Amy is feeling so good now. She can’t feel a thing and continually talks about how thankful she is for this epidural. They’ll eventually lessen the drugs when its time to push. Until then she’s been happy to just chill. We were kind of in a race (for guys, everything is a race or competition) to beat this woman down the hall, but just got word that we lost. Still everything seems to be moving well. Praise God. Thanks for all those who are ‘keeping score at home.’ My mom just showed up so we have a full house.

The midwife took a while to get here, but Amy was in such pain that we got the epidural going. It didn’t take too long and now she feels fine. She’s was actually talking on her cell with her brother a minute ago. The midwife has just broken her water and checked her dialation. She’s now a 6! I don’t know what that really means, other than those painful contractions actually did something (6 cm as opposed to 1 cm Amy’s been at for like 2 weeks!). The next best news is that she’s no longer in pain. Anathesia is pricey, but seeing your wife no longer in pain: priceless. The next best news after that: the midwife and doctor think the baby will be here before lunch time. I’m thinking they meant Easter Standard Time.

Its about 7:30 am now, and we are anxiously awaiting someone from the doctor’s office to come soon. Supposedly they should be here around now. The contractions are increasing in frequency and strength, so she’s pretty uncomfortable during them, obviously. We’re looking forward to someone breaking her water (if she’s dialated enough), and then get her the epidural. Pray she can hang on until then. Thanks! I’m proud of how she’s handled them so far.
She’s got some crushed ice to eat; I feel kind of bad since Randy brought by some of his famous cinnamon rolls.

We arrived as scheduled at Lakewood Ranch this morning. Actually we were a little ahead of time, coming in at 4:45 am instead. Both of us slept a combined total of 27 minutes last night. Amy had contractions most of the night, and I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway. So I helped time, then fell asleep for about 12 minutes before the 3:50 am alarm.

She’s been given the Pitosin and so that should increase the number and strength of contractions. Apparently they don’t want to give her the epidural until later, so that’s going to be hard for Amy. It might be a few hours before she gets the real drugs. It’s just before 6 am now, so we’ll see how long she can go. Apparently her cervix is still not very dialated. That’s what we’re pushing for now. Thanks for the prayers.

Well, we’re getting ready to head home. Its 10:15 pm. This is getting really fun. Baby is fine. Amy is fine, but frustrated. Hopefully the next time we head to the hospital, we’ll be leaving with a baby! Ours of course.

We are now in Triage C. We’ve been here like 4 times in a week! Amy had some leaking of fluids, which turned out to be nothing. And “Little T” wasn’t moving, or so we thought. He’s moving now but Amy can’t feel it. She’ll be hooked up to the NST until 10:15 pm, and then they’ll call the doctor about inducing. We are still scheduled at 5 am on Friday, and I’m a bit concerned about them keeping that time. Apparently there are no inducements on Thursday, their normal day of inducing, because of some stupid class. We’re thrilled. So we may be going home tonight around 10:30 pm. Little T is costing us some money! But he looks healthy so that’s what counts. Thanks for your prayers. I can’t give pictures because I forgot my connection thingy. Amy wasn’t too mad about that.

Well apparently 2 things are now certain: the internet at the hospital is working with my computer and Amy will be induced on Friday, instead of Thursday. It was a bit disheartening to push the inducement date one more day. But Friday morning at 5 am, the fun will start. Unless we get some bad news from the NST (apparently this time he/she’s too active for an easy reading, so we could be here a while), or Amy goes into labor beforehand (which I guess is theoretically possible since the doctor did all that he could to give the cervix a ‘workout’), Little T will have a new name on Friday.

We had our final, and possibly the best, movie discussion of the year (we run on the fiscal year here at Hope) on Sunday. The movie was Saved, a satire attacking a superficial, unloving Christianity. It was probably fairly accurate at a number of levels, which is probably what made it so funny. In the end it seemed to tear down the judgmental Christianity, only to replace it with a more universalistic theism. And again, the irony of it all, is that this replacement once again serves as a judgment against all those who don’t adhere to this universalistic individualistic belief structure. As Tim Keller in The Reason for God described it, every group has to by nature exclude someone.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie and agreed with many of the critiques. For instance, Pastor Skip, the principal, comes out doing a flip and calls for people to “come down” and rededicate themselves to Jesus after “backsliding the summer.” I’m not a fan of altar calls or re-dedication calls, because people just come on down and it never seems to make a difference. I can’t tell you how many youth I’ve seen come down one evening, and then nothing after that. Maybe you’ve had a different experience, but that’s been mine over the years. And of course I’ve come down several times for re-dedication or commitment (once might have been the point of conversion in elementary school, so I can’t completely blast the practice!) and personally haven’t seen it enable me to “carry my cross daily and follow after Jesus.”

Movies are going to express something true of the world, just like books or philosophers. That’s just part of being made in God’s image, according to the WCF we were created in “holiness, righteousness, and truth.” Of course sin enters into the picture, and concomitantly into the motion pictures, so sometimes we have to mine a little more carefully. But there is truth conveyed nonetheless and this movie turned out to be quite devotional: I was challenged to be more broken before others-the broken characters were the only characters in the movie we actually liked. It really taught me a lot about relationships.

Today was Memorial Day and we did what we always do on national holidays: painting or yardwork. We opted for the latter. Nothing like planting flowers, having your in-laws rake leaves, and mowing the grass to make for another memorable national holiday. Anything to take our minds of Little T’s late, but soon-to-be arrival.

While we were doing yardwork today, we got a chance to catch up with several neighbors. Which I guess is a good reason to do yardwork-though I don’t really like it (not them; I love my neighbors). I know, it shows. I fired first.

But as we raked, trimmed, planted, an unfamiliar mini-van pulled up. It was one of Amy’s kids, not driving of course, but he was a passenger. He came by to bring her a balloon, a card, and a plethora of hugs. It was very sweet. The mother spoke a lot of spanish, but for some reason “teacher” remained part of her spanglish. She actually spoke way more than I expected. She’d been by before for the Easter Outreach party.

I guess you know you’re a good teacher when your kindergarteners cry everyday you’re gone, and bring by balloons/cards/hugs. You know you’re missed. I guess the same thing could be said about any time you leave something/somewhere/someone. If you’re missed, you probably were a good _______. Please don’t read anything into this; I’m not going anywhere. It just shows me how much these kids AND their parents appreciated her for not only her hard work, but also her love. Justin is the hispanic kid in the picture, and was the bearer of the balloon.

Little T was being obstinate today. Either that or just really sleepy. Probably the latter. We went in this morning for ANOTHER NST (non-stress test). Unfortunately for us, Little T decided that moving around was no longer fun, like it was at 5 am this morning, and he refused to do so. Popsicles, apple juice, graham crackers, and the like did no good. So we had an ultra sound to check if everything was OK. The little joker didn’t move for that.

So they gave Amy some delicious hospital ham sandwiches and some beverages. About 30 minutes later he started moving. We were at the hospital for about 5 hours, but glad to be home now. I’m expecting more fun of the same variety on Tuesday, our next doctor’s appointment. This time we’re bringing Jolly Ranchers. Little T loves those things, and “shakes what his/her mama gave him” whenever Amy eats those.