've thought our baby girl was on her way out about 3 times since tuesday. Everything will probably slow down as soon as I publish this post.

Please pray for our patience and perseverence in this process. Pray that if we have our baby that she would be healthy and not have to be intibated (breathing machine). Pray for strength for Jody and the baby.

We love you all and are so thankful for the relationships we have. Going through crazy things like this remind us of how blessed we are with family and friends. Thanks for your prayers.

Switched rooms

No baby yet! We've moved out of the labor and delivery room. So apparently that's a good sign! We're staying one more night and if everything stays the same the doctor's tell us we might get to go to Prineville for Christmas (40 minutes away). Jody's doing well...other than confined to bedrest. Today she got a choice between a shower and a wheelchair ride. Brutal choice. She chose the shower. We'll keep you updated.

Just hanging out

A fairly uneventful day in the hospital. This morning Jody's contractions we're getting pretty serious, but with some nice Procardia everything slowed down. So we've been ordered to hang out for another 24 hours and see if anything else changes.

In the midst of all this Jody and I choose to be thankful. We have been sooooo blessed. Great family, unbelievable friends. The prayers and encouragement we've gotten over the past two days have brightened our world and kept us sane. Thank you all. Keep those prayers coming. They've been felt.

It's been an interesting lesson in patience and flexability. It looks like we might be in central Oregon for a while. Even if things calm down I don't think they're going to let us go back to Bozeman anytime soon (about a 13 hour drive). So that's hard. We'll see though. Then if we end up having our baby soon we won't be able to leave because our little girl will be in neo-natal intesive care unit for a while.
It's craziness.

Well, I'm going to get some sleep now.

Look at our baby!

Just kidding. Thought we'd put this picture up here and freak everyone out. Don't worry it's not ours. Our baby will be a little smaller. It's Jody's cousins baby Terran. They came to visit today.

Impromptu Baby Shower

The reason we came to Prineville was for a baby shower that took place last night. To bad we were in the hospital! This morning most of the gifts were unwrapped in the hospital room.

unexpected

Our life motto..."Always expect the unexpected." Or perhaps...."never plan anything, cause plans are bound to change."

Thursday we had a doctor's appointment in Bozeman. Everything was good and we got the ok to head to Prineville for Christmas. Half-way into our journey Jody began to have some contractions. We didn't think much of it...we were wrong.

Yesterday, after conferring with our doctor, we went into the hospital in Prineville, turns out Jody was partially dialated and got to ride in an ambulance to Bend, OR. So it looks like our baby girl might come a little early (33 weeks) and a long way from home.

Everything looks good. Baby and Momma are healthy and everything is good except that her uterus was changing. So Jody is taking some medicine to slow everything down and keep the baby in as long as possible, but it looks like we might be here a while. We're just hanging out waiting a day and we'll talk to the doctor tomorrow.

Please pray for us, for strength and rest.

Christmas...time to travel.

Christmas break mean lots of travel for us. Sunday we leave Bozeman and head toward Spokane for a quick visit with my Mom and then on to Prineville, OR to spend time with Jody's family for Christmas. Also Jody is having the mother of all baby showers at our home church there. Then on the 27th we pack up and head to Portland for our annual Winter Conference along with our Regional Staff conference afterwards. Finally we'll arrive back in Bozeman on Jan 4th (ish). We've done this many times, but never has Jody been 8 months pregnant! It could be slow going.

Other big news in our life. We're giving away Stella to a good home on Saturday because one of my best friends is deathly allergic to her and they want to come over when we have a baby. The sacrifices we make for our friends, I tell you. It's going to be a tear-fest at our house on Saturday.

Also, we signed a contract for our house, and we'll be closing on January 15th. This poses a dilemma however as our new place will not be ready untill April (ish), so we get to join the world of renters again for a while. Please pray that we wouldn't have a baby untill we get settled in our rental! Haha.... wouldn't that be chaos.

Our cat...

is looking for a new home...sad.