So, we’re dilated to three, the doctor has come by to break the water, and contractions have, in the words of Emeril, “kicked things up a notch.”

Bring it on.

An update on Laura: She’s contracting, but not terribly strong. She’s comfortable, has been able to eat (Jello and soup, anyway), and is currently walking around, waiting for the baby to do his thing.

As for dad, I have songs from musicals running through my head…

“The son will come out … tomorrow! Bet’cher bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be son!”

Having now been here for 7 hours, it’s starting to feel that way 🙂 We’re still optimistic for today, however at this rate, it will likely be after the kids get home from school.

As always, we’ll continue keep you posted.

From Mom: “Sciatica sucks. That is all.”

From Dad: “Hospital food? Not that bad.”

From Inigo Montoya: “I do not suppose you could a-speed things up?”

And finally, from the Great Space Coaster: “This is Gary Gnu, with the no guh-news, is good guh-news television network.”

That is the worst picture EVER! Nate swears I don’t look like the great Marshmallow Woman, but I’m not convinced.

Added later- and the nurse totally agrees with me.

Although things are progressing (the nurse swears they are!) and contractions are happening (“that was a strong one,” says Laura), there’s not much going on. Still waiting and dilating.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of Laura’s chart, so you can actually see contractions if you care about such things:

And here’s a picture of the mom-to-be-again, looking remarkably chipper for someone who’s actively in labor.

So, I just read what Nate wrote. I think that “loooooong needle” comment was totally not cool. I’m actively dreading it. Not enough time has passed since Clark’s epidural, and I’m kinda freaked.

And bored. Just waiting around for my body to get serious, but we’re moving in that direction.

We’ve had the first visit from the doctor, are contracting more, and things are moving along. Things are getting set up for the anesthesiologist to come in in a bit for the epidural (loooooong needle!), but nothing new to report.

We’re going to try for a photo of the socks here, which may or may not work.

Mr Finch, here. We are at the hospital (arrived at 6:00 this morning!), Laura is hooked up to the IV, is 80% effaced, and has dilated to 2 cm. We’ll keep things updated throughout the day, but don’t expect photos for a while … we can take pictures, but we have no image editing software on the laptop, so the pix are too big to post (which is a shame, because we have some CUTE shots of the goldfish socks).

More later!