BillyandAshlee.com

I’m still working on uploading pic’s…hopefully in the next few days.

However, we had professional pic’s taken of Lauren (4 years) and Mason (2 weeks) last Saturday…you can take a look by going here:

Go to www.amandamphotography.com, click on client proofs, scroll down to their folder, Mason & Lauren, the password is ML09 (it IS case-sensitive).

Let me know your fav’s!

Lauren,

Happy 4th Birthday Lauren! You are the smartest, funniest, sweetest, most beautiful girl in the world and I’m so proud to be your mommy. I look forward to seeing you every morning and absolutely love all the fun things we do together and it’s amazing to me how grown up you are. You surprise me with things you say and know each and every day. You are so polite when we ask what you want for a gift and you say “whatever you want to buy me” or if we ask what you want for dinner and you say “whatever you want to give me”. You have been the most amazing big sister to your new little brother and it melts my heart when you hold him and he immediately calms and watches you. It has been the best four years of my life watching you grow up into the little four year old you are, and I am excited for the rest of the journey. I love you so much baby girl, and I will hold true to my promise…we’ll go to Cinderella’s castle and meet Tinkerbell when you turn 5. =) HUGS and KISSES.

Love,
Mommy

Mason is such a great baby!! His favorite time of day is probably the mornings, he just hangs out looking around, perfectly content! By early evening, he starts to get a little fussy and cluster feeds. We introduced the pacifier last weekend at just shy of 2 weeks, and that has helped tremendously! You can just watch him relax when we give it to him. If that doesn’t work, getting up and walking around with him almost always calms him down, and if that fails, going outside is his favorite thing. He will generally be asleep within a few minutes of being out there. Breastfeeding continues to go great. He usually falls asleep on me around 9-9:30pm, we take him upstairs and swaddle him and put him in the pack n play when we go to bed around 11pm-12am, then he wakes up around 3am to eat then back to his bed. Then he wakes up again around 6:30am to eat and then I usually take him back to bed with me and sleep a bit longer until 8am or so, then I have a chance to get up and do some things around the house and shower and he wakes up for the day around 9-10am. I definitely won’t complain about that schedule! I try to feed him about every 2 hours during the day to make sure we get enough feedings in that he’ll do that long 6 hour stretch at night.

We had his 2 week pediatrician appt yesterday and here are the stats:

weight: 9lb 9oz, 75% (up from 8lb 10oz at birth!)
length: 21″, 50% (up from 19.5″ or 20.25″ at birth…depends on which measurement we take!)
head: 15″, 75% (up from 14.5″ at birth)

His cord fell exactly at 1 week old! I was shocked because Lauren’s took about 3 weeks! So now that his circumcision is healed and his cord is off, he’s been given the all clear for tub baths, yea! He hates the being wiped down part of sponge baths, but loves when the water from the faucet is poured all over him, so we’ll see how he likes his bath tonight! We are also planning to start giving him 1 bottle a day starting tomorrow night. We did the same with Lauren to ensure she’d take a bottle when I went back to work, plus, that way I can be more than 1.5 hours away from him every once in awhile, not that I want to be!

Lauren is absolutely in love with her little brother. She begs to hold him the second she comes in from school and throughout the evening…it’s actually really helpful because she does such a great job and it gives us a few mins to get things done. One morning I asked her to hold him while I ate my bowl of cereal. The next morning she asked me “mommy, are you going to eat some cereal?” Too cute! =) She helps with diaper changes, gives him tons of hugs/kisses, and is very excited to help give him the bottle! When he’s fussy in the evenings, it doesn’t seem to bother her at all, she tells us “sometimes babies just cry”, lol!

We are gearing up for her 4th birthday party on Saturday, and she’s so excited!! This girl lives for her birthday! We have somewhere around 30 adults and 15 or so kids coming…and it’s outside at a park, so fingers are crossed for good weather…otherwise that’s a lot of people in our house in the rain! The party is Tinkerbell and I think everything is about ready except for the star wand cookies I’ll make on Friday that Lauren requested again this year. =) And of course the cupcakes for her party at school on Friday. Do these parties get bigger, or smaller, as they get older? Knowing me and Lauren, they’ll only get bigger!

I’m not sure if my breast milk has some sedative or what, but my kids are/were both amazing sleepers.

Mason has been going to sleep around 9-11pm (after cluster feeding for several hours, just like Lauren used to) and then I’ve been waking him up around 3am to eat, then he wakes up at 6:30am to eat, and then is usually down again until 9:30. Well, last night, we decided not to wake him up as he’d cluster fed from 4-10pm. He slept from 10:30pm - 6:30am!! Then he wasn’t awake, but wrestling around in the packnplay, so I went ahead and woke him up…he fed at 6:30 and back asleep again until 9:30! I can’t believe I got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep with a 1.5 week old at home!! =)

Tonight Lauren was telling Mason good night and whispered to him:

“Goodnight baby brother, I love you, I miss you when I’m at school.”

ahhhhhh, so sweet.

Mason turned 1 week old today, I can’t believe it’s already been a week. And Billy goes back to work tomorrow. It’s all going too fast.

Mason Craig was born at 3:36am on Tuesday, 9/8/09 and weighed in at 8lb 10oz, 19.5″, 14.5″ head, apgar scores of 8, 9, 9! We are so in love with our new little boy!!

After our false labor on Saturday night, I continued having on/off contractions all labor day weekend. Starting Sunday morning, I began having bloody discharge. Then Sunday afternoon, I began having more back labor contractions and spent a few hours rocking on my hands/knees in bed to provide relief and to try to get him to turn in case he was in a funky position. I actually slept really well on Sunday night, which was the first time in a week. But when I got up, I was having crampy contractions, which was the first time I’d had those during the day, I’d only had them at night. I really wasn’t in the mood to leave the house because every time I had in the previous two days, I would get contractions and be uncomfortable and I was too tired from it all. So Billy took Lauren to Lowe’s while I cleaned the house, did laundry, etc. Then later he took her to the gym while I took a long bath, showered (yes, both, I wanted to wash my hair, shave my legs, etc), etc. I was so bored being stuck at home so I did like 6 loads of laundry…sheets, towels, anything I could find. I was tracking contractions on and off all day and they were really really mild crampy stuff about 8-10 mins apart, but I didn’t know if they were contractions or what. At 6:50pm, I had the first contraction that stopped me in my tracks and made me stop and kind of breathe through. But then we got busy making dinner and I just kind of worked through them. At 8, we decided to take a walk and see what would happen. We took about a 1 hour walk through the neighborhood and the contractions were pretty strong, enough I had to stop and concentrate and take some deep breaths. But still, I wasn’t convinced. We got home at 9, got Lauren to bed, I did dishes, etc. all the while wondering if we should put our friends on alert we might be in labor. About 10:15 I called my mom to ask her what she thought and she said to sit down and see if they kept coming, as if it was real, the contractions wouldn’t stop. I sat down and put in my first contraction into an online timer at 10:21pm and over the next 30 mins, they were 7-8 mins apart, just over a min long. Then from 10:45 - 12am, they went down to 4-6 mins apart, but were still manageable, just annoying and I was totally fine in between. I was googling trying to figure out if this was labor or what. I felt stupid for not knowing, but with Lauren, I never had contractions, and just had pitocin-induced contractions that were awful, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Billy had been downstairs working on his PS3 and came up about 12am and I told him that my contractions were still ongoing and I had no idea if I was in labor or not. We decided to go ahead and call the dr. and see what he suggested. So at 12:15, I called the dr. on call (who I am not a fan of as he’ll never give you a concrete answer, just tells you what the options are, like I don’t already know). He asked if the intensity had changed and it hadn’t really, but they were now about 5 mins apart on average for the last 1.5 hours. He said to either wait until they got stronger, wait another hour, or whatever I thought. I wasn’t too impressed with the answer. Billy decided he was going to head to bed and get some sleep in case this was for real as I really didn’t need any help with anything, I was breathing through the contractions just fine. I called my mom to give her the update and ask what she thought. During the conversation, I started to have a contraction so I told her I’d call her back. Well, I felt something like “pop” during that contraction and the pain went from a 3 on a scale of 10 to an 8. It was intense, and I called upstairs to Billy that I was now in pain and we’d be going to the hospital asap, this was at 12:30am. I called my mom back and told her it was for real now and we were headed in. She was out the door at 12:42am. Billy called Jerron to come over and sit with Lauren and called my dr. back to tell him that we were headed to the hospital. Thank goodness we still had our bag packed from the false alarm on Saturday, so we just threw a couple things in and were ready to go. I went into Lauren’s room to give her another kiss and she woke-up to tell me she needed to potty. I was in serious pain during the contractions and was hoping I wouldn’t have one while we were in the bathroom and thankfully I didn’t as I know it would have scared her…she was used to the contractions I’d been having earlier in the night where I had to stop, close my eyes, and breathe..but these were way more intense and coupled with much louder moaning! Jerron got to our house in record time and we were out the door. Billy had a contraction app on his ipod touch and we were timing them on the way to the hospital and they were now 1-3 mins apart and getting more painful with each contraction. I could clearly feel the contraction starting and then getting worse and worse until it was toe curling squeezing pain until it finally started letting go. I had one just as we pulled into the hospital so as soon as it was over, Billy hurried me into the hospital to try to get up to the 3rd floor labor & delivery before I had another. I made it as far as the elevator before another hit. And then in the hallway before the nurse’s station, and then another before getting into the bed in triage room #3 (we’d been in #2 2 nights earlier) at 1:22am. The nurse quickly checked me and I was dilated to a 4-5cm with my bag of water bulging (she said it was due to break at any time!) and she said “congratulations, you’ll be having a baby tonight!” At this point, I was like “no kidding”, but it was still good to hear those words after the false labor on Saturday! And I was so afraid with the on/off all day contractions and the pressure I started feeling as we were walking on the L&D floor, that I was further along…but also afraid they’d say only a 2cm…that I was relieved to hear “4-5cm”, that was perfect.

Billy immediately asked the nurse when I could have an epidural as watching how much pain I was in apparently wasn’t fun and she said that the anesthesiologist was in with a csection then, and had another right after, so it would be awhile, but she couldn’t define “awhile”. I remember thinking that I was ok with that as I was thankful I was laboring on my own and my baby looked good and that I’d rather be where I was than having a csection at 1:30am. She got my IV put in in between contractions (and on the first try…with Lauren they kept sticking me and blew a vein in my hand) and another nurse came in to take me to my L&D room. I had to finish one contraction before sitting in the chair, had another as soon as we sat, and then another before I could get out of the chair in my new room. I told her I was feeling like I had to use the bathroom and she said it’s not that, it’s the baby. By this point, my contractions were only about 1 min apart so she got me into bed quickly and checked me again and now, 5-10 mins later, I was dilated to 7-8cm!! At this point, I freaked out as I didn’t think there was a chance I’d get my epidural and I was going to have to do this med-free, which was not at all in my plan!! The room was a sudden flurry of activity with a ton of nurses in and out and by 1:50am, the room was completely set-up for delivery, they gave me stadol which made me feel drunk, and I could still feel the pain, but it made me more relaxed about it. One of the nurses told me the dr. on call from my practice was at another hospital delivering a baby, so they’d called my dr, Dr. Younglove, in to do my delivery!! YEA!! Just then, the anesthiologist came in to do my epidural, yea! I seriously don’t mind getting the epidural at all, and the relief was wonderful. I felt 2 more contractions and then the pain was finally gone. My dr. got there at 2:10 and she said she was going to break my water and I’d be complete (10cm) and we’d deliver and have a baby soon! But of course I said “but my mom isn’t here yet!!” They asked how long until she would be there and we called and checked and she was 1 hour away. My dr. is the sweetest dr. in the world, she had gotten up in the middle of the night, when it wasn’t even her weekend, to come deliver my baby, and then she said “no big deal, I’ll go do my paperwork first and we’ll break your water when she gets here”. Thank goodness. I wanted my mom there too. She’s been there for her other 2 grandkids, and I wanted her there for this one. She came running into the hospital at 3:15am, followed closely by my dr. and all the nurses. We guessed weights, with Billy guessing 8lb 1oz, my mom guessing just a bit bigger, and me guessing 8lb 9oz. Dr. Younglove said she didn’t think he was that big (but changed her mind when she saw him!). Dr. Younglove broke my water, I pushed about 8 times, and Mason was born at 3:36am!!

Billy was planning to cut the cord, but the cord was wrapped around Mason’s neck twice, and tightly enough that the dr. couldn’t slip it over his head, so she had to cut it. They put him on my tummy and I was so excited to finally see him and wasn’t surprised at all to see all his dark hair, just like his big sister! His breathing was a little weird because he had taken a big drink of amniotic fluid, so they took him over to the warmer to get him cleaned up and get him suctioned out. Billy got to cut the cord off short in the warmer. Then there was the normal clean-up, weight, height, etc. and I finally got to hold him. We tried nursing in those first few hours, but Mason was pretty sleepy! We were transferred to our room about 5:30am and my mom went to our house to relieve Jerron. We sent Mason to the nursery about 6am to try to get some sleep for an hour or two (I think Billy slept, I didn’t really, I kept thinking I wanted to be holding my baby but knew I needed some sleep!!). And it was so surreal that he was born. My mom came back up to the hospital with Lauren around 8:30am and Mason still wasn’t back in our room because his temperature was a bit cool and they had him under warmers. They finally brought him in and she was so very excited to see him. The second she talked to him, he smiled in his sleep, completely not kidding. He does that quite a bit anyway which I love, but it was so special he did it right when she said hi to him.

His delivery was so great. I’m so glad that I got to go into labor on my own and it’s crazy that I was likely in labor all evening and never even realized it! With Lauren, I had pitocin and the contractions were so much worse and I never had a break. With Mason, I had cramping that lasted about a minute, but then I was completely fine in between, so I didn’t think it was really labor, I thought it was supposed to be more painful! And I can’t believe it happened so fast. He would have been born within an hour of arriving at the hospital had we not waited for my mom. His head was so perfect when he came out because apparently it went so fast. I remember when I hit 7-8cm, they said he was at 0 station, so he went from 0 - +4 quick! His birth just seemed really peaceful to me as well. It was pitch dark outside while I was in labor with most of the world sleeping and the lights were all off in our room besides the delivery lights above us. The pain before the epi was intense, but at the same time, I’m glad I experienced it, I can now say I really know what labor feels like, natural labor, not pitocin-induced. And I can’t believe that he was actually born on his due date, and on his papa’s birthday. His middle name is for my dad, his middle name is also Craig…so it is even more fitting that they share the same birthday!

Lauren has been a big helper. She has her stool beside his changing pad on his dresser and assists with most diaper changes, handing us wipes, diapers, and putting the dirties in the diaper champ. She helps pick out his outfits, helped us give him his bath, and begs to hold him 100 times a day. It’s actually helpful when she holds him as it gives us a chance to get a few things done around the house.

Lauren was an easy baby and I was afraid I wouldn’t be blessed twice, but so far, Mason is every bit as good and easy as she was. He loves riding in his car seat and in the car and sleeps the entire time we’re out and about. He took to breastfeeding very easily and we left the hospital on Thursday at 8lb 6oz, only a 3% weight loss! We had a follow-up appt at our pediatrician on Friday, and he was already back to birth weight of 8lb 10 oz, in only 3 days!! We also had them remeasure him as Billy and my mom didn’t think the nurse did a very good job in the hospital and for an 8.5 pound baby, he is pretty skinny so he seems longer than 19.5” and sure enough, he measured 20.25” just 3 days after he was born, so likely his birth length was likely a bit off.

Mason has been a great sleeper, napping on/off all day and has been cluster feeding in the evening, just like his sister. Then at night, he’s been going to sleep between 10pm-11pm and then I’ve been waking him up at 3:30am for a feeding and then again at 7:30am. Seriously, I am waking him up most of the time. I’m too lucky, I know.

Lauren told me today “mommy, I thought I was going to have a sister, but I’m so glad I have a brother”. Ahhh, melt my heart. Watching her hold him makes me so proud of my kids. She really does love him so much. We have a dozen videos of her singing him songs, including “happy birthday” on the day he was born in the hospital. We’ll try and get pictures and videos posted soon, we need to get all those computers back up and running again since the move to the new house. But it’s hard to want to do that as sitting and holding a tiny little newborn is way more fun, special, and wonderful than I remembered. And since he is our last baby, we are totally soaking up every minute! =)

We had our little boy yesterday — and the whole family is in love!! Big sister Lauren is so proud of her little brother and loves to hold him, sing to him, and help with diaper changes!

Name: Mason Craig
Weight: 8lbs 10oz
Length: 19.5″
Date/Time: 9/8/09 @ 3:36am

He came on his due date and on his papa’s bday and his middle name is for his papa. It was a very fast labor, we weren’t sure if we were in labor or not until about 12:30am when it became very painful and apparent. We got to the hospital at 1:30am and I was dilated to a 4-5 and 5 mins later, I was at a 7-8. People were rushing everywhere to get the roomed prepped and ready to deliver and by 1:50am I was getting my epidural (sweet relief!!) and by 2:10am, my dr. was there saying that she was going to break my water and I’d be complete and ready to push and we’d very shortly have a baby! I petitioned to wait until my mom got there and my wonderful dr, who had been awoken in the middle of the night to deliver Mason, agreed to wait until my mom got there to break my water. My mom came running into the room at 3:15am, I was dilated to a 9, my dr. broke my water, and after maybe 8 pushes, Mason was born at 3:36am, just 2 hours after arriving at the hospital!!

He’s been an absolute dream baby, latching on and nursing great for 30 mins at a time, spending lots of time in quiet alertness, and sleeps well. And of course, tons of dark hair, just like his sister Lauren! We’ll get some pictures up soon!

So about 6:30pm Saturday night, I started getting back pain in just my lower left back. Lauren and I took a shower to get ready to go out to dinner, and by the time I got out, it was coupled with contractions and getting pretty intense. We went ahead and left for dinner at 7:30 and once I was in the car, I knew it was a bad idea. I couldn’t time the contractions bc they seemed to be on top of each other and the back pain was consistent. So I called my mom (they were at a wedding) and she said that yes, it sounded like labor and to call my dr. So, I called the dr. on call this weekend (not my dr) and he said that it sounded like back labor (great) and it was up to me, but I could head into the hospital to be checked but if it was early labor, they’d send me home and to be prepared for that. No big deal, I wanted to know what was going on. So, I go into the restaurant and tell Billy it’s time to call our friends, Meggan and Ryan, to come sit with Lauren, we’re going to the hospital. Of course Ryan’s parents are in town this weekend and they were out to dinner, but they said no big deal, they were done anyway so they’d head our way.

We get home at 8:45, throw the last few things in my bag, get Lauren to bed, and my contractions are really painful by this time…I was getting a break in between, but during them, I was deep breathing, doubled over in pain. Same all the way to the hospital which we get to at 10pm. So 3.5 hours of this now, maybe 2 hours of really strong intense ones. The guy asks if I need a wheelchair or if I could walk…I said I’d walk…and then immediately regretted that choice as I started having another contraction and kept having to stop bc I was in so much pain (it’s all really focused in my back, not really my stomach). They take me into L&D triage and check me and I’m still the same I was at my appt on Thursday…2cm and 50% and -2 station…are you kidding me?? I was up 1/2 the night on Thursday with contractions, again at 3:30am Friday night, and 3.5 hours Saturday night and NO progress?? The nurse attaches the monitor to me and I was having contractions every 2-3 mins that were about 1 min long, but just weren’t doing enough to dilate me…but my back was killing me. She said they’d monitor me for an hour and then if I wasn’t making progress, I’d be sent home. Laying in the bed was killing me so I asked if I had to leave the monitors on or if I could get up and she said the baby looked good, so it would be good to get up and walk the halls. I was in horrible pain as I got up. Within a few mins of walking, seriously, it just stopped. So, we walked the halls for about 50 mins and I was totally fine. I was having Braxton Hicks like I always do, but that’s it. You’ve got to be kidding me. And I forgot to mention that my parents had left the wedding early, gone home and got their bags, and were halfway to KC by this time. After an hour, she came back, hooked me back up to the monitor which showed contractions still, but further apart, etc and obviously more BH’s and no back labor and she checked me and I was the same…so we told my parents to turn around and we came home to relieve our friends.

I feel terrible for everyone we inconvenienced. I really thought as we walked into that hospital that we were having a baby. We were pretty disappointed. But, I was also relieved in a way. I was in a ton of pain and was starting to freak out about labor. I never worried about labor with Lauren (and I was induced, so never experienced this early labor stuff) and I haven’t worried about it with this one either…but now that I have a taste of it, I’m scared!!! Oh well, women have done it med-free since the beginning of time…and I’ll have an epidural at some point, surely I can handle it. I’ve heard from so many women about all the false or early labor trips to the hospital, so I guess I get to join the club now.

I had crampy contractions from 2:30am-6:30am last night, and then they’ve been on/off all day today, including back labor again, but nothing that has stuck around for more than an hour or two. It is really making me tired, but thank goodness for a 3 day weekend, not sure I could endure this at work! Hopefully he decides to come before Tuesday morning? Oh well, 6 more days at the most until we meet our baby boy!!

Dr Appt
I had my 39 week dr. appt. Weight gain is fine, I’ve been holding steady at about 36-37 pounds for the last 3 weeks or so…much better than I did with Lauren! Blood pressure fine (115/70). Baby’s heartrate was good and I’m measuring right at 40 weeks. Then the good news, I’ve made a lot of progress since last week!! I’m now dilated to a “good 2cm”, 50% effaced, and at a -2 station!! yea!! My dr. is hopeful I’ll go on my own, but in case I don’t, she wanted to set an “end date”. So, I got to choose from next Thursday (9/10), Saturday, (9/12), or Sunday (9/13). I want to give him more time to come on his own, so I chose Saturday, 9/12, which is 4 days overdue (I was induced 5 days overdue with Lauren). I wouldn’t mind waiting until the following Tuesday at 41 weeks, but my dr. doesn’t induce Monday/Tuesday…so 9/12 it is! The great news is that I’ve progressed more than I ever did with Lauren, so I don’t have to go in the night before for Cervadil like I did with her! So, we have to be at the hospital at 7:30am on Saturday, 9/12. My dr. also stripped my membranes today. I’ve been having crampy contractions all day, and pretty regular ones from 5pm onward, so I’m hoping this is doing something to keep moving me along! 9 more days at the most until we meet our little boy!!

Lauren’s birthday planning
Lauren’s invites have gone out for her birthday and she couldn’t be more excited!! She picked the theme last March…Tinkerbell. I took her to Disney on Ice last March and she fell in love with Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and everything has been Tinkerbell since…Tinkerbell flip flops, Tinkerbell doll, Tinkerbell pj’s, Tinkerbell blanket, Tinkerbell suitcase, Tinkerbell bracelet, etc. So of course, she’s having a Tinkerbell party. We already bought the Tinkerbell costume and wings at the Disney store months ago and she’s wearing it for her party and says it’s what she’s going to be for Halloween too, we’ll see if she changes her mind on that. She wants her baby brother to be Peter Pan, so I have to see if I can sweet talk a grammy or nana into making him a tiny 0-3 month Peter Pan costume, as you can not find one to buy I’ve found out. We’re having her birthday at a park and there will be the typical kid stuff…play ground, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, pinata, pizza, cake, etc (then likely have closest family/friends back to the house to hang out afterward). She has clearly stated she wants a cake, not cupcakes. She is always highly disappointed at parties where there are just cupcakes, no cake. So opinionated, I have NO clue where she gets that!;) She sat with me a few days ago and picked out all the things she wanted for her party from one of the party websites…the plates, the napkins, the favors, etc and they should arrive soon. Once they get here, I just need to run to the party store to supplement with the solid color stuff and a few things they didn’t have online like the Tinkerbell tattoos.

The guest list has been a source of great debate in our household. The list of who she wants to invite is ever growing. She has 4 best friends at school: Izzy, Shobika, Kayla, and Ann Marie…so I thought we’d go with the whole “you are turning 4, you can invite 4 school friends”…but she kept adding her boyfriends Jack and Drew to the list…and then occasionally other friends like Brynna, Piper, Ian, etc. So we finally told her the 4 girls and that’s it….plus all of our own family/friends that she never leaves off the list either…and Brayden, her “original” boyfriend, would be highly jealous if he had 2 other boyfriends to compete with!;) So, in the year that I was trying to make things “smaller” since we’ll have a 2-3 week old baby, there are now 17 kids and 29 adults invited. What do I always get myself into? This doesn’t even include the family party we’ll have for her in Wichita, or the party at school. Oh well, I keep telling myself I’ll actually have more time on maternity to do everything than I would have while working…I’m fooling myself, aren’t I? But my baby girl is such a social butterfly and the highlight of her entire year is her birthday party, so I can’t help myself!

Today is officially the 39 week mark. Considering I was induced at almost 41 weeks with Lauren, I imagine I have another few weeks, but a girl can hope, right? We are taking lots of long walks at night, I’m drinking the red raspberry leaf tea, taking the oil capsules, eating spicy food, all the things that *may* help, just short of castor oil! It’s crazy that it’s already September…just 7 days away from the due date. I’m anxious for my appt on Thursday to see if there’s been any more progress…fingers crossed!