Latest guesses...

Cheri guesses 8:15pm, Amy guesses 8:23, Corrine guesses 8:45pm, Dad (Evans) guesses 7:30pm, Mom (Evans guesses 6:47pm. Keep'em coming!

New incoming event...

Listen up Lois Labor Log Lovers... The polls have now opened...post your guess on what time you think the baby will be born to the nearest 15 minutes without going over...the grand prize is to claim clairvoyance and extreme bragging rights! So shake your tail feather, rapido, haga-naga quickly, move it, get goin' and cast those times!

News Flash...

Lois is now dilated to a 7. She's doing great. That is all.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Okay all you blog followers...the epidural has landed...Nap time is underway...so if you are reading this, maintain cell phone and radio silence until notified. I like to think of this time as...the calm before the storm. Signing off for now... I'm Robert Draper for Lois's Labor Log.

Breaking news...

The epidural has been given and... All is well...stay tuned.

News update

The hiccups have arrived! I repeat...The hiccups have arrived! Over.

This just in...

Contractions are getting stronger, she gets a little nauseous, and she is dilated to a 6! In other news... Lois's mom is very sadistic! She wants Lois to have pain and to cry in payment for Lois's birth! She laughs like a giddy, school girl as Lois squirms in discomfort. Talk about one sick individual! Stay tuned for details... but not too detailed details.

tick... tock...tick...tock...

I know some people are just waiting for some news, but there is NONE!(Kelsey) Just small, steady contractions. That is all for now.

Labor Logging...

As per Kelsey's request, Lois is blogging during labor. So... She was dilated to a 4 and then her water was broken a little after 8am. She is now having small contractions about 5 and a half minutes apart. To be continued....

Its a....

Here are pregnancy pictures of me.These are one day shy of my due date, taken this morning.

Well, it all started yesterday while I was enjoying my last day of work. I got a voice mail from the hospital telling me that they were going to move my inducing up to 7:30am. Okay, that was not ideal, but we will make it work. Robert had to be in class today at 10:15am because he had a presentation.
Last night I was so excited that I was done with work I invited friends to go to DQ with us and have ice cream. It was also the last night that Robert and I would have not being parents so going out sounded great! We had fun!
This morning just after 6:00am the hospital called to tell me that their labor and delivery unit was full and that they would have to bump me back on the schedule to be induced. People say that storms bring babies and it snowed over night so this was not surprising. Anyway, now Robert could go to class and things were back to the original plan. The hospital told me they would call me at about 10:00am to tell me when/if to come in. Well, they called just after 11 and said that all the ladies were still laboring and that they did not want to start me after 1pm. So, here I am at home because those ladies used more than their share of the hospital. Honestly, I scheduled my birth and I am the one to get bumped. How rude! Just kidding.
So, I now have an apt to start at 7:30am tomorrow morning. And they did ask me to call first to make sure there was room. I have been telling the baby all day that it should come out today anyway so that they have to make room, or that is should come in the middle of the night just to spite the hospital and Dr. (Wow, look what I am already teaching the kid. Look out world!)
So, its a...... another day to wait to find out who/what Cletus Lapidus the Fetus is.

Last Dr Apt

Today I went in for my last Dr appointment. I am still dilated at 3 cm. So, Friday at 11 am I am checking into the hospital to be induced. We were planning on it for tomorrow, but it seems to work better with schedules if we do it on Friday. The doc says everything looks good and ready to go. So, in less than 48 hours we may be parents! Really that is the only update. Still no contractions from what I can tell.
Robert has been amazing at working hard to get ahead in school! He is such a hard worker. THANKS honey!
Me, I have 5 hours left of work (tomorrow) and then I am done with work for at least 12 weeks!! There are just a few things that I need to do before the baby comes and I will get those done tomorrow.

Thanks!

I just wanted everyone to know that my brother Chris came home from Iraq last month and I am so grateful!! He served our country and I am proud of him and what he has done! I know that he could have a hard time adjusting back to life here, but I am glad that what seemed to be the dangerous part is over. Welcome home Chris!!!
Thank you Heavenly Father for your protective care over my brother and many others who are serving this country!!!

Baby Update

So, I went to the Dr. on Wednesday and he said that I was dilated 3 cm. I was so excited and thought I was on my way to having a baby and maybe even in February. This made me VERY excited because on Friday and Saturday I had 10 hour shifts for work. I thought the baby would get me out of work. Then on Wednesday night I began "spotting." Again this showed me signs of labor and getting closer to having this baby. I didn't say anything to anyone other than Robert that night because I know you can spot for a week or more before going into labor. Then Thursday I spotted all day and told some people about it. We were all thinking any day now and any time now I would start contractions and labor. I continued to spot through out Friday and I am almost positive that I have lost my mucus plug. So, surely I would not have to work on Saturday is what I was thinking. Maybe I would not have the baby by then but I thought I would be in labor or miserable and have an excuse not to go into work. Well, Saturday morning rolled around and I woke up REFRESHED. I felt sooo great that morning. Which, in talking to other women, have said that they feel that way right before they start heavy labor. Again this was my chance to get out of working a long month-end shift. So, in the morning I went grocery shopping and walked the long way around the store to try and walk myself into labor. While walking it got more and more uncomfortable, but still nothing that would be like a contraction. So, then at noon I went into work. All day I waited for something that I could justify going home for and other associates encouraged me to because I am less than a week away from having a baby and surely I should not be required to work. I felt the same way, but knowing that we will need the money while Robert is finishing the semester and has only one job, I knew the best and right thing to do was to stay at work and get us any money that I could. (Also, I really did feel just fine. If the baby wasn't so sweet to nudge me and remind me that it was sharing a body with me I would not have even know I was pregnant.) The one thing that did suck about working yesterday was that the restrooms were closed down because there was a clog somewhere in the drainage. So, I had to walk all the way outside and across the street to use the restroom and that was about every hour or hour and a half. So, I got home yesterday being tired, but made it through with no baby and still no contractions. (I did have a few pains during the day, but I think it was more gas or hungry pains. It was nothing of what I am told a contraction could feel like.) Today, I woke up and went to church. I have not felt anything that would allow me to think that I was going to have a baby this week. I walked to and from church twice today and I waddled the whole way. As my mom would describe it I was walk like there is a grapefruit between my legs.
I feel like my body was getting ready and the the baby decided it wanted to wait to have a March birthday. Well, I guess that is okay with me as long as it is within the first few days of March, other wise we will be choosing its birthday.

Baby Shower Feb 7

A couple of my friends put together a great baby shower! Meg Hebdon, Jenny Miller, and Natalie Messano did a wonderful job. THANK YOU SO MUCH! A lot of people showed up and we had a blast! We played some fun games and Meg made sure that I had all of my favorite food there. They made rice crispy treats, muddy buddies, cup cakes, and nachoes. YUMMY!

There were 16 guests including myself! Thank you so much everyone for your support and excitement.
We played a game where we had to guest the baby food out of the jar. I did not do so well. Maybe I will learn in the next few years. We also drew a letter out a hat and the each person was to write down as many names as they could think of beginning with that letter. Then I was able to take those names and read them over. The last game we played was to cut a piece of string to guess how big around I was.
The best part about any shower is opening the gifts! THANKS again everyone! He is a picture of the items that we got. Lots of diapers as Robert was asking for and of coarse adorable baby blakets, clothes, binkies, and well you can see the rest.
It was so much fun!! I cannot say thank you enough.

10 year dating spree and counting...

Today marks the day in history that Robert finally got the guts to ask me to be his girlfriend! It was at Mazama High School right before Lois' geometry class ten years ago. Well, the rest is history...
We have been together ever since. There were rough times when we were separated by hundreds if not thousands of miles, but we have learned and grown a lot, only to make life all the sweeter.
(Fall 1999. Mazama High School. Klamath Falls, OR)

It only took Robert 5 more years to get the courage to ask me to marry him on this same date.
(March 13, 2004. Moore Park, Klamath Falls, OR)

Now it is 5 more years after he proposed and yet still seems like only the beginning of our time together. The time that we have spent together seems so short when compared to the eternity that we are sharing together.(October 16, 2008. Near the Idaho Falls falls, Idaho Falls, ID)<=What a mouth full!

Robert, I love you!!

Update on Christmas tree solutions.

So, we got one of the bags off line to store our Christmas tree in. It worked pretty well. It seems that it might have even helped store it in a small space. I was able to put it at the top of the spare rooms closet. YEAH!!!!
Because of putting the tree away I began to clean out the closet. I went through every box and junked a lot of things. It sure is nice to have more room in that room because now we might even be able to fit a baby in there in a few months.

Are we going to parents? Really?

So, last night as I was going through some baby items Cheri sent me I was thinking...
"These are cute and will come in handy someday when we have kids. I will just need to find somewhere to keep them." Then, all the sudden I realized that I will be putting a baby in these clothes in just a few weeks. WOW! Is it ever going to seem real before the baby comes?

Then this morning Robert and I were getting ready for him to go to school and he said, "You are having a baby shower this weekend and your not just going to it, it is for you." Isn't he so cute! Robert is going to be a daddy!

I think that we are in for a real shock when we have a baby in our home, I hope that we don't forget about it then.

Pink or Blue?

So, I am not a great blogger and don't know how to do fancy things with my blog, so this is the best I got.
Leave a comment and let us know what you think the baby's gender is going to be. We are hearing mostly boy from people around here. Robert nor I really have any idea.

Okay I figured it out. Feel free to leave a comment as well and/or vote with the poll to the right.

Great Daddy to be! (and other baby updates.)

As you all probably know we are getting excited about having a baby! Along with the excitement comes other emotions as well. We are both still feeling very calm, but also in our heads is the thoughts of being ready with baby stuff, and the anticipation of when it will happen. Really, we are only 5 weeks away and so, anything could happen and this baby could come.
Robert this past week had planned a few days in advance to have our family home evening. So, Monday night came around and I had no idea what we were going to do. So, for the activity he had planned to put together the hospital bag. It was fun searching the house for things that the list suggested. It was kind of like a treasure hunt. So, we are now "ready" to be able to just pick up the bag and get the hospital if needed. Granted we still need to get the house ready and get the car seat and thing ready for when the baby comes home, but at least at the hospital I will have what I need and a few things for the baby.
It was actually a few weeks ago that Robert started to ask me about what is needed to put in the hospital bag and I told him I had no idea. So, then I found a list in a magazine and told him about it. It is nice to hear him express his concerns and thoughts about having a baby. He really wants to be part of it and is doing a great job at supporting me, when/if I need it.
This pregnancy has been very different than I thought it would be. Really, it has not affected or changed our lives much. Just recently I have had the pleasure of the multiple trips to pee at night, but really that is it. It has been such a blessing!

Other things Robert has said that I am grateful he said and shows his support to me:

He as asked when/if I need help tying my shoes.
Tells me it is okay to sleep as much as I do and does not complain about the lack of sleep that he gets.
Doesn't complain when I don't get up at 4:00am to get him some breakfast.
He humors me when I tell him to feel the baby kick or watch my stomach move. (Of coarse the baby always stops and so he does not get to see/feel it very often, but he will do it anyway because he knows that I want him to experience it as well.)
He talks to me about baby names.
He has gone to every doctors apt.
He shows his love for me and tells me he loves me everyday!

Last thing I wanted to mention is that I had a doctors appointment this last Wednesday I talked to my doctor about being induced. He said that he is fine with it as along as I am past 39 weeks. I had to ask him because I think one of the only things that I have stressed out about is going past my due date a week or two and having an almost 11 pound baby. (So, Kelsey I don't think I could be as brave or strong as you.) So, I was glad to hear my Dr. say he would induce me if we wanted. So, Robert and I have begun to think about asking him to do it on March 7 because it works well with our schedule. (That makes it sound so easy to have a baby, but I doubt it will be.) My next appointment with the Dr is February 11 and we will talk to him about it then.

Sorry for the long blog, but I will try to keep everyone posted.

Christmas Tree Storage Help

So, our Christmas tree is still up in our apartment. I put away all the rest of our Christmas decoration a few weeks ago, but the box that our tree came in was so torn up and out of shape, that we tossed it out. Now, we are not sure what to use to store the tree. Any suggestions? I found that online they have tree storage bags, but I am not sure how well those work.

No new updates. Robert started school and I am still working. Just under 7 weeks till my due date!