The Cline Guarantee

About two weeks ago I said we were practically guaranteed to have Parker by the due date. And here we are: one day out and no closer to having him than we were two weeks ago. In light of this and all of the other chaotic events of this past summer, we have come up with our own version of Murphy's Law, henceforth called the Cline Guarantee: things will NEVER go according to plan.

My own mother has described me as being "time-optimistic" for years and years. I suppose I got sucked into my own head and allowed that optimism to sink in a little too far this time. We have another prenatal appointment tomorrow. Maybe we'll find out things have progressed but in case they haven't, I have a package of double-stuffed Halloween Oreos waiting for me here at home :)

Desperate times...

...call for desperate measures! We're beginning to consider my options for encouraging this baby to come out. In all honesty, I really am okay with him taking his time; I know he'll come out when he's ready. I guess I just expected him to be early because he's my second. Madeleine was 9 days late so I shouldn't be surprised.

While I'm not yet to the point of chugging castor oil (didn't help start labor with Madeleine), we decided we might help inch Parker down with the rolling pin. Madeleine thought it was great fun to harass both mom and baby brother at the same time. I've also encouraged Justin to go out hunting more thinking that Clines tend to gravitate towards chaos; therefore, the more outrageous the circumstances, the more likely Parker is to come out at that time. We're supposing I'll go into labor at the exact time Justin kills an elk in the middle of nowhere where he barely has enough cell phone coverage to receive a phone call full of static and broken words. Then when he gets back to the Jeep to come home he'll have a flat tire. Doesn't that sound like us?

Go Madeleine go!

A little equation

Swollen joints + kankles + barely fitting in to drive the Jeep + lower back pain + 2 new batches of salsa = no Parker...yet

The song that never ends

Still pregnant. Just thought you'd like to know.

Appointment update

I'm a "stretchy" 3cm dilated, about -1 station, and still 90% effaced. Very little has changed from last week. We've had our midwife Jeanne strip my membranes (wipe the inside of my cervix with her finger...sounds fun, doesn't it?) the last two times hoping that would help promote labor. Today I've had more contractions than most days as a result but still nothing regular. She did explain to us that it's really only the last stages of labor that move a lot faster in a second pregnancy. Whereas I thought dilation from 0 to 10 would happen quickly, she meant 6 or 7cm to 10cm happens fast, along with the final thinning of the cervix and baby's decent into the pelvis. It was good to get that clarification; if I had better understood then maybe I wouldn't have been convinced we were having this baby by this past weekend. So here we are...a week from the due date. I have another appointment scheduled for next Wednesday in case he still hasn't come. By that point in time I may resort to the caster oil.

Madeleine's last stand

As we wait for Parker, Madeleine seems to be making the most of these last days as an only child. We continue to dote on her through attention and fun and she loves it! Although I'm sure the transition into being a big sister will be tough at times, her tendency to be silly and goofy will hopefully continue to grow. Here are some of the "best of" from this past week.

Road to nowhere

Still no Parker. I guess I had grown to believe that once the labor process began it would move quickly. Now a week after finding out I was 3cm dilated, we still have no idea when this baby will come out. We have an appointment tomorrow; maybe we'll find out more then.

Madeleine had a well-child checkup yesterday. She's all caught up on shots so she was able to get away with only being weighed, measured, and checked out by her pediatrician. She's 34 inches tall (no surprise...97th %), 26.6lbs (75th %), and her noggin is 48cm (90th%). She continues to follow the trend of being a very big girl. We hope she didn't hog all of those tall genes for herself; otherwise, Parker will be the little brother in more ways than one.

Justin spent the day working on filling out information for the VA. He is currently going through the paperwork to be officially offered the therapist position. He's had his blood drawn, he's been fingerprinted, and he's documented his life for the last 27 years for them to verify he is who he says he is. We should receive the official offer once all of this is processed. While we're disappointed it has taken this long, we are relieved to know things are slowly moving forward. It's strange knowing that Missoula will be our hometown for the next 5+ years but we can't think of a more desirable place to raise our new family.

No news

First off, nothing new has happened in regards to Parker. While I've had moments of thinking labor might not be far off, the contractions inevitably go away. So we have used this extra time to get lots of running around done: I bought a crib of craigslist, got pictures developed, returned some items to various stores, harvested tomatoes and tomatillos from the garden, made 1 batch of salsa, packed the overnight bag, filled up the gas tank...and probably more. In other words, we haven't been sitting around waiting for this to happen which is good; otherwise, I think I'd be going crazy about now. Tonight I have to fold laundry, put it away, and work on Madeleine's stocking. I do look forward to hopefully having something new to post soon.

I also want to say thank you for all of the really nice comments that have been put up about our last post! You all are so wonderful and it has boosted my ego :) Thanks so much!!!

While we wait

My contractions from yesterday lessened and we got lots of sleep last night. I woke up today wanting to take advantage of still being pregnant so we went for a short hike up Blue Mountain to take some preggo pictures. This is the same place we took pictures while pregnant with Madeleine. It was a lot of fun and very different from our first time up there.

First of all, it took a lot longer to get to our destination.

But once we got there, we had lots of fun playing, posing, and poking. It's pretty easy to tell that Parker has dropped and is getting into position to come out soon!

When it was all said and done, we still weren't in labor but at least one little pookie was at peace.

Come again?!?

We had a prenatal appointment today. I'm two weeks from the due date but when checked, my midwife said I was 3 cm dilated, 90% effaced, and Parker's at -2 station. The stations go from -5 (top of pelvis) to +5 (crowning). He's not quite halfway but all of this means that he's practically guaranteed to come before his due date. I've been having lots of false labor and feel that this may happen by this weekend. We'll keep you posted.

Based on this latest information, we've turned up the heat on trying to finish a few projects. I purchased a glider and ottoman a few weeks ago off craigslist and have spend the last two weeks gather materials to reupholster it. I finally finished it this afternoon. Here are the old cushions and then the newly redone chair. Not bad for my first time doing it! I even put zippers in the cushion covers so I can clean up the inevitable spit-up stains.

(This is the furniture we've accumulated so far for Parker.)

I've also been working diligently on Madeleine's Christmas stocking (I ordered it back in February maybe). I made a lot of progress the last month and I'm hoping to finish it before December. We'll use a stocking my mom made for me a number of years ago for Parker because she never put my name on it. And I'll get to use the one my grandma made for me almost 30 years ago! Now watch me not finish Madeleine's.

We have at least two batches of salsa waiting to be made and canned. I have everything ready to be chopped up but I haven't had the energy required to stand at the counter and chop, chop, chop. Depending on how I feel tomorrow we may still get it done in time. We'll try to cram as much in as we can before Parker arrives.

Camo time

Many of you are probably not familiar with hunting season so I'll take this opportunity to inform you about it. This is the time they lovingly refer to as the "widow/widower" season. Two weekends ago was the opening of bow hunting season and I, like many other spouses, spent the weekend alone while my warrior husband was out sleeping and hiking in the rain and cold. Justin has become passionate about bow hunting and all of the nuances that come with hunting with a bow versus a rifle. As a matter of fact, whenever Justin now hunts with a rifle we call it "meat hunting" versus "sport hunting" simply because it's usually a lot easier to shoot something with a rifle than a bow (with an arrow you can shoot up to maybe 60 yards if you're really good but with a rifle it can easily be over 100 yards away). We were so blessed last year by the cow (female elk) Justin got during rifle season. A single elk can provide enough meat to last our family a whole year! I'm trying to cook up the rest of the meat now so we'll have enough room to store whatever Justin gets this season.

Because we are getting so close to the due date, we're more hesitant about Justin going out of cell phone range so he drives a few miles to a nearby mountain, hops on his mountain bike, and bikes pulling all of his gear behind him in a Burley. It's a pretty neat setup and he stays within cell phone range the whole time :) Tonight he ventured out after dinner and came home with a grouse. While his goal is to get an elk, he was hoping to fill a need to "get" something so this is what he got.

I've been willing to help butcher elk and deer but I'm leaving the bird all up to him (that's what he's doing in the backyard right now). I've come a long way from my suburban VA days, that's for sure!

Being phony

For some reason I've received a lot of telemarketer phone calls late in the evening the last few weeks. So, instead of humoring them and losing out on precious kid-free time, I've played dumb and pretended to be a babysitter :) Although I can and have said "I'm sorry but I'm not available to talk right now," it's more fun to think back to when I was 15 (almost half a lifetime ago...yikes!). I need to register our phone number at the do-not-call website. I'm also contemplating putting a "no solicitors" sign on our door as I've been interrupted twice this week when trying to put Madeleine to bed by LDS boys and a high schooler selling tickets to something. I value my free time too much to passively let others occupy it. Shoot! The phone just rang again! I'm going to register my phone number right now!!!

Little ninja

You may or may not have noticed that I took down the name nomination list for Junior. I appreciate all of the feedback and suggestions I received but Justin and I finally came around to agree on a name that wasn't included on that list. Are you ready? Brace yourselves...

Parker Joshua Cline

(FYI: He will NOT go by P.J.) It doesn't fit with our more traditional approach to names but we've come to believe it very much fits the personality of this baby, especially because names like Ninja are out of the question even though we believe he is currently practicing for his black belt. Here's why we think he's a master of martial arts (warning: bare belly shots ahead):

This second video is from my perspective. Parker had the hiccups and was doing flips at the same time.

These types of movements happen regularly throughout my day. I'm finally hitting a stage of discomfort that helps with my eagerness to meet him :) As of this evening, I've been having terrible heartburn which is likely Parker's doing. I've had trouble sitting in certain positions because of the discomfort and last night I couldn't sleep on my right side because of a sensation that made me feel sick to my stomach. Fortunately, I won't be pregnant forever. Earlier today I came to the conclusion that based on the way I feel right now, it will be easier to have an infant and toddler and not be pregnant than to be pregnant and only have a toddler. My opinions may change after Parker is born but fortunately I don't have too much longer to wait before I can make a more informed proclamation!

Signs of change

Our family continues to go through lots of changes. For example, Madeleine went over to Justin yesterday, grabbed his hand, and said "pooh-pooh" to tell us she needed her diaper changed! We've been working on trying to help her recognize when she does a twozie simply because she's smart enough to do so. When the time is right we'll move on to potty training but not yet.

Another thing that happened yesterday: Maggie ran into a fence. We've become increasingly aware of Maggie's age now that we live next door to a 2-year old schmuppy. Seeing them together makes it obvious that Maggie is getting lots of gray around her muzzle and her eyesight is deteriorating. I told Justin that I'm ready for our kids to get older but not our dog.

Finally, despite all of the fall-like weather we've been having, I chopped off more hair. And considering I got 5 comments to my one picture and only 1 comment to Madeleine's 4 videos, here are some pictures of me :)

Of course, my belly is constantly changing as well. I've experienced a lot more discomfort internally with this baby than I ever did with Madeleine. I'm sure part of that has to do with the lack of stomach muscles due to having two so close together but I also think Junior is a lot crazier and more active than Madeleine ever was. I also think he's big...maybe not in weight but definitely in length. I've gotten large enough to start raiding Justin's closet for longer t-shirts. I don't like feeling a draft down there!

We're looking forward to posting more information about change in regards to Justin's job situation but we'd rather not drag all of you through the dirt with us on this one so we'll wait until his job situation is secure and then we'll let you know. For now, he'll be spending the weekend hunting as bow season starts Saturday. I've encouraged him to get out while he can because once his job starts and this baby comes out he'll be on full-time dad duty! I think he's actually looking forward to that.