Tonight we timed three contractions in a row.

9:30PM – 9:40PM – 10:00PM

I think I will sleep with one eye open (and with my rainsuit on!) tonight.

Jess is doing absolutely amazing. She is able to talk to me throughout the contractions and gives me the play-by-play about where she’s feeling the pain.

Tomorrow’s plan (if there is no baby birthing…) – get up “early-ish” and get out to the freshly tilled garden. I purchased an axe tonight at Lowe’s and am ready to swing and remove those pesky roots from our yard. Once the roots are clear, I will continue to till until we’ve got a garden full of loose dirt!

Jess is 1-centimeter dilated and 70% efaced.

She experienced yet another mild contraction during the sonogram and the doctor said that if she doesn’t go into hard labor tomorrow or Thursday that she needs to come in on Friday for a blood pressure check.

She is experiencing some pretty incredible swelling in her legs and feet these days and has a pretty bad pain through her back, too.

Continue to pray for baby and mother (and Dad!).

We’re excited and waiting for water-breakage!

I’m off to a softball game (first of the season). I tilled through the entire garden this afternoon and found atleast two large roots that will need to be hacked through with an axe. Anyone got an axe I could borrow?

Today, Jess and I bought in “extremes”.

Yep. Today we purchased the following:

– a Graco Pack ‘n Play (in Mocha)
– a new pair of “casual dress” shoes for Stevan
– a shovel, hoe, and garden rake

Interesting, right?

Our day was spend running “errands” to say the least. We enjoyed a visit to Baby’s ‘R Us where we enjoyed using our giftcards to purchase the necessities (including a Diaper Genie!). Then we enjoyed lunch with Mom Garrett at the Olive Garden (each of us enjoyed Soup, Salad and Breadsticks). After lunch we hit the mall where we found the new shoes for me.

On the way home from Ft. Wayne, I called our landlord and asked if he thought it would be possible for the Sheets family to start a garden in our rented home’s yard. He said, “absolutely”. So we stopped at Wal-Mart and purchased my very own gardening tools. I’ll be borrowing a tiller this week sometime and churn up some backyard and plant the following: corn, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, green beans, and okra! We also picked up a start of Peppermint. We’ll plant that around the downspouts and attempt to grow our own crop to make some mint tea that my mother raised me on!

I’m excited to till up some backyard!

Happy Easter tomorrow!

Tonight we had our second of three musicals. The team did VERY well tonight and I had the privilege of welcoming the audience as well as closing the evening with an opportunity for commitment. 11 people tonight recommitted their lives to Christ!

Tomorrow, during our usual second service we will enjoy the final presentation. Afterwards we are taking Pastor Bill and June out for Easter dinner.

In baby-news, we are more-than-sure that Baby Sheets is “dropping”. Jess is feeling new hurts and pains in new places and we are anticipating birth in the next 10-12 days. (it will be fun to see how close my prediciton is!)

This afternoon I finally took some time to build some of our “baby stuff”. We ARE going to have a baby sometime in the next month-ish, so I figured I might as well get a headstart on building the stuff for Baby Sheets!

First up – the stroller!

the “before” shot – lot’s of pieces

ta-da!

Next – the baby’s crib (a freebie from the Walls family in our church)

No instructions, no one to tell me what this should look like when it’s put together…

making progress… then Jess says, “Will that fit through the door to the baby’s room when it’s finished?”

…

that’s a “no” to whether it will fit through the door or not… Now I have to take what I’ve already put together apart and move my work-area to the baby’s room

a couple picture-views on the internet showed me that I was in-fact putting this bad-boy together correctly!

the finished product!

Finally, the baby’s swing:

pile ‘o pieces

project: COMPLETE

I feel like an accomplished father-to-be! Seriously, though, the crib nearly crippled my ability to function as a “civilized” man. I had nearly given up on putting the thing together when I found a bag of hardware that I had forgotten belonged with the crib! It’s amazing what four “mattress frame hangers” can do for building a crib!

Today is a good day!

“Breast is best!”, said tonight’s “lactation nurse” at our final “Prepared Childbirth” class – week 6, for those of you keeping track at home.

She was a bit “charismatic” in her instructional breastfeeding techniques. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard the words “boob” and “nipple” so much in my entire life – and for that matter, I’ve never seen so many “boobs” or “nipples”, either! (yes, we watched a good 30-minutes of breastfeeding video, too)

We did learn an awful lot tonight, despite the “dirty studyhall” feel to tonight’s class. I’m again amazed at just how incredible our God is for creating such a thing as human life and for providing all the needs for a baby right there from the mother!

Some interesting “points” from tonight –

1 year of formula costs approximately $1,200

only 1% of women WORLDWIDE can’t produce enough breastmilk

breastfed babies go to table-food sooner than formula-fed babies

breastmilk can change to the color of what the mother eats (carrots, etc.)

a breastfed baby usually poops each time they feed!

I’m sure all of you who read through that list REALLY wanted to know each of those, too.

I never thought we’d be finished with these “Prepared Childbirth” classes – 6-weeks ago seems like FOREVER ago – again just reminding me about just how quickly Baby Sheets is going to be sharing this home with us!

I can’t wait!