Eureka! We shall name her...

Yay, we have a name! How appropriate for our little Spring baby. I put together these graphics to show how I feel when I say it.

Annie-Come-Lately

Today's the due date. Where's Annie? Sitting comfortably in the womb. But we're not in a hurry anymore. Because as they say, "a watched birth-canal never delivers."

As you may have read previously, Kara's blood pressure was high for a while and there was talk of inducing her. It culminated Sunday afternoon when her blood pressure reached 157/95. This is quite high and it made us nervous. So, after church (our service is at night), some of our friends prayed for Kara. Praise God, her blood pressure has been down ever since!!! We borrowed a portable blood pressure machine to keep tabs on it. And it has been around 125/80 consistently since Sunday night. Yesterday, we had a checkup at the ob/gyn and everything looked great. The doctor expressed his relief.

So, now that we're not worried, we can wait. Maybe the whole 15th or 18th thing (see "Babies are Neat") applies to May instead of April.

Feed the Brain, Get a Name

What's the best part about weekends? A nice breakfast. It may have been Kara and I's last Saturday morning breakfast as a family of two. Surely, Anna will come before next weekend, right? So, we stopped by one of our favorite breakfast joints after sleeping in until 10:30 (another last), called Half Day Cafe. Kara likes to peruse the menu before making final decisions. But to me it's always obvious. Hopefully the picture conveys how much I love pancakes and coffee.

With all that sleep and carbs, we were hoping to have some inspiration for a middle name. So far, it's Anna "blankerton" Miller. Fill in the blankerton. For a while it was Claire, which we still like. But since Anna is fairly common, it would be nice to have a more original middle name. Based on video game and ninja influences, I think we should go with "Katana". It didn't fly with the wife. We need something soon. Suggestions?

GUESS WHAT!

If you guessed that we haven't had the baby yet, then you're right. Although she may be good at unborn dream communication, our baby was a bit off on her predicted due date, as the 18th has come and gone. Even natural inducing didn't do the trick.

Kara is still doing well. The swelling in her feet has gone down a bit. Our official name for swollen feet is flinstones, as in Flinstone feet. Fortunately, there is one pair of shoes that still fit: her running shoes. Although, she won't be doing any running.

T Minus 1 Day

If Anna's prediction was right, Kara has a day left before delivery. That would be fine by us. We're ready to go.

Kara was a little bummed today. We had a prenatal visit and her blood pressure was a bit high. The doctor, who is a different one than we normally see, told Kara that if it continues to rise then they may have to induce labor. At this point Kara started to cry. The doctor, a woman by the way, immediately said, "oh no no no, I didn't mean to make you cry, ah poor thing..." And then she attempted to reassure us by saying it was just a possibility. To get an idea of why this possibility is upsetting: we attended Bradley classes for about 12 weeks. It was a general preparation that emphasized natural birth and how to handle it with help from the coach (me). But this scenario was so ingrained in us that we'd almost feel guilty deviating from it. And sometimes things don't happen as planned, and you don't want to feel guilty about it.

At any rate, it's not Kara's fault that her BP is up. She's been doing great eating right and exercising. It just happens with pregnancy sometimes. Fortunately, everything will be fine. I think it's WCS (white coat syndrome).

Babies Are Neat

Kara's about to pop! I expect a water leak any day now. She had a dream that Annie told her she was going to come on the 15th or 18th of April. Annie's brilliant - communicating telepathically at such a young age. So, today is the 15th and no contractions yet. Maybe it will be Wednesday. If not, then Annie was plain wrong about the date. Kara is officially due on the 25th.