Slow but Steady??

Well, here we are. about 4PM on Saturday. Still very little progress with the tablets, so they've started Monica on a pitocin drip to try to get things started. Nothing so far. This could take awhile. Meanwhile we are watching some olympics and playing cards with Monica's parents. Could be a few days...

But not before he's ready

First night done, they gave Monica a couple of tablets to get things going, but not much results so far. A few contractions (and a few more now) but still a ways to go I think. She's a little frustrated but they say it will take a while to talk her body into doing this when it isn't ready. Monica ordered room service and we are waiting for that to come. Should make her happier. Us misc significant others have to go down and pay for food.

That's it for now, here's a picture of Deuce all sad as we were leaving for the hospital and of us in the room

It's really gonna hatch!

It's Bryan, Friday night about 9:30 PM. We are all checked in and everything is well. Monica is hooked up to the baby telemetry system (aka monitor) and everything looks normal. They've started the process of induction but they have to go through a lengthy process, kind of easing her into it, so we should be able to sleep some through the night.

We'll post some updates as we go along!

Update

The amnio went well this morning but the results came back that his lungs aren't quite ready. So the new plan is to induce on Friday, 8pm. The midwives have warned me that the whole process could take up to 3 days (yikes!). So my job over then next few days is to rest and eat and stay prepared.

Change of plans!

We have news. Seems I have developed intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, a liver problem that causes bile salts to build up in my blood that cause itchiness all over my body, especially in my hands and feet, with no rash (weird!). But for the baby it's much worse - there's a higher risk of stillbirth if the pregnancy goes beyond 38 weeks and some other possible complications toward the end of the pregnancy. So my midwives and their doctors want to induce labor before then. I'm about 36 weeks now, and tomorrow morning (Wednesday, Feb 10) I'll go in for an amniocentesis to check our baby's lung development. If he's ready, they'll induce labor that night (~8pm)! Holy cow! This is a whole month early! If he's not ready, they'll wait up to a week to induce. So either way, he's coming early.

We found out about all of this a week ago today, and since then we've been in high gear to get everything done and ready. It is very strange to have it all scheduled - I'm a little disappointed I won't go into labor like normal and a bit nervous about being induced. I had planned to attempt a natural labor, and still will for as much as I can, but inducing a month early may make this more difficult. We'll see what happens, and regardless, we're very excited to have our baby sooner!

Anyway, we're doing fine, considering the change of plans. We'll know more tomorrow after the amnio - we'll try to post an update if we can.

Gifts of love, advice, and baby gear

We are so incredibly fortunate to have such wonderful, supporting, and generous friends and family in our lives. The advice and gifts that we've received have reminded us of the wonderful support group we have, and have considerably helped us to prepare for little Xerxes. Without your help, we would be no where near as ready as we are now and the overwhelming list and cost of things we need would weigh much heavier on our thoughts and wallets. Being soon-to-be new parents and living so far from either of our families, it has been very reassuring to have so much support from friends near and far - it warms our hearts to know you care so much. And even with the distances, the help we've received from family has been wonderfully generous and greatly appreciated - it makes you seem not so far away. With all our hearts, we thank you.

The Diaper Dilemma

Cloth Diaper Pros (+) and Cons (-):
(+) $$$. We can save hundreds to thousands of dollars if we use reusable diapers over disposables, even with the added cost of extra laundry, and especially if we have more kids after little Xerxes.
(-) We're going to have to use disposables anyway when little Xerxes is in daycare, so it's not like we're really getting the full financial benefit out of using cloth diapers.
(+) Greenest option. With reusables we aren't contributing to the tons of diapers in the landfills that take 500+ years to break down. Even biodegradable disposables that take something on the order of 50 days to decompose are still disposable, with higher carbon footprints both in production and disposal than reusables. And while cloth diapers do use up more water and electricity in order to wash them, it is not enough to move them out of the greenest option ranking.
(-) Time and convenience. No doubt, pulling a disposable out of the bag, putting it on the baby, and throwing away the dirty one is the most convenient way to go. Especially for new parents who both work, are overall not so organized, don't necessarily keep up with laundry and other chores as well as we could, and enjoy our down-time. And with reusable diapers we'll have to spend extra time getting the poop off the diaper, washing/drying the diapers in between uses, etc.
(+) Non-toxic. Disposable diapers, or at least most of them, are extremely toxic. It seems almost a given that Pedro will find a way to get to a diaper and eat it, whether it's when we forget to lock the baby gate or while we're frantically cleaning up a poop disaster and aren't paying attention or even straight off the baby's bottom when we aren't looking. And with disposables, it's kind of disconcerting to think that we'd be putting this toxic, chemical, incredibly not-natural thing on our baby all day, every day, for possibly the first 2 or so years of his life.
(-) Less effective. Cloth diapers can be bulky, some stay moist and don't wick moisture away from the baby's bottom, and some aren't as good at keeping messiness in. Also, some have an odor even after washing (or so I've heard). There is no perfect cloth diaper.
(+) Improved design. Cloth diapers have come a long way from the old days of a rectangle of material and diaper pins. These days reusable diapers can be very similar to disposables in appearance and use. There are styles that wick moisture away from the baby's bottom, even some that claim to prevent and treat diaper rash. I've only heard of the odor issue from competing cloth diaper companies (cotton is supposed to not keep an odor whereas fleece does?), though friends who have used fleece lined cloth diapers (which are better at wicking moisture away) swear by them as being the best and don't mention an odor issue. Many styles come with extra leg gussets to help hold in mess, and you can get a disposable biodegradable liner to "easily" remove poop. Also, I've seen little spray nozzles that can attach to the toilet for easy poop clean-up (better than swishing, I guess).

Did I miss anything?
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It's hard to say what is the better option for Bryan and I and our lifestyle, so our current plan is to start with disposables and gradually work in some reusable cloth diapers and go from there. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, especially from anyone who has used the biodegradable disposables, for which I've heard no balanced reviews from friends or online. We'll try to provide our thoughts and experiences too, once we have some dirty diapers to deal with. :)