We have finally reached the goose egg ... the 0th hour ... the Due Date And what reward do we get ... well ... another visit to the friendly doctor of course! But just for a checkup, our latest addition is a patient one.

And I know some of you know what we are going through.

Like every good engineer, we wanted to make sure that we got a good "test run" before the real thing. So, we headed over to the delivery area for our testing which means we got to try out the new room and the fancy beds.

But ... then the show began ...

We got some more pictures

They pointed out the heart, diaphragm, and all limbs

We even got a little wave ... say hello!!!

Well ... the wait continues. Our doctors appointment was yesterday and it seems we have made little "progress" over the last several days (last appointment was Thursday). We are still about 1.5cm dilated, heartbeat is 130 (Melissa had not had a coffee yet), and the baby has still not dropped. Grrrrrr

He actually mentioned, that if we cared to, we could induce the next day (today). Show up at 5, go through a LOT of pain, and have your baby by the evening ... but we are not in that kind of rush - especially about the pain. So we continue to hold, drinking tea!

This weekend was a pleasant one. We relaxed while getting some house work done on Saturday. Hung pictures on the wall, walked to Starbucks, and sorted out our many 4x6 prints into albums (or at least envelopes). We have started a couple nice photo albums now and realized how few prints we have of recent times. Duh! Can you say digital camera? So, Melissa is now tasked with going through all our CDs to find suitable prints for the albums ... just don't tell her, it was a "we" thing :)

Sunday we decided that ... enough was enough! So, we are taking full advantage of God's handy work ... with the full moon and low pressure system (at least last night) we took to the streets for some walkin' ... enjoyed some living room dancing ... received some pleasant evening foot massages ... tea with rose hips ... and, thanks to a tip from Theresa, Chinese food with hot chocolate. So ... what is the result ... we enjoyed some minor contractions last evening (early) ... AND NOTHING SINCE!!!!! What the heck!!!!!

Well ... at least we had a nice walk downtown...

First stop ... Gillespie Park

There they have the "Gallery Of Patriots" ... anyone?

it is basically a collection of statues of people around the latin America's (according to the inscribed countries) combined with some of the US presidents (Lincon, Washington, ...)

The park provided a very pleasant afternoon stroll...

...almost felt like a miniature Beacan Hill Park

After a brief tire repair stop, we headed downtown ... the city is surprisingly dead on Sunday ... but hey, we were there to "stretch the legs"

Then it was home for some chinese food and hot chocolate ... honest, the combo wasn't that bad!

Last night was really a heart-to-heart between Melissa and I. A chance to reflect on recent events, apparently standing your wife up without notification is a "bad bad thing" (isn't there a song that goes something like that?) To really discuss some of our throughts, feeling, and emotions as we look to the future (near term).

We stopped by Tandor (A local Indian Restaurant) and grabbed some take-out before heading to Lido beach for the sunset. Some blanket time on the beach between just us was something we both needed. St. Armands circle was packed ... apparently the community runs events there quite often so we joined in after the sun went down (and we made our ice-cream run). Last night was "Smooth Jazz", an every forth friday event. Wow ... it has been far too long since we enjoyed some good, live, jamming tunes in the park. This is something we will be back to see again. I knew Sarasota was like Victoria, guess we are just slowly discovering how much.

Over the last several weeks we have been "shut-in" a little too much ... not living "the adventure", but more just "living through the days". That is expected to change soon ... stand by your phones!!!

Melissa was out baby-sitting this evening so I took the opportunity to get some play time in. It has been a while since I sat down and played with some code ... I know what your thinking -- you WORK with it everyday and that is true. But tonight ... I got to play with things. Figured somethings out and have a lot more left for tomorrow! Either way ... I enjoyed the evening.

Oh ... no news :)

Photo by Jeff Saunders

I have been lacking in my efforts to take pictures over the last few days and have instead been resorting to posting older pictures I had taken yet not posted. This, however, was a photo passed to us via the Saunders family ... Jeff snapped this one on the way home from school. What a great shot eh?

Tuesday was our last Lamaze class ... which brings us down to only two weeks until the due date - and really, those estimations are only accurate ~4% of the time. Early stage contractions annoyed Melissa for a couple hours last night -- and we have found it "funny" that I am up every time she moves. Guess the excitement is getting to us :)

Otherwise, things are going well. Enjoyed a nice dinner at Pad Thai last night, a friendly restaurant around the corner from our place. Ran into a couple friends from the same complex and chatted with them a bit before heading home to bed. And I have once again started riding my bike to work ... we will see how long it lasts this time. At the moment the gas prices are just eating at me, and my wallet, so this is just a little something I can do to reduce that.

Melissa has picked herself up a new toy.

It has been a day spent mostly around the house. The screeners have finished installing our new deck screens, but have done a horrible job. They told us they would be filling in gaps between boards and then did not, and they have created more gaps themselves since the boards were not perfectly square. Now we are left without our previous material (they tossed it for us) and without real protection from the bugs ... grrr. But we cleaned the deck of nails and staples and tossed some remaining loose ends and repotted a couple plants. I also managed to clean my bathroom (been a while) and finally install a new cuboard and fix a couple of issues that have been outstanding since we moved in.

But, most importantly, I managed to catch some "playtime" of the 'soon-to-come'. There is now some serious movement that really quite incredible to watch, a total hands-free experience. I did up a video to show you ...

(Download)

The last few days have been busy ... but not at the same time. Working - but not too much. Sleeping - but not too much. Eating - ok, maybe a little too much :) It has been pretty mellow around the house over the last little while. We are waiting for the community to replace our deck screen with a "professional installation" (though I liked what Melissa did more).

We are, of course, slowing counting down the days (T-22) ... hanging on every little nuance that occurs while enjoying the baths, foot rubs, back rubs, and lazy nights. We have made a couple evening strolls to Starbucks to enjoy a mocha while working those muscles. We enjoyed our second to last Lamaze class where we tried several different 'stations' or stances that can be used to ease the pain. I cloths-pinned my ear so I could enjoy the wonder experiences of labour - piece of cake ;) We also looked at C-sections and what to expect if one is needed. Next week is the potluck ... the last class ... then it is SHOWTIME!

What have you been up to lately?

It has been a long time coming ... but this past Friday we crossed over the threshold of 36 weeks. What does this mean? Well ... we believe little baby Bahan is in now head down. Lungs are usually mature, the central nervous system is maturing, and the digestive system is nearly complete. Mr. Bahan junior is no longer considered a preemie! He is about 13 inches long and about 6 pounds ... at least according to The Pregnancy Bible.

We have been looking for this.