Grab a cup of coffee and settle in, folks. This is a long one.

Whoops! Sorry to leave everyone hanging! The full story will come later (hopefully this evening or tomorrow) but here is the long and short of it:

Eliza Claire was born at approximately 4:43 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27th, delivered by Daddy because the midwives did not make it in time!!!! She weighed 7 lbs., 9 oz. and was 19" long (finally my short genes caught up with us).

As you can imagine it is quite the story and I'm working on it as we speak, in between taking care of this lovely new little girl.

In the meantime, please enjoy a picture to tide you over. Due to the circumstances surrounding her birth we did not get any pictures until much later in the day! I haven't been able to get a really good one where she's not looking off to the side but I will keep trying and post more when I have them.

P.S. -- If anyone is reading this entry who feels I should've called to announce her birth to you in person, my apologies. The whole situation really turned us on our ears as we were obviously not planning an unattended home birth and then there was a cascade reaction of circumstances after that, including an ambulance ride and an overnight hospital stay. Eliza was very needy all day yesterday, in addition, so we just haven't gotten to a lot of the stuff we'd planned to do, which includes phoning people to let them know she's here!

Things are moving along pretty well. They've really picked up just in the past 35 minutes or so. Will be calling the midwife back soon.

Oh, and also: owie.

The contractions have spaced out now but they are still about the same in intensity. They knocked off completely for about thirty minutes at one point but then started up again on their own. Of course, I have no idea how this all works but I really can't see it stopping altogether now that it's been going along like this for over six hours. It just may take a while. I really don't know what to expect, though. I had pitocin in the hospital both times, even the first time, when I had already started labor on my own, so I have no experience with how labor progresses without the extra drug kick. I'm hoping it's a good sign that they began again on their own after taking that break. Hopefully if this wasn't really "it" they'd have stayed gone. It seems like most people I know who have false alarms have contractions for a while and then stop; they don't keep starting and stopping again all day long.

I can hope, anyway.

Something's happening, folks.

We're either at "go" time or I will be back here later today wailing and moaning about a false alarm. (Which, I'd like to point out, I've never had before in my life.)

I'm about to wake Robert up and get him started on the last-minute cleaning, just in case. I am supposed to go to the city today for an appointment with the midwife but it just may be she ends up coming here, instead!

Will keep updating.....

I think I have officially done everything that I could possibly do to prepare. Last night I even opened the two-pack of pacifiers and boiled them. To give you a point of reference, this was more than likely completely unnecessary. Both of my other babies refused pacifiers of any type and I have no reason to expect this one to be any different. But we're ready to go, just in case. The swing is also set up, the bed's been set up for over a week, all the clothes, burp cloths and blankets are washed and put away. The pocket in my nursing pillow has the necessary supplies in it. The diaper bag is packed with the necessities for our first outing. I dug through the boxes of still-unpacked knicknacks in my closet and found my statue of Heket, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, who accompanied me to the hospital and hung out on my i.v. stand the previous two times. I am DONE getting ready. I can't think of another thing I could possibly do.

Any time now, kid.

If someone could please explain to me my obsession with bags, I'd be most appreciative.

I love bags. Not just handbags but luggage, tote bags, messenger bags -- anything that enables me to carry along all the things I feel I may need in whatever situation I plan to be. I posted the other week about ordering a lumbar pack (click here to see the particular one I got. Mine is pink.) Well, it showed up this morning and I spent a good fifteen minutes checking it out, examining it, and, finally, experimentally putting various items in it to see if they fit and planning out exactly where everything would go when I actually use it. (Which, I should point out, is still TWO MONTHS off.)

It's an illness, I tell you.

The love of bags, for me, isn't even really about looks. I don't match them to my shoes or my outfits; I don't care about having designer ones, either. Sure, I want the ones I have to be attractive but it's more about function for me. You see, I'm unhealthily concerned with being prepared, at all times. I was a Boy Scout in a former life, I think. I would no more consider leaving the house (except to make a school run) without my purse full o' supplies than I would consider going out without clothing. You name an eventuality and I will probably have something in my purse to take care of it. The way I see it is, isn't it better to have, for example, plastic baggies in one's purse and not need them than to find oneself in a situation where it's just what you need but you don't have one?

It's not like I'm carrying around twelve pounds of lead buckshot or anything, either. All the things I pack along with me are small and lightweight. Take the drugs, for example. On any given day I have extra-strength Tylenol, Excedrin and Imodium AD in my purse, along with decongestant nasal spray. They take up very little room, weigh next to nothing, and, let's be honest here, would YOU want to find yourself in a situation where you could really, really use some Imodium AD and not be able to get any? I think not!

"So what does a weirdo like you do in the situations where toting an enormous handbag is not practical?" you may be asking. (Even if you weren't asking I'm going to tell you anyway.) Well, I do have the ability to scale down the production. Let's say we're going to be spending the day walking around some event. I have smaller purses of the type you can sling across your chest and one shoulder to be hands-free. Instead of an entire bottle of Tylenol, et. al., I take a few pills of each and put them in a baggie. I have travel brushes which fold up into almost nothing, rather than the full-sized brush I usually carry. I take a few pieces of gum out of the pack and take just those. You get the drift. This is what I will be doing with the lumbar pack when I use it at Abbey Road on the River. It also helps that the festival is on the actual grounds of the hotel, which means if I need something I don't have on hand it's just a matter of dashing up to the room to get it. Knowing that I have fairly easy access to the stuff I might need goes a long way toward making me less obsessive about having it on my actual person. It's just when I get in a place where I don't know what's available that I get a titch anxious.

I wonder what a psychologist would have to say about this particular hangup? I figure it must say something about me that one of the reasons I was so excited to get a conversion van was because it's got cupboards, honest-to-God cupboards in it, enabling me to really stock up on "may need" items for about any situation you could conjure. Perhaps it's my way of trying to bring order to chaos, which is a bit troubling. Either I'm neurotic, or I'm a Borg.

I'm still here....still pregnant.....still waiting.

I know I must seem like a big whiner for complaining about her not having arrived yet. After all, my due date isn't even for another 10 days. This is a different situation for me this time, though. I have never had to wait like this, not knowing when the baby would come. By this time with both the other pregnancies we had inductions scheduled. Now, Madalyn didn't make her induction date but I didn't know she was going to arrive early so I was focused on the date we had set. Johnny had a date set and we actually made it to that date. I have never before been sitting around at 38.5 weeks having NO idea when to expect the baby to be in my arms. It could be tomorrow and it could be another two weeks from now. *Sob* (Have I mentioned I'm a really big planner? Uncertainty and tentative plans don't suit me well.) I'm thoroughly convinced this is the right way to do things this time, so I'm not complaining; it's just different to deal with, is all.

I know that a lot of women are fed up with being pregnant by this stage because they are physically uncomfortable. Strangely enough that doesn't really figure into it much with me. I did just tell Robert last night I miss lying on my tummy. However, I honestly have felt better the past three weeks or so than I had since last summer, so it's not that I'm wanting her out because I'm miserable. I'm just bored. I'm bored with being pregnant and thinking about having a new baby. I want to have her here and get on to the fun stuff! Plus her arrival will be the first event in a virtual cascade of exciting happenings that stretch from now through the end of summer. I'm looking forward to getting that started.

So, ho-hum, that's what's going on here. Not much, in other words. I'm afraid my brain is rather consumed by this at the moment so I don't have much else to write about. The kids are out on Spring Break this week so we will all be hanging around the house a lot, attempting to not drive each other stark raving mad. I don't hold out much hope for our success!

Make her due date, that is!

For quite some time now I've had the 23rd/24th stuck in my head as the approximate arrival date of the new little girl. (Due date is the 29th.) Now, whether this is a true premonition or simply wishful thinking remains to be seen. My midwife, who is a cruel, cruel woman, tells me that, psychologically, I'm better off expecting to go ten days over because then if I don't, I'm happy, and if I do go over I'm not as upset. This is not an option. I will NOT still be pregnant come April. If I am there's going to be some kind of lawsuit. (If anyone knows who one would sue for this sort of thing, please let me know.)

I suppose there's always a chance the baby could come even earlier than the dates upon which I'm focusing. This would not be a bad thing. She's full-term now; no reason why she can't come out and join us. I keep watching for signs that progress is being made. There are a few things going on with me, upon which I will not elaborate because this is a blog and not a medical journal and there are just some things people do NOT need to know. But these things make me wonder if maybe it will happen sooner rather than later. I don't remember these things happening the first two times. However, I probably was not as vigilant before, either, as I did not expect to go into labor naturally either time. (We had inductions scheduled with both kids, though Madalyn didn't make her induction date.) Anyway, because I figured we were controlling things I was not really keeping an eye out for imminent labor signs so I may have just missed the things I am now picking up on.

At any rate, she is more than welcome to come any old time now, save for the days next week when Robert is gone up to the panhandle. After those days he's got several weeks off so then we're really in the clear for her to arrive any time. But I certainly would not be opposed to her making an appearance this week, just so long as it actually begins before Robert heads north. He would, of course, head for home immediately if anything began to happen but it's a long drive and I don't want the two of them racing to see who gets here first.

I'm off to go jump up and down a lot or run up and down the hill out back or something.

I've never been accused of being hip and/or happening but I've always tried to embrace some sort of standards. However, age and motherhood and laziness and necessity have all combined to cause me to do progressively more dorky things as time has gone along.

Case in point: I'm about to order a fanny pack.

Now, granted, it's not the kind of fanny pack that might immediately spring to mind; the kind that was "in" back in the 90s and is still sported by tropical-shirt-clad, polyester-shorts-wearing tourists. It is what is now referred to as a "lumbar pack" and is actually worn in the fanny region rather than hanging off the front like a 450-denier kangaroo's pouch. It's larger, more square in shape and looks fairly sporty.

Also, I don't intend the thing for everyday use. I have a very specific need in mind: Abbey Road on the River. This, as you may recall, is a four-day indoor/outdoor Beatles music festival which I will be attending for the third year in a row at the end of May. I will have the baby with me and, for most of the time, she will be attached to me via a sling. Because she will be quite the load all on her own I need to keep my personal possessions to a minimum and also keep them as hands-free as possible. A backpack would be both too large and impractical, as I will already have the sling wrapped around me and would have to put a backpack on over that. In the same vein, a purse with a strap that goes across the chest wouldn't work, either. So this is really the best option. I should be able to fit all my essentials in the pack along with wipes and a couple extra diapers and we'll be all set.

I will continue to be vigilant, though. If I find myself being seized by the urge to wear socks with flip-flops, appropriate action will be taken. I have to draw the line somewhere.

Total Choice Hosting, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to suspend my account because of "a billing problem". Yeah, there was a problem, alright -- they never emailed me and let me know the server costs were due, nor did they ever email me and let me know they had suspended the account. I only found out when I tried to sign on to blog. I had to go ferret around and find out for myself what had happened and then it took them a day to turn the stinkin' thing back on. I have no idea what happened there as I renewed last year with no problem. They sent an email, I paid it, no interruption of service. Normally it would've just been an annoyance but, having never had this happen before, I was in a panic that all my data had disappeared. It appears to be safe and sound, though, and I've learned a valuable lesson -- do weekly backups of all entries, just in case!

At any rate, we're back in business. There are numerous things to report but I will save them for later as I'm currently being called on my promise to let John-Zachary play at Noggin.com.