Here are some pictures of us visiting the hospital. You can see Michelle's big, pregnant belly, as well as the kids and I wrestling in the front lawn of the hospital.

Thursday is the day! They won't even do another amnio. They'll just scoop him out on Thursday assuming that Michelle can hold out that long. She's in pretty good spirits all things considered. The kids and I are doing okay also. Thanks to all of our friends who continue to go above and beyond in serving us.

No change... the results are back from Riley and they initially conclude that the lungs are not mature. They are going to give the test to their specialist for futher interpretation, but right now it looks like we'll be waiting a while.

BREAKING NEWS... They did the amnio this morning. The initial report is that the lungs are not mature enough yet. However, they are running some more tests that will be concluded around 3pm. If they are positive, we'll have him tonight. Otherwise, it will be next Thursday until we try again.



I'll keep you posted.

A new potential birthday for Marcus... Dr. Belotti (sp?) discussed Michelle's case today and encouraged us to have the amnio as soon as safely possible which is at 35 weeks, or this FRIDAY. So if the amnio reveals mature lung development they will take Marcus out of there on Friday night! I'll keep you posted about new developments. However, I'll be at the hospital all day Friday just in case. Michelle's room # is 812-353-2905, Room 2905.

By the way... Michelle is doing pretty well. Physically she is OK, occassional contractions but no more bleeding. She's in pretty good spirits all things considered. Unfortunately, Bloomington Hospital still doesn't have broadband connections in their rooms so Michelle can't check her email (click here to ask them to install broadband in each patient's room). However, you can reach her by phone at the number above.

A big thanks to the Newlands for watching the kids tonight so I could play tennis and Michelle and I could have a date. We played scrabble and I won convincingly. I should point out that Michelle was ahead by a mile until one of the doctors came in and talked with us for about a half hour. His best friend lives in Carn Town (sp?), TX which is near Beeville. So they shared Beeville stories for awhile. When he left and we returned to our game, I made my move and beat her like a rented mule!

She'll be there for a while... Dr. Eden called Michelle this evening and informed her that they decided to keep her in the hosptial until Marcus arrives. Hopefully that will be two weeks from tomorrow. However, since it's so close to the delivery, they won't give her any more medications to stop the contractions. That means it could be any day now. So far, Michelle is in good spirits.

Of course that's because she hasn't seen the paint in the hallway yet! HOLYCOW! It's VERY GREEN and shiny. You wouldn't believe it. It is absolutely awful. It should be illegal to sell that color paint in a semi-gloss to an unlicensed person. Ugh. However, thanks to Phil for his excellent help in applying the wretched stuff.

Michelle is back in the hospital... Sunday night she started having contractions at about 6pm (this is the third time she's had contractions right when I would be heading to 6:29. Is God trying to tell me something?) She really did not want to go to the hospital so she kept avoiding calling until almost 9pm. Finally around 9:00 she started bleeding and by 9:30pm we were back at Bloomington Hospital. The kids and I left her there a little before 11pm. She called this morning and Dr. Eden thinks she may have placenta previa. I'll keep you posted about that. For now, he thinks she may have to stay there until the 19th. But we'll see. We've heard that before and she has come home within a few days. So we'll just wait and see. Stay tuned here for more info...



What a week! It was terrific by in large (or is that by and large?). Michelle had very few contractions and was pretty comfortable. I got 0 work done, but had a good time playing Mr. Mom. The kids had a wonderful Halloween and the Crisps joined us for trick-or-treating and dinner. Matthew went to a really fun b-day party at the Allison Jukebox Center in Bloomington. It was so much fun, that he decided to stay for the bitter end of the party and miss his final tennis lesson. Watching the kids play made me wish I was a kid again.



PPE (Pitiful Painting Experience). We've been wanting to paint the upstairs for some time now. About three weeks ago Michelle picked "Japanese Garden" as the perfect color. This weekend I spent every waking minute painting (I'm almost done). The bad news is that within four hours of starting Michelle was pretty certain she didn't like the color. However, she isn't 100% certain she doesn't like it, and we've already bought the paint. So it's pretty much a no-win situation. I've spent 20 hours or so painting, she isn't sure she likes it, but neither of us are excited about going and buying more paint and trying again. Especially considering the fact that painting the stairwell requires renting scaffolding and is a lot of work. Yuck. I'll post some photos up here later today. I left my camera at the hospital last night.