It's time

It's 8:45 pm and we're on our way to the hospital.  Check back in a day or so for more info.

Lincoln's coming!

Jenn's visit to the nurse yesterday went well.  All signs of Lincoln's and Jenn's health look good.  Lincoln is still VERY active and with one exception he cooperated well with the tests.  (The one exception was when the nurse was trying to pinpoint his heart-rate with the doppler monitor he kept wriggling back and forth from side to side.  A good problem to have.)

The plan is that if things haven't been set in motion by Thursday afternoon, we'll go to the hospital at 5:00pm.  (This may set our informal chain-calling in motion... Stay tuned.)  Jenn will then be induced on Friday, if necessary.

On another note, Jenn made a new dish yesterday called "Pork Buns."  It's a pork tenderloin dumpling recipe and it was GREAT.  We then went on a slight tangent with the name of the recipe, but it's not necessary to give all of the details here.  Needless to say, though, Jenn and Laura have been recipe and cooking maniacs over the last couple of weeks.

Go CAVS!!!

What we've learned in the last week and a half:

Jenn's got an appointment today that will be similar in nature to last Friday's visit.  We'll keep you posted.  For some filler today, I'll share these thoughts off of the top of my head.

What We've Learned in the Last Week and a Half:

1.  We're not as "in control" as we think.

2.  Lincoln has a big head.

3.  Haley is a text-messaging machine.

4.  LeBron is NOT overrated.

5.  "The Big Bang Theory" is one of the funniest new sit-coms (and it's not all about raunchy sex humor).

6.  Ohio springtime weather is, in fact, unpredictable.

7.  Barack Obama cannot shake Rev. Wright.

8.  Good friends are priceless.

9.  The house is ready for Lincoln.

10.  It's going to take someone standing up to the Tree-Huggers for gas prices to come down.

Looks like Friday may be the day.  Unless it's tonight.  My parents will be out of town as well as Jenn's grandparents.  So it would only be fitting for him to come at a time like this...  Fine with us!

Thanks for swinging by.  

Go Cavs!

Nice to see LeBron take it to the idiots from DC.  "Overrated" chants?  Cheap shots from that waste of space player Stevenson?  No problems.  We're big Delonte West fans!  The Cavs ought to wrap it up on Wednesday.

Oh, didn't come here to read about the Cavs?  Oops.  Well, I had to write about something today.

Friday's visit to the nurse

Jenn went to the nurse today for some tests, and all looks good.  Lincoln was very active, and he needed to be for the tests to be performed accurately.  Nothing abnormal or worrisome was discovered.  Jenn was ultrasounded and he looks great in there.  She snuck a peak at the monitor when the technician was measuring Lincoln's head: 9.88 cm.  So judging by Lincoln's timing and his head size, he takes after his dad, not his mom.  And so we wait...

Many have been asking how Jenn is holding up during this period of delay and waiting.  The honest answer is that she's doing quite well.  Is she frustrated at times?  Yes.  But I've been amazed at how upbeat she's been over the past five days.  It really boils down to setting up expectations.  We were both really pumped up about the April 19 due-date, but it is important to consider that full term is between 38 & 42 weeks.  The forty-second week ends next week.

So Jenn's been walking lately... lots.  4.5 miles through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, 3+ miles on the Bike & Hike trail, 4+ hours at the Cleveland zoo.  She's also been quite into the NBA Playoffs.  She can tell you about most of the series and what each team needs to do to win.  Sweet.

If you're wondering how to pray for us over the next couple of days, pray first that God will provide a safe, healthy, natural delivery (on Friday at 7:30pm... just kidding about the time!).  Pray also for restful sleep for Jenn and for continued patience.

Thanks for your prayers and your interest.  We look forward to delivering happy news soon.

Tuesday at the zoo

Jenn and Laura took a trip to the zoo today. Jenn's trip to Mary (our nurse midwife) yesterday was good, no bad news, but Jenn's word to describe the progress that we were looking for was, "Nothin'." So we're waiting. It's times like this that illustrate very powerfully how not in control we are of our circumstances.  So Lincoln's got to come sometime, right?  Apparently God and Lincoln have another schedule.

So I saw Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed on Saturday evening.  EXCELLENT movie.  I wrote my thoughts about it at XEKE.com.  I won't go into all of the details here, but it is well worth your time and your money to see it.  (If for no other reason than to financially support a movie with JudeoChristian sympathies rather than secular/humanist/etc. messages.)  I don't know that the movie will change anybody's mind, but it does get plenty of issues on the table that were not going to be exposed any other way.  Go see it.

Beautiful weekend

The weekend is here, and we finally have beautiful weather in northeast Ohio.  I hear it's supposed to rain a little later today, but that's okay, the plants can use it.

Jenn's mother arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and the ladies have been working at a good pace to get the house cleaner than I thought it could get, and they've made a couple of great things in the kitchen, including a fruity, coconutty muffin that could be described as dessert-like.  They also finished up the shopping that needed to be done before Lincoln's arrival (no, not yet!).  So things are in order.

So while Laura's with us, Dave and Haley are holding the fort down in Phoenix.  I've even heard that Haley has already planned some recipes.  We're eagerly anticipating pictures!!!

We certainly thought we'd be busy with other things this weekend, but if not, we'll find other things to do.  I'm looking forward to seeing Ben Stein's new movie, Expelled.

Of course, I haven't seen it yet, but I ran across this review today from the Boston Globe that I thought was hilarious.  They argue that too much screen time was given to intelligent-design proponents and not enough time to secularists and humanists (my words, not theirs).  Funny how the God-deniers don't provide equal time in the trillions of student-hours in the classroom (science classrooms in America X hours of science teaching per day X years that Darwinism/Secularism has been exclusively taught = incalculable numbers of hours), but they do want equal time in a 2 hour movie that they've already decided is bunk anyway.

So you can see that I'll be entering the theater with a bias, but who won't?

We're still here...

Thanks for checking on things with us.  No real exciting news yet.  Jenn's doing well and we're having a good time.  Jenn is not quite a stay-at-home mom yet, but the stay-at-home thing has been nice for the last day and a half.

The following pictures of the nursery may be boring to everyone but Emily.  She painted the "Lincoln Letters" and the "Jesus Loves Me" sign, which make great accents and look AWESOME in the room.

Lincoln's arrival is soon, notification plan outlined...

It's been over a week since we've been together.  Jenn has been doing pretty well this week.  Last week she had reached the "ready" point, which looked an awful lot like the "I've had it" point.  But this past week has been better.  Her last day of work is tomorrow, mostly because she can hardly put her shoes on anymore.  She's looking forward to leaving full-time work, as she'll be going back to Village in a part-time capacity in July.

Lincoln remains active and we're thankful for that.  With less than a week until the due-date, he could decide to come at any time.  In the meantime, we've been spending our time together watching sports (Jenn's decision, not mine) and getting things done around the house.  The bathroom ought to be done within the next couple of days thanks to Dad (Grandpa Doug) helping with the caulking and re-sinking the vanity to the stud.  The Gates B&B will then be operational.

We had a great dinner at Moe's last night with Chris & Val (friends from the veterinary industry).  Jenn and I got the same dinner (Halibut with a Rock Shrimp, Tomato & Pea Risotto) and it was one of the best restaurant meals we've had in a long time.  We'd recommend Moe's to anyone looking for a fancy place to have dinner.

Back to Lincoln, many have been asking about our "birth plan".  We'll be calling our parents when we're on the way to the hospital to begin the notification process.  It is my intention to make a note here on the blog that things are underway, and that way we can keep folks as up to date as possible.  In the event that I can't make it to the blog, I'll call a few folks and we'll get an informal prayer-chain going.  (We don't want to leave anyone out of the loop, but please understand that we can't call everyone.)  As soon as I can get photos up for our out-of-town-ers, I'll do so.

So this will certainly be big next week or two at the Gates home.  We appreciate all those who are keeping us in your prayers.  Thank you so much.

2 Weeks 'til Due-Date

It's approaching midnight on Friday evening, and tomorrow will be 2 weeks shy of Lincoln's due-date.  The truth is that he could come at any time, and Jenn is ready for that.  Please pray that she'll be as comfortable as conceivable possible.  She's only got a week and a half of work left, as well, and she's been too busy there lately.  There's not a lot, it seems, that can be done about this as long as she isn't scheduling her own appointments.  So as long as Lincoln remains inside, April 15 is the date Jenn's looking forward to the most... her last day of full-time work (ever!).

How 'bout the Buckeyes winning the NIT!!!

The guest bathroom is nearing completion.  We'll post pictures of the non-nursery updates after we surprise our next house guest.

Jenn's visit today went well. Things are as they should be. Here's Jenn's April belly:
Just as a point of reference, here is Jenn's March belly.