sorry for the delay....

so i'll post the birth story soon, but for now we wanted to get some photos up. my intentions were to post blogs and pictures throughout the process, but who knew that providence hospital doesn't have wifi?! sorry for the hold up.


before drugs. at this point i was about 7 cm dilated:


people that don't get drugs on purpose are just retarded. i know for a fact, i've now done it both ways (and NOT on purpose)

introducing......talan cash skiver 4/9/07 12:22am 7lbs 3oz 21 1/4 inches



when talan was first born we were all surprised by how much he did NOT look like hayden (and me) but this picture is proving us wrong.

mommy and her boys

grandpa kellogg and the grandkids


taken this morning shortly before heading home

i'm unpacking

this has gotten quite ridiculous. after having some pretty consistent contractions friday nite and even some on saturday morning, there was been nothing. some typical contractions that don't hurt and aren't consistent. i've only got about a day left before i go into the dr. and he tells me to pick a date to be induced. not good.
i only want this thing to come out so badly because i DO NOT want to be induced. further explanation tells me that they'll have me come in one evening to give me some pill to soften my cervix and then the next day they start the pitosin. that's just not feasible for someone like me. i have panic attacks. i can't sleep in any bed other than my own. there is no way i'm going to be able to stay in a hospital for 2 or 3 nites. not gonna happen.
it's also quite frustrating after having zero indications that hayden was about to show himself to the world until 2 hours before he did and this one i was sure i'd be having it yesterday....and now, NOTHING.
i'm hoping this kid is just being difficult in the womb and when it pops out it will be the opposite of hayden. i can dream, huh?

my bags are packed

last nite i decided to clean the house and try to get things moving with this baby. i vacuumed and mopped and was even on the floor washing the baseboards. probably a little before 9pm i started having some contractions. but contractions that actually packed a little punch with them. not just the standard stomach tightening contractions. after awhile i decided to start timing them as they had been fairly consistent. they were about 8 minutes apart. at about 12:30 i decided to go to bed. maybe i shouldn't have, cuz i really didn't have many more after about 1am. i woke up this morning and after getting out of the shower i started feeling them again. i'm not sure that they are as consistent right now as they were last nite, but i have been having quite a few and they aren't the nicest feeling things in the world.
it's just such a difference between this and hayden. with hayden, i didn't feel contractions like these until about an hour before he was born and close to the time i started feeling like i wanted to push. so now i'm sitting here wondering....when in the world might this actually happen?! i don't like hospitals so i certainly don't want to get there any earlier than i have to.
many of you will be happy to know that last nite i partially packed a bag. i got all of hayden's easter stuff together so that if i end up in the hospital the family can know right where it all is and he can still have a somewhat normal easter. we even dyed our easter eggs this morning.
so at this point, i'm waiting for dave to take a shower and then we might go walk the mall (livonia mall, so if my water breaks nobody will be around). while we're walking most likely a big topic we will be discussing are names. we're doing better than we were at least. i think we're set on a boys name and we have 3 candidates that we can't decide on for a girl. maybe while walking the mall we'll just start yelling out the names and see what works best.

the deadline has been set

yesterday i went in for another ultrasound to check my fluid levels. dad said i could have done it a whole lot cheaper just going to jiffy lube and i think i agree. the fluid levels are even higher than they were when we went in on march 12th. mom and jessica went with me (mom cried, of course) and the ultrasound tech told them to stand clear of me if and when my water breaks cuz it's just gonna be a mess. here are some more photos of the baby at 39 1/2 weeks.


this is a picture of the baby's face. it is looking right at you. the tech stated once again that this baby has a lot of hair. big surprise.

this is the baby's arm and hand which is up over it's face:


today i went in to see my dr. for another non stress test since they are closed tomorrow. everything once again looked good, but again he had concern over the fluid level. he said that since the fluid levels are going up still he is giving me until my appointment on tuesday to go into labor and then we will have to induce. from there, i will probably be induced somewhere between tuesday and thursday all depending on the schedule. i REALLY don't want to be induced. and as much as i don't want to be in the hospital on easter, right now, i'll take anything other than being induced. he is just concerned that my water breaking at home is not the safest thing with all the extra fluid. and the longer that we wait, the more of a concern it is. so, we know that this baby will be born by a week from today.
dad is making me sit on garbage bags when i'm at their house so i don't ruin the furniture with what he calls my "tsunami." i'm just scared i'll be sitting in church on easter sunday and the flood gates will open. would make for an interesting story though....

39 weeks and 3 days.....but who's counting?!

i'm beginning to think my early delivery is not going to happen at this point. only 5 more days until my due date. and here's the thing. we have plans to go see blades of glory on easter nite. so that means, i need to go into labor in the next couple of days so i'm out in time for showtime. either that, or it has to wait until after the movie. and if it decides to come DURING the movie?! well that's just cause for switching kids in the hospital.
last friday i was in for another non-stress test. the baby was moving around like crazy. each time i go in they find the heartbeat on the opposite side. it's just constantly doing somersaults, i guess. so the whole time on the machine last week the baby was moving. i had to move the heart monitor 3 times because it kept moving off of it and it wasn't registering. i was in the office for about 2 hours because it just wasn't cooperating.
today was yet another non-stress test. but i was in and out very quickly. my dr. said that my baby has always looked "beautiful" on the machine. so it's doing well. just doesn't want to come out just yet. no real contractions while i was on the machine today. i have yet another ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow at 1pm for a fluid check. they just want to see if my fluid level is still high or if maybe it has gone down some. if it has gone down, they don't have to watch me as closely. but like he said, the ultrasound and results really won't hurt or help that much. i'll go in for another nst on friday and then another with my regular dr. next tuesday. on tuesday, if i make it, he'll check me to see how far i'm dilated. at that point he will talk to me about induction. he doesn't want to, and neither do i, but he said he doesn't want me to go much past 41 weeks even without the extra fluid. he said that induction with extra fluid is sometimes a really good thing because they can break the water in a controlled environment. but he does want to give my body as much of a chance as we can to do it on it's own. so if i do make it until tuesday, chances are, we'll have the baby a couple of days after that by induction. the nurse said that i looked like i dropped, so that's a good sign. and i keep remembering that with hayden, i really had no symptoms and then suddenly he was here. so i know that it could happen at anytime.
so that's the scoop. nothing really new. maybe we'll have a couple more pictures from the ultrasound tomorrow. i'm sure they won't look too different from the last ones. but i'll still post them.
until then....i'll be walking the streets of redford.

the office, and not the tv show, that's much funnier

the office is more or less done now. it was a huge project and dave managed to do almost the entire thing by himself. there is still some clean-up work to be done, but all in all, it looks great. here's the blow by blow:


i totally forgot to take a "before shot" so this is as before as you're gonna get. the studs are up:





here's some exciting shots of the drywall being put up:




and here are the photos of the finished product:

the nursery progress

so the nursery has pretty much been done for about a week or two now. but technology has been keeping me down. so at long last, here are all the photos of our progress.


here is what we had to deal with, painting white over DARK blue. i loved that room though, and will miss it:


safety always comes first with dave. lasers are dangerous:


top and bottom coats done after only 2 days:


dad's beautiful chair rail job:


the crib:

the finished room. my dad just finished building that shelf on the wall which is almost identical to the pottery barn shelf hanging in hayden's room. he also built the dresser/changing table when i was pregnant with hayden. it is one of the most beautiful pieces you'll ever see. seriously. and my mom made the curtains. good thing i have martha stewart and bob villa for parents:






so there are a few other little touches that need to be put in the room which probably won't happen until after the baby is born. like the name above the crib. but first, we must know what we are having. and even before that, we need a name. hmmmm......

we're getting closer.....

this morning i went in for yet another non-stress test. the baby LOVES to move around before i leave for my appointment. then, when i get there and all hooked up to the machine, the baby has decided that would be the perfect time to stop moving and take a nap. on tuesday this happened and i had lunch plans. so i'm sitting in the room pushing and poking at my stomach trying to get this kid to move. which it wouldn't. the heart rate was great. steady at about 138. i know that with hayden, the times i wasn't feeling him move, they sent me for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. and it always was. he was always in there moving around like crazy, but i couldn't feel it because of all of the extra fluid. so the dr. comes in and i tell him the kid isn't cooperating and i have lunch plans. then he pulled out the magical zapper. i'd totally forgotten about it. it's just a little thing that vibrates and makes some noise that they put on your stomach to wake the baby up. he zapped me and the baby moved immediately. i want a zapper like that for hayden. something that will make him do what i want him to do anytime i zap him. same thing happened this morning. heart rate was great, but baby was sleeping and not moving. but i was feeling my stomach tighten quite a bit, which i have come to find out, actually are contractions.
again. you're dealing with a very out of touch from her own body person over here. i guess i've just always thought, contractions? well, they hurt, right? and my stomach tightening doesn't hurt. so it's just another thing that happens when you're pregnant. it's a weird complex process ya know.
so i'm watching this machine and my contraction number go up. some of them seemed to be pretty big. which just means my stomach felt tighter than ever. it's kinda nice. makes you feel like you have abs of steel when really, you have the furthest thing from it.
so the dr. comes in after probably the biggest one and says "oh, you're really contracting, huh?" yeah, i guess. if that's what you call it these days. he asked if i felt it and i said, "well, yeah. i feel my stomach getting tighter." he made sure they weren't hurting and all of that to which i replied "well no, but about an hour before i had my son these 'contractions' didn't hurt." he told me to watch them and drink plenty of liquids today. said that i could be contracting this way because of the extra fluid. guess it causes contracting. who knew?!
jessica was texting me right when i got out from my appointment and was asking "well how far apart?" like i know these things. who does she think she's talking too. rest easy, jessica. i'm sure we've still got some time. although, we are getting closer....

36 week ultrasound

so on monday, march 12th we went in for another ultrasound. i was 36 weeks and measuring larger so the dr. just wanted to make sure the baby wasn't too big. i really have no faith in these as hayden was "a big baby" that was born weighing only 7 pounds 4 ounces. but it was fun, nonetheless, to see the baby again. this time around you can really only see a head profile shot as it is too cramped for space to see much else. the technician was actually impressed with how good of a profile shot we got. the tech told us that at 36 weeks most babies weigh somewhere between 4 and 6 pounds. this last month they will gain about 2 pounds. she said that everything looked great and it was moving around quite well considering there wasn't much space left. she could see that the baby has quite a bit of hair. something we also got to see on one of hayden's ultrasounds. at the end of the ultrasound she told us that she was getting a weight on this baby of about 6 pounds 2 ounces. so on the higher end of average but nothing major.
on tuesday, march 13th at about 3:30am we had a bit of a scare. thought that my water possibly had broken and i had some blood. i didn't have any bleeding with hayden so it was a little concerning. i freaked out when i started thinking i was going into labor. and not for the reasons most would be. i just kept saying "no. i have too much to do still. the house isn't ready." so, in typical jill fashion, i decided to lay down and see what happened. hoping for the best. i felt some contractions but decided since i wasn't having any fluid leaking i should just roll over and try to go to sleep. i'm not ready....the baby can't come yet. i woke up a few hours later and was feeling fine. i had my 36 week check-up that morning at 11:40am but decided to call the on call dr. just to make sure everything seemed ok as i still was having some bleeding. she said i should be fine to wait until my appointment that morning and that it most likely was just some of my plug. yummy.
so that morning i go to see the dr. they weren't concerned at all. there was no fluid leaking or anything and the dr. checked my cervix just to be safe. didn't say anything about any dilation but did say that my "cervix is softening considerably which could be a reason for the changes i am seeing." i told him that i had too much to do still and that the baby couldn't come. so if he had to go in there with a staple gun or some caulk, i didn't care, but i wasn't ready. he told me it looked like we still have some time left and i told him that i'm holding him to that. everything else looked good too. he went over the ultrasound and said the baby should be a decent size. not too big or too small. he's thinking around 7 1/2 pounds. but the reason i was measuring big.....extra fluid. SURPRISE. i'm a good fluid maker, i guess. i would imagine i had quite a bit more with hayden since they knew about it so early, but it's enough where i get to go through the same routine. so i'm now going to the dr. twice a week for non-stress tests to make sure the babies heart rate and movements are still a-okay.
so i was back at the dr. office today and everything is great. the dr. that was there came in and said "this baby looks beautiful" (i didn't know one of the dr.'s in this practice had x-ray vision) the heart rate was great, in the 130's mostly, when it moved it went up into the 150's. hayden was ALWAYS really high and nobody ever showed concern until after the fact. several times he was in the 200's. not good, so i'm told now. but the baby was also moving around really well too. so she unhooked me from the machine and sent me home, only to come back again next tuesday to do it all over again.

ahhh, progress

the basement is really coming along. i went to ikea for the first time on friday and was able to buy a desk, a 3 drawer cabinet and some decorations for our new office. friday nite dave and i put the desk together. i was hoping to have the furniture moved out of the upstairs office so that i could start priming on saturday while dave had to work all day. that didn't happen, but we aren't that far off on our schedule. i tried putting together a bookcase that i bought and had the whole thing almost done when i ran into a few problems. after working on it for probably 2 hours i gave up and decided to wait until dave came home. he had as many problems as i did, but eventually he got it put together and functional. he also put the cabinet together.
yesterday the family all went out to the dearborn inn for brunch to celebrate dad's retirement from ford motor company after 37 1/2 years. it was delicious. i'm glad i'm not going to the dr. for another week though! after going back to the house for a little bit, we headed home to get working on the office again. i emptied out the upstairs office the best i could as dave and a friend worked on the wiring of the basement office. we have 1 functional light now and the others are waiting to be installed. it's really looking good down here and i'll be so happy when everything is in order and clean. dave likes to say that i like my poop in a group.
today i got the first coat of primer in the nursery done all while hayden was at school. i dropped him off, started the priming at about 9am and finished at about 10:30. just in time to go and pick him up. i put hayden down for a nap and just finished up with the second coat of primer. it's so nice to be seeing an end to this! i've been feeling pretty anxious and panicky lately wondering if i'm going to be able to get everything done. i know that all of this doesn't need to be complete before the baby comes home. and i know that i still need to pack my bags and get the car seat and other essentials in the house and cleaned. but like last time....i have to do things my way. and in typical jill fashion, i refuse to learn my lesson. this baby can't come before i'm ready. right?! so i will continue to get the nursery ready before moving on to the much smaller (but possibly more important) things.
i'm actually quite impressed with myself as i was getting up and down from a step-stool and getting up and down off the floor all morning. at 35 weeks, that's quite an undertaking. i was always able to make it up off the ground. guess i'm getting my work out in after yesterday's brunch.
i'm taking pictures of the progress, and as i've said before, once i figure out how in the world our computer works with our camera i will post them for all to see. an empty room with primed walls is something everyone wants to see. this i know.