Less Than a Week Left!

My goodness, our due date is only a few days away! We had a BBQ party today with some friends to celebrate Ryan's incredibly successful graduate thesis review. It's hard to believe that it was probably our last get together as a family of two... we'll have a tiny party crasher from here on out! It was a fantastic day with good eats and great friends.

MacKay, Allison, Ingrid, Jim, and Ryan enjoying the yummy food!

Hmm... do you wonder how Sarah got her "Kool-Aid Man" nickname?

Baby Joey was a big hit, and he had a great time playing with Nelson!

We're so glad that Laurie & Joey were here! Matt - you were missed!

We also have a bonus picture for your viewing pleasure, taken at Ryan's birthday celebration at Rogue two weeks ago. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to celebrate - it was a fantastic night!


We're in full on waiting mode in the Notch household, looking forward to the big day! Sarah is having lots of contractions, some that are pretty intense and close together, but they don't last long enough to make any difference. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and will hopefully be told that we've made at least a little bit of progress since last week. If the baby doesn't arrive in the next few days, we'll go to Skipolini's with our friends Matt and Laurie for their famous Preggo Pizza that's guaranteed to bring on labor. We're not sure that this will work for us, since Sarah won't actually be eating the pizza... it's loaded with TONS of meat. Do you think that one of Skipolini's veggie pizzas will have the same effect?

Mommy Update:
- Has her fingers crossed that the baby has dropped since last week, and would be delighted if she's a bit dilated already.
- Is looking on the bright side if the baby arrives late... her family will be in town soon and may catch the birth!
- Has cleaned just about every surface in the house, and is running out of nesting activities to keep her occupied.
- Sends her love and thanks to everyone who keeps checking in and sending good luck wishes her way!

The Video Tour of Our New House!

As promised a loooooong time ago, we have finally finished the video tour of our new house. We thought about being cheesy and doing an MTV Cribs parody (especially considering we have an actual crib in our tour), but ended up playing it straight. The house is still a work in progress since we have a lot of decorating left to do, but you'll get the gist. We send our love to our friends and family who live far, far away and can't be here with us in person... hopefully this is the next best thing.



We had another doctor's appointment today, and things are still looking good. Sarah is at -3 station and not dilated at all, so while in theory the baby could come at any time, we probably have at least a week or so to wait. It's getting harder and harder as we near the end of the pregnancy, but it will all be worth it when we get to hold our little boy in our arms for the first time.

Sarah ended up in the hospital again, this time for a non-stress test due to decreased fetal movement. Our hyperactive baby decided to stop moving for several hours, which was very abnormal for him. After trying all of the tricks to encourage movement, we ended up calling our doctor who sent us to Labor and Delivery. Of course, everything is fine, and we're back to the one-baby conga line type of constant movement. Hopefully the next time we end up in the hospital will be for the big day!

Mommy Update:
- Big. Uncomfortable. Not sleeping. Lots of contractions. Loves being pregnant, but ready to have this baby!
- Though anxious to give birth, hopes it doesn't happen before Ryan's graduate thesis review on Wednesday.
- She and daddy-to-be have finished all of their childbirth classes, will get the car seat inspected this week, and are (in theory) ready to go.
- Can't wait for her family to arrive... not too much longer until the troops are in town!

Baby Poll Guesses Revealed!

Over the past two weeks we've collected lots of baby predictions. Thanks to everyone who has participated - this has been fun! Some of you are going with family names (you'll see a trend below), while others are having a grand ole time coming up with something off the wall (such as Luminarium Darjeeling, submitted by Jim). The due date prediction strategy has also varied widely. Most players are guessing one date, others are guessing many. For those of you who have guessed more than one date, we've picked one to post for you. Don't worry - we've logged your other predictions just in case! If you haven't submitted a guess yet, you have up until Sarah goes into labor (again) to do so. Unless the baby arrives before we get to it, we'll update the list and repost if we get more guesses.

Here are the predictions so far:

Baby Boy's Birth Date
July 4th - Cristy P.
July 8th - Gina W.
July 10th - Cindy N.
July 11th - Ines G.
July 14th - Christin L., Sydney J.
July 15th - Stephen G., Wanda R.
July 16th - Java D.
July 17th - Pete E.
July 18th - Sarah N., Crys M.
July 19th - Emily Q., Jen G. & Eric W.
July 20th - Amanda B., Candace H., Angie S.
July 21st - Sarah B.
July 22nd - Cheryl E.
July 23rd - Jim A., Anne R.
July 24th - Linda P.
July 25th - Ryan N.
July 28th - Nancy E., Ryan H.
July 30th - Laurie B., Mary E., Ally W.
August 1st - Patricia P.
October 1st - Ingrid R. (Sarah's least favorite vote... October?!?)

Baby Boy's Name
Christin L. - Christopher Cole
Ines G. - Noah
Amanda B. - Nicholas
Mary E. - Christopher or Ethan
Sarah B. - Owen or Jackson
Cristy P. - Ryan Jr.
Jim A. - Zephre Sun, Forrest Steens, or Caterpillar Jarvis
Stephen G. - Dances with Ryan (Ooh, Jim has competition!)
Ingrid R. - Hefeweissen (Joins Jim & Stephen in the "not likely" club)
Patricia P. - Curtis James
Linda P. - Tyler or Quinn
Crys M. - Ryan Jr.
Anne R. - Ryan William
Emily Q. - Christopher Ryan
Sydney J. - Samir Narong (Sydney's traveling in Thailand right now!)
Gina W. - Ryan Otha
Wanda R. - Christopher Emerson, Stephen William, or James Robert
Nancy E. - Curtis William
Candace H. - Samuel or Kyle
Ryan H. - Michael
Mai C. - Aidan or Adam
Jen G. & Eric W. - Parker Ryan
Java D. - Brandon Joseph, Huxley Joshua, or Ronan Michael
Jessica S. - Alexander, Tyler, Benjamin, or Sam
Leslie R. - Tristan Lynn
Cindy N. - Charles Ryan, Joseph Ryan, Christian Ryan, Michael Ryan, or Ryan James


As promised, here are the latest preggie belly pictures. Months three through nine are featured below. Click on the images to view them in a larger size.

We'll be doing one more of Sarah and baby to complete this set!

Whew... that's the last time Sarah has to squeeze into those jeans!

Mommy Update:
- Wishes Ryan a very Happy Birthday, and is translating the baby's kicks to mean the same!
- Excited and relieved to be full term, though not sure if she's quite ready for the big day.
- Has incredibly swollen feet and hands, as Sarah B. spotted in recent pictures.
- Has packed her hospital bag and will take her final childbirth classes with Ryan this week.

Prenatal Massages and Preterm Labor!

Ryan officially goes down in history as the most incredible husband ever! For our anniversary on Thursday, Sarah was surprised with a spa appointment for a prenatal massage. She was able to lie on her belly, thanks to the handy dandy cut outs in the massage table. It's been MONTHS since Sarah has been able to lie on her belly and, though it seems like a simple thing, it was quite a treat! The spa was so relaxing and was the perfect, perfect anniversary gift.

Despite how relaxing the massage was, Sarah started feeling very uncomfortable on Thursday night. When she was still feeling the same on Friday morning she called her doctor, who told her to go to the hospital to be checked out. We headed over to Labor and Delivery and Sarah was strapped up to monitors to see what was going on. We quickly learned that Sarah was having regular contractions that were only 2 to 3 minutes apart! It's still a bit early for the baby to arrive, so she was given an injection to stop the contractions. Though the contractions continued, the medicine did weaken them, and since Sarah was not dilated at all we were allowed to go home. Since then the contractions have tapered off to a much more irregular pattern, which is what we want to see for a few weeks. We officially hit the full term mark on July 5th at which time it would be 100% safe to deliver the baby - hang in there for a while longer, little man! We still have a few stragglers on the birth date and baby name poll, but we'll post the results soon.

Who knows... our delivery date could be right around the corner!

Mommy Update:
- Now knows what contractions feel like and will be that much more prepared when the big day happens.
- Realizes that she and Ryan need to pick a pediatrician soon and pack for the hospital... just in case!
- Cannot believe that there are less than thirty days until our due date (we're going to be parents soon).
- Attended two childbirth classes with Ryan and got to watch him quite skillfully swaddle a baby doll.

Cast Your Vote!

Okay, blog readers, this is your opportunity to get in on the action. We are now taking predictions for the baby's name and birth date. Sarah's official due date is July 27th, but the baby will be considered full term on July 5th so he could be born anytime after that date. Technically, he could arrive before July 5th, but we're hoping that he holds out until at least then! Today's high temperature was 103 degrees, so we're also hoping that he'll take into consideration the intensifying summer heat and won't decide to arrive late... Sarah's already uncomfortable enough as it is!

You can submit your predictions by either commenting on this entry or emailing Sarah or Ryan. If you post your guess in a blog comment, be sure to sign your name so that we know for sure who it is coming from. We'll compile everyone's guesses and post them on an upcoming blog. The winners will receive the greatest prize of all - the ability to forever gloat to everyone that YOU were right!

We've had a lot of fun setting up the baby's room and getting ready for our little man's arrival! Bit by bit, the baby's stuff is steadily taking over the house. We now present Exhibits A - I:




Whatever will we do if the little guy doesn't like monkeys?!?

We're still keeping incredibly busy with getting everything moved in, and on top of that Ryan has his Master's degree thesis review coming up soon. He has to have a published book and twenty gallery ready images for his hour-long presentation to the review panel. Think good thoughts for him in the upcoming weeks!

More pictures and news to come soon... in the meantime, cast your vote for baby's name and birth date to make sure your voice is heard!

Mommy Update:
- Found out at her latest doctor's appointment that the baby is definitely not breech... thank goodness!
- Wonders what her waistline's current circumference is, but is too afraid to break out the tape measure.
- Excited about her first childbirth classes next week, and is hoping that there will be plenty of diaper practice for the dads!
- Was asked the other day if she was expecting twins... oh, the humanity!

We Love Our New Home!

Since our last post, we've moved most of our belongings into the new house and are steadily unpacking. It's been a lot of fun, even though it is a lot of work. We were lucky enough to have some phenomenal friends help us with the move. Christin was in town for a visit, and Angie and Nelson came over on Saturday. Nelson also brought one of his friends along to lend a hand! Without their help, we would never have been able to pull off this move. Thanks to all of you for the lifting and stair climbing - you're the best! Ryan also deserves a special mention. Since Sarah can't move any boxes, the daddy-to-be has been making trip after trip back to our old apartment to get all of the odds and ends packed up and moved over here. Thank goodness we're overlapping our leases by a few weeks!

We thought it would be fun to post a short video tour of the new digs once we have everything set up. Not only will that be a bit more interesting than pictures, but you'll also get to see footage of Sarah's waddle walk. We'll be sure to get that up as soon as we can. For now, here's a picture of the two of us (three of us?) in our backyard. We love sitting outside in our little "garden oasis" - it's so peaceful and relaxing!


At our last doctor's appointment, Sarah had a fetal fibrinectomy test. Since she has been experiencing a lot of pain at night, our doctor wanted to make sure that her symptoms weren't indicative of pre-term labor. The test is able to determine with about 97% accuracy whether or not the patient will go into labor in the next two weeks. As we expected, Sarah's test came back negative, but we thought it was an amazing example of what modern medicine can do. Too bad we can't get one of those tests every time we go in for our appointments - it would make planning for delivery a lot easier!

Mommy Update:
- Has discovered that she really loves doing laundry... no, really, she LOVES laundry!
- Was finally able to wash and organize every single stitch of baby clothing and linens.
- Is looking forward to hosting a barbeque party once all the boxes have been unpacked.
- Sends congrats to all of her colleagues for officially making it to summer vacation!

Lotsa Baby in This Belly!

We recently shot the eight month preggie belly pictures. It's been a lot of fun to chronicle Sarah's incredible expanding waistline, and we are excited to see what next month's shoot holds. We're posting the single pictures this month, since the line o' bellies is getting pretty long. We'll reveal the full progression (3 months to 9 months) next time.



In other exciting news, our friend Christin will be arriving for a visit on Friday! We missed seeing her in the Spring, since we had to cancel our Texas vacation plans due to the previa. We can't wait for her to get here and are looking forward to five fun-filled days!

We have another doctor's appointment today and will be sure to post any important news that we receive. Things are pretty routine now, which is great, though it makes for somewhat uneventful blog entries! We're pretty sure that the baby is in the head down position, getting ready for his big day. He's kicking Sarah's ribs each and every night and, though he is running out of room, still attempts to flip and flop. It's not the most comfortable experience, but it reminds us that he is feisty and strong. We can't help but wonder if this is indicative of what his activity level and sleep schedule will be once he's born...

Congratulations to our friends Jessica and David are in order - their beautiful daughter, Julia, was born on Friday! Yay!

Mommy Update:
- LOVES packing for the move... it's a great way to fulfill her crazy nesting needs!
- Can't wait to unpack (for the same reason) and do her first load of baby laundry.
- Having trouble sleeping through the night, but thankfully is able to sleep in to compensate!
- Has a new third trimester dairy craving and is trying not to satisfy it solely through frozen yogurt.