The Baby Beach Blues

So last Monday was technically my first day at home by myself with all the kids because Joe officially started school (well, "orientation week"). It was rainy and gross so we stayed inside and pretty much did nothing. And I. Went. CRAZY!  That was my first day where I felt like, "I think I am going to have to fight off those darn baby-blues.  Bummer."  I do NOT like being house-bound and I generally find that I am in a better mood if I can just get outside, so I was determined to do something fun the next day ...if the weather permitted. And it did. So we went to the beach. I'm not gonna lie. A little ambitious for Zoe only being a week and a half old, but I didn't want to spend another whole stir-crazy day inside. We HAD to get out.  Or Mommy was going to SNAP!

I will admit it was tolerable and even a little fun for the first hour. It wasn't super packed and the kids were happy to be out and running around.  The fresh air was rejuvinating.  And then as time went on it got a little more stressful. The umbrella I brought kept coming out of the ground and I didn't have enough hands to fix it. We did lunch and Ellie dropped hers in the sand. Tears. Many of them. There were flies that wanted our food.  Some of the beach toys I brought still had tags and I had no scissors to cut the ties off so the kids were not happy that they couldn't play with those specific ones.  I tried to just breathe through it and calmly deal with each situation as it arose, ...but I was starting to get stressed out.  How was I going to pack all this stuff up on my own?  (Where were you Sarah?!)  Well, thankfully there are observant, kind people in the world.  There was this lady with her family sitting not too far away from me and she could tell I was struggling so she came over to help me.  In fact, everyone that was with her came over to peek at Zoe and then helped me pack up.  I was a touch embarrassed but completely grateful!  I think what I realized from the experience was that I can't do THAT again (at least not by myself).  And thank goodness for thoughtful people in the world!

Anywho, here are a few fun pics I managed to snap while we were there.

I will say that since that day I have been trying to be extra careful with listening to myself and my body and my crazy hormones.  Although the kids had a great time, I felt overwhelmed.  So, I guess I need to remember to take this whole transition a day at a time.  I am thinking once the boys start school next week, it might be a little easier to leave the house with just the two girls.  So, I suppose I have that to look forward to (and that is what I will tell myself so I don't cry too much over the boys leaving for school!!!  My babies!!  Help me be strong!).

Zoe's 4-Day-Old Photo Shoot

I decided while Zoe was still pretty fresh that I would do a newborn photo-shoot with her (4 days old). The beautiful thing about living out East is the gorgeous weather we get. So, I got to do my very first OUTDOOR newborn photo-shoot!  Yeay!   And right in my ghetto backyard too!  There are a few random flower pots just hanging out (thanks landlord), so I thought I'd put them to good use.  Here's my very own little "flower," Zoe.

The First Week

Zoe's first week has gone by pretty fast.  The first few days were fun trying to get her sleeping schedule in order, but honestly she has had five consistent days of sleeping through the night.  I am talking 6-8 hours of sleep at a time.  I've been a bit of a Nazi trying to keep her awake during the day and with getting her schedule into place, so I'm not too surprised, but then again, I am really hoping that this schedule sticks!  I think Heavenly Father pushed the "blessing" button after my nightmarish hospital experience.  Haha!  The problem is, while Zoe and every one else is sleeping peacefully, my body clock wants to wake up at 4am and stay awake because my milk hasn't regulated yet and I keep having cold-sweats.  Oh those lovely hormones.  Then I keep anticipating that she'll wake up any minute so don't bother trying to go back to sleep, but no.  She keeps sleeping later and later.  It sounds too good to be true, but I am hoping it continues on this way.  And that I start sleeping right along with everyone else!  Let's cross our fingers....

And you'll never guess whose hand is holding Zoe's in the picture above.  Noah has been Zoe's little buddy the day she got home.  If she cries, he's right there holding her hand making sure she's happy, "It's okay Zoe.  It's okay.  Noah is here.  It's your brother."  Or he'll sing her a song.  His go-to is "I Am a Child of God."  But it's cute because she will listen and be content around him.  Although Jackson and Ellie show interest and love her to bits, Noah's sensitive little heart is all over that little girl.  I love watching those sweet moments! Ellie shows her interest by asking LOTS of questions like a good two and a half year old does.  "Mere's Zoe?  She's sweeping?  Wight dewr?  Mere's Mommy?  Mommy's feeding Zoe?"  And it goes on and on and on....  She always wants to hold her hand and sing songs to her and sit in her baby swing.  Thankfully she shows no aggression.  At least not to her.  She has a baby doll, on the other hand, that gets beat up pretty bad.  "Oh no, baby Belle fall down the stairs!  She's so sad!" as she pushes her doll down the stairs or hauls her over the banister.  Hmmmm.... Should I be worried?  Haha!  Jax plays more of the guardian part.  He makes sure she is safe and content.  "No Ellie, the swing is for Zoe, not for you.  You're too big!  Mom, Ellie's sitting in Zoe's swing again!"  And if she is crying, he let's me know (as though I can't hear her myself.  Haha!).  It must be a five year old thing to relay ALL information verbally.  Just in case.

I have found in my thankful heart that the more babies I have the quicker I heal up.  I have been trying not to over-do it, but the fact of the matter is, I am still a Mom and still have to do Mom-things, like register the boys for school (that's another post in and of itself).  Thankfully Joe has had a solid week to be with me and help me before he starts school.  I don't think I would have survived this week without him.  Because he's been here, he's been able to help out with the chores I normally do AND I've had a few chances to escape the house and be by myself.  By MYSELF!  Unheard of.  School starts in two days, so this will be an interesting change!  That being said, one of the items of business on my to-do list was back-to-school haircuts!  So everyone, including Ellie, got their hair trimmed!  I don't know how my hair-dressing SIL's do it, because I was exhausted by the time I got through everyone.  This is being documented because this is Ellie's "real" first hair cut.  I've trimmed it here and there before to even it out (maybe three times), but this is the first I've tried to actually cut her hair and give it some shape (thanks to Tarilyn and her helpful hints!).  Unfortunately with this child I had a good solid three minutes before she was DONE!  So, ...thankfully she has curly hair so you can't really tell if I did a good or bad job.  Haha!  (p.s. She also has a cold, which is why she looks so enthused in this pic.  Haha!).

Here's an after-shot.  I kind of forgot to do a before.  Woops.  I'm just glad I didn't cut all the curl out of her hair.
On day six we all had a decent night's sleep and I was feeling up-to-par physically to have a family outing at... NIAGRA FALLS!! It's only a 40 minute drive from our place which is awesome because I want to go again and again.  It is so beautiful and majestic! I kind of had a pit in stomach when I first saw the Falls because of how powerful the water is and the thought of how not-in-control I would be if I so happened to fall in. Crazy! Anywho, it was gorgeous and I can't wait to go again (next time I will bring a picnic lunch. Line ups for food were too crazy as you can tell by how many tourists were there on a Thursday afternoon. Sheesh!).
This was Joe practically the whole time. I was very unpopular that day for some reason and everyone wanted to hold Daddy's hand. Haha! It was funny to watch. We got a lot of comments that day of course with FOUR whole kids and a baby that was NOT EVEN A WEEK OLD! Apparently it's unheard of.  I wonder what kind of comments our parents must have gotten on a daily basis!

We were a bit on the ambitious side and figured since the boarder was RIGHT there that we would cross over and get a bit of shopping in. To my luck, there was a Target and TJ-Maxx 15 minutes past the boarder. Hallelujah! But on our way back later that evening it was NOT so easy to get back into Canada. We breezed into the States, and then it took us over an hour to get back. After a long day with four kids in the car, we were ready for the day to be done. IIIII was ready for it to be done. Haha!  Thankfully Zoe was an angel.  That, I can be grateful for.  My pounding headache on the other hand, I will NOT be grateful for.  I'm thinking it might be the after-effects of my epidural.  I've had a decent headache for the last four days straight and it's getting old....

Anywho, I'd say on a general note that the first week of Zoe's life has been adventure-filled and kind of a breeze compared to my other kids.  There's the whole first few days of nursing and healing and lack of sleep that I can't include, but she is seriously so content and so easy and each day gets a little better/easier.  Maybe it's because I have a better idea of what I am doing and am trying what has worked with the other kids on her.  Thankfully whatever I did in the past is working on her too.  Sigh!  Also, Jenny just had a baby a couple months ago so I can ask her ALL the questions I forget and she can remind me what I did (and what she did), because my Mom-brain doesn't retain a lot of information anymore these days.  Or ever.  Haha!  But I will say, I think it is also nice to have kids that are a little older and can be helpful.  The spacing between Ellie and Zoe is the longest I've gone (2.5 years apart) and I think it has made a tremendous difference!

I also did a photo-shoot with Zoe at four days.  My back ached for the rest of the day from bending over to shoot, but it was worth it!  Those are next to come!

It's a... GIRL!

Zoe Amelia Burnham was born August 17, 2012 at 3:00am weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 14oz and just over 20 inches long.  She must have felt bad for me after my last excerpt or she just really loves when I blog and couldn't stand not giving me something exciting to blog about!

The story begins here:  The day after my due date, I decided I needed to just plan doing fun things, instead of "waiting" for baby to come.  So we spent the day at the beach near our house and had a fun and relaxing day playing (basically my way of distracting myself).
We even talked about maybe checking out Niagra Falls the following day.  After the beach, I realized that I needed to be real about the idea of being overdue and knew I was running low on diclectin.  Dun!  Dun!  DUNNNNNN!  (I only had enough for another couple days---I guess when I bought the amount I did I was hoping I wouldn't be THAT overdue) AND I still didn't have a family doctor, so it was time to take care of that.  By the time I got home and walked in the house I felt a little "gushy" down there, but it was a hot day and I was wearing really tight jean shorts so it was hard to say.  I went to the bathroom and TRICKLE!  My water was breaking!!!  Saying that I was overjoyed would be an understatement.  I did a sing-song-scream/dance right there on the spot!  ...and then I got a pad.

Being as how we just moved here, we had a few people from church volunteer to watch our kids.  The problem with your water breaking at 5pm is that no one is available.  Haha!  It took us about an hour to finally line up a few people to take care of our kids so we could take care of this baby!  So, we dropped our kids off at the Cantrell's (Julie was throwing a birthday party for her husband.  Sorry.  Talk about burdening people), and then we were off.  Kind of.  We still had to get gas if we wanted to make it to the hospital and THEN there was the issue of rush-hour traffic on the 403!!!  Oh my goodness.  We were at a crawling pace for the next 30 minutes and my contractions were starting to come harder and closer together.  SCARY!  BUT... we made it.

When we got finally got there I had soaked through my pad and into my pants.  How lovely.  I gladly took one of the wheelchairs that were hanging out by the elevators and then wondered how many other people have soiled this chair?  Too late.  I'm already sitting down and my contractions are enough to make me not want to walk anymore.  Well, since my water broke, they admitted us right away and discovered I was only 3cm along.  Haha!  All that worrying about getting to the hospital.  You can bet Joe teased me about it.  Don't worry.  I gave him a few slugs over the course of the evening.  I made sure to let the nurse know upfront how important it was for me that I get an epidural stat.  I know I am only at 3cm, but when I had Ellie I went from 5-10cm in fifteen minutes.  Mind you, I was also topped up on oxytocin, but the nurse doesn't need to know that minor detail.  I also knew that if I didn't fuel my body before getting my epidural, I would go into shock and get the shakes like I did with Jax.  And NO, I didn't barf it up people.  (And yes, I STILL went into shock and got the shakes anyway).

Well, I was admitted at 7pm, got my epidural at about 10pm and tried to catch some z's and read a little bit until about 2am.  Since the epidural slowed my progression, they of course gave me oxytocin (like they do every time with me), but they also put my epidural levels really low since my contractions weren't super strong and I was still progressing.  Like I said, around 2am I started to feel something.  The nurse told me about a "Happy-Button" that I should press that would release more of my epidural if I felt any pain.  So, I pushed it.  About a half hour later, I was still feeling the progress.  Not so much my contractions as I was feeling the head drop into place and efface me and it was NOT pleasant.  At this point I still had not had an internal since I had been admitted at 7pm so I really didn't know how far along I was.  The last time the nurse came in she told me the doctor would be in shortly to come check me out.  Well, that was about an hour ago and still no doc.  I told myself to be patient.  They would come.  Don't be that annoying patient.  So, I decided maybe to read a chapter of scriptures and if they still weren't here by the time I finished to just press the call-button.  Well, I made it through about one verse before I felt like, "NO.  I need to press that call button NOW!"  Good thing I did.  I knew deep down I was really close if not there because my body started to go into shock like it did with Jackson when I was ready to push.  The doc came in right away and told me I was 9 and 3/4cm along. At this point I turned to Joe and said, "boy or girl, final guess?"  And he returned the question, to which I responded, "GIRL!"  I never did get a response from him, probably because the doc broke the rest of my waters while she was checking me and in about 30 seconds I was ready to push.   In the past, all I have really felt is the need to poop when it came to pushing.  Well, my epidural was still on too low, so although I didn't feel my contractions leading up to the pushing, I felt EVERYTHING pushing this baby out!  I was a bit delirious and shaky and scared.  The whole purpose of the epidural and me being so insistent on getting one asap was so that at this moment I wouldn't have to feel what I did.  Well, I probably looked like all those ladies in the movies trying to push a baby out.  Whimpering and partially screaming and grunting and panting.  Not the prettiest picture, but thankfully it was quick.  I asked for a mirror to see the progress and I'm glad I did because it really helped.  This was about the only moment where I thought, "you know, not knowing the gender makes this part pretty exciting."  Only a slight distraction from the pain.  In one push the head was out and in another the whole body SPA-LOOSHED out.  Those poor doctors.  Joe even enjoyed some amniotic fluid on his shorts.  Speaking of which, Joe was a major help when it came down to it.  Usually he is strong and silent during this time, but I really needed him as a support/coach since I was in so much pain.  He was so good at helping me breathe through everything and holding my hand to steady me through my shaking.  It was down-right romantic if you ask me.  Before I knew it, they announced, "It's a GIRL!"  I knew it!  They rested her on my tummy and my first thought was, "she looks just like Ellie."  We looked at each other while Joe said, "So, is it Zoe Amelia?"  We had considered Jane as a middle name, which I still love, but Amelia just had so much more sentimental value.  It is Joe's Great-Grandma's name AND one of my best friend's names whom I love and look up to.  Plus, it's just a darn beautiful name, we even considered it as a first.  We also considered saving it in case we had another girl down the road, but there are no guarantees there.  So, Zoe Amelia it was.
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur.  I ended up snuggling Zoe beside me in my birthing bed until about 6am when the nurses came in and pricked the daylights out of her heel over the next couple hours.  I felt so bad.  All because I didn't do a follow up gestational diabetes test.  Apparently here in Ontario the ultrasound I took at 37 weeks wasn't enough of a follow-up answer, so they had to do blood test after blood test on her and I felt so bad.  She's got all these pokes in her heels!  I figure she'll forget the pain when she's older.  I would not have forgotten puking up orange drink and fasting for 12 hours.  Is that a good enough justification?  I'm such a nice Mom.  Anywho, Joe went home to spell off our babysitter (Jennifer Bootland) and to rest/take care of the kids.  They came back to visit me just before lunch where the nurse announced that there was a room that had opened up for me.  Yeay!
The crappy part about this story is now that neither of us has jobs and we're living on a student-salary, we had to do a shared-room.  Looking back on it now (and during that night) I would have paid anything for a private room.  But at the time I thought, "it'll just be one really bad night.  I can do that."  Well, those tough thoughts left me the second that Joe and the kids went home to have lunch.  I cried.  I have no family here.  No visitors.  And there's nothing warming nor inviting about this room I get to share with three other women that I don't know.  Long story short (too late!), I had one of the worst nights of my life.  The whole day, I was so restless, but too sore to do much of anything about it and I was too tired to read, and it was too loud/too many disruptions to get much sleep, not to mention my cold sweats kept waking me up, and my phone was dying, so I couldn't even really call anyone because I had to save the battery life to get ahold of Joe in the morning, etc.  I begged Joe at the end of the day to come visit me before the dreaded night came.  So, he found a sitter and came for a couple hours, bringing me wonderful things like his Ipad to play on and a power cable for the phone among other distractions.  While he was there, another wonderful thing happened.  I had a bowel movement.  A glorious accomplishment at this stage!  Having four kids means you heal up WAY faster, so this poop was just one more thing out of the way that I didn't need to worry about.  Until Joe left and I had the WHOLE sleepless night ahead of me to worry about.   From 11pm until about 2am, one of my neighbors was up with their baby/talking on the phone (she was asleep ALL day, so I should have seen this coming).  But come on!  Talking on the PHONE?!  Don't you know people are trying to sleep?!  Well, the gal next to me was snoring louder than Joe ever has and I was so jealous that she could sleep through all this.  Then by the time Zoe woke up to eat, it was around 2am, ...and she did NOT want to go back to sleep.  In fact, every time she seemed settled I would put her down and just barely get comfortable again for her to wake up, which means she was waking every one else up in the room.  If I had a private room, I would have let her cry.  But I couldn't here!  Not with other people trying to sleep.  Sigh.  Finally at 4am, the kindest nurse in the world took Zoe to the nursery so I could get some sleep in.  The second she left with Zoe, ...another baby started to cry.  And then, so did I.  Haha!  Like I said, one of the worst nights of my life.  Well, I eventually dozed off out of exhaustion.  But 6:30am came, and I knew I had a baby to feed in the nursery down the hall.  (This really isn't a short story at all).  The day-time nurse who took over that morning told me that here in Ontario you need to have a follow-up appointment with your family doctor the following day or they will not release me.  WHAT?!  Well, good thing I found a doc the DAY I went into labor.  Problem is, it was Saturday and most clinics are closed over the weekend.  A sudden pit entered my body and I wanted to DIE at the thought of staying here yet another night.  Thankfully Joe looked into it and I was able to get away with taking Zoe to a walk-in clinic where my family doc works, so with a sigh of relief they said Zoe could go!  Yeay!  She has been discharged!  But wait.  The doc on call still needed to see ME, and discharge ME.  They were supposed to come by 9am.  Thank goodness.  Well, noon happened.  They should be here no later than noon.  Just stick around!  Don't go far or you might miss them!  Well, I stayed in that darn curtained cubicle ALL day until 3pm when finally... FINALLY the resident doctor came to see me.  She talked to me for 2 minutes, checked my tummy and then said I could go.  That was ALL she needed to do.  ALL DAY!  Joe joked to me that it's like a church-calling.  You have to learn how to love the hospital first, and then they will release you.  Haha!
It was too good to be true seeing Joe and the kids come down that hallway ready to take me away!  Like a dream!  We piled into the car and I could not stop smiling!  We could finally be a family again in a comfortable place AND... I could sleep.  So that's just what I did.


Welcome home Zoe!

My Due Date

Due dates are a wonderful and awful thing.  You look forward to it for nine months and then when the day comes and goes you want to kill yourself because the baby is still not here.  I know I still have SOME of the day left over, but the odds are NOT good for me.  Two out of the three of my kids have been overdue babies, leaving me to assume that this one will be just as stubborn and decide to hang out in that cozy womb for as long as it can just to irritate me.  Sounds like a girl to me.  At first this morning I was eager and excited because I woke up with heavy contractions that were about ten to fifteen minutes apart.  Some of them were even a couple minutes apart.  Mind you, I've been feeling these for the last couple weeks, and more especially the last few days REALLY intensely.  It got to the point where I was just about to start timing them because they were coming one on top of the other.  Woohoo!  Well, as soon as I thought that, they totally spread out.  Dang it.  So, I took the kids on a walk to the park near our place, which brought them on again (and I almost toppled over from a dizzy spell.  It was weird and I'm glad I didn't because I was all by myself with all three kids.  Not a good thing).  I took it easy at the park and just sat in the shade (I didn't want any more of those dizzy spells) and read a book.  And then Joe showed up with a grand plan to go ride bikes and have a picnic at Bronte Park.  It sounded like a fun idea, ...but it cost way too much once we arrived, so we tried to find another park nearby and didn't have a ton of luck.  I mean, we found one, but it was deserted and there was NO shade to be found anywhere.  It is easily over 30 degrees here, so I was very uncomfortable and kept getting dizzy and cloudy-headed.  Weird, ...and annoying.  All the kids were crying within about five minutes of being there and my day just plummeted.  I am SO done.  And so grumpy.  I needed a break from the kids and from the heat so after about 15 minutes of trying to have fun, we just decided to go.  Well, it was mostly my decision.  Grumpy-Mom = boss.  Joe understandingly took the kids so I could go Mall-walking!  Yes.  Like an old person, okay!  I feel like I at least need to TRY to have this baby today and there was no way I was going to walk outside anymore (hearing me say that makes me cringe.  I love being outdoors.  Pregnancy ruins everything).  Well, I was being passed by all the old ladies and was getting annoyed from all the obvious stares (stop looking at me!  I know I have a watermelon as a tummy!  Leave me alone!).  I didn't last long.  Not only was I super sore from walking, I just got sick of being in public.  There comes a time in your pregnancy when you just want to be a hermit so people won't talk to you, "when are you due?  Wow!  Yes, it DOES look like your ready to pop!"   

Yes.  I know.

So here I am back at home.  Sitting on my couch in the AC.  Willing the day to just pass me by because I know the baby will not come when I want it to.  Such a sad reality.  And I do this to myself every time.  I get excited about the possibility of having this baby and then the day is over and nothing.  And then I am depressed.  How can I be positive when I know that tomorrow will be my first day of being OVER-due?  I tried to not get my hopes up because yesterday at my appointment with my Obgyn, she checked me and I have only come along one more centimeter since week THIRTY-SEVEN.  So now I am sitting at a whopping 2cm.  Albeit a THIN 2cm.  Usually my cervix is quite thick at this stage because it never thins on its own, but alas, it is thin, ...giving me a little hope.  But not enough.  No.  Not even the fact that she stripped my membranes gives me hope anymore.  So, I shall remain grumpy basically until I have this baby I've decided.  In fact, I will not even post until I have a baby in my arms.  There.  Look at me being defiant.  Take that baby!

It's Time

On August 15, I will officially be nine months pregnant. I've been trying to do things that will make the baby feel like it can come now.  We finally have a car seat, have set up the room - crib and all, have an Obgyn and hospital, have a few people lined up to watch the kids when we go into the hospital, etc.  Heck, I even did the baby's laundry and refolded everything and got my "hospital bag" kind of organized.  BUT, if this child is anything like Ellie, I figured we needed to do a photo-shoot together. Maybe it's waiting to be "captured" before it comes. I DID do a photo-shoot with all of my other babies while in-womb, so I guess I shouldn't leave this one out. The difference is, I had them taken between months 6-8 when I was still relatively cute looking and not massive.  I am literally the biggest I have ever been and it's not the funnest nor most comfortable feeling.  I have been able to stay at 169 over the last few weeks (in fact, I lost 0.2 lbs at my last appointment.  Victory!  I think it's because my feet may have been a little LESS-swollen that day but I can guarantee you I gained it back by that very evening).  I am afraid that if I make it to my next appointment I will get on that scale and I will breach the 170's!   Shock and awe!  Haha!  Anywho, Joe and I took the kids out to Ontario Lake at one of the many Look-Out points by our place and had a mini-photoshoot.  I decided not to bother touching anything up, ...mostly because I am lazy and tired.  But I think Joe did a pretty good job as photographer.
 


Joe got to be a model too. Look at those baby-blues.  I keep asking him to give me a child with blue eyes, but alas, he has yet to pay up.  Since he was using my 50mm lens on manual I would have him sit where I was sitting and set the lighting and then we would switch places and he would snap away. Haha! Beats paying someone I guess.  What a fierce look.  Or he's mad at me?  I paid him in kisses though!  Can't say I would do that for just anyone.... While we were snapping, we brought popscicles for the kids and let them run around, throw rocks into the water and search for sea shells. It is such a beautiful place! Now for my nine-month update (technically it's four days away):  I hope I don't make it to my due date, but I know by now that it is a waste to wish for that.  The saddest reality is that HERE they won't induce me until my 42 week if I go over.  Watch that be my luck!  However, last night after making avocado and mango salsa with Joe for our date-night, I was up between 1:30-5am with HEAVY contractions (was it the jalepenos?).  I thought to myself, "this is it!  Thank goodness...."  I decided to wait a while before waking up Joe.  No point in us both losing sleep.  I would time the contractions myself just to make sure.  I knew they were "real" ones because I've done this before.  They were so painful I couldn't move and I was actually quite amazed that Joe could sleep through my whimpering.  Haha!  So I got my iphone out and started to time them, but nothing was consistent which was really annoying.  Just a lot of random, really painful contractions.  Well, after a couple hours of that I finally dozed off, meaning, they went away and I lost a lot of sleep over nothing.  Bummer.  But I will count my blessings because tonight Joe and I have planned a date-night (babysitter and all) so we can go out and celebrate his birthday that never really happened.  Maybe my water can just break at church tomorrow.  Please bless.