The countdown has begun!

Greetings from Massachusetts!

We hope this finds you all well and enjoying the holiday season. This Advent has brought with it a special perspective of waiting and anticipation for our family. Carrie and I are in full-on 'nesting' mode and I happy to announce that there will be plenty of room at our inn. We are very excited for all the visitors and support we will have in the coming weeks. Thank you!

You will find an update following this message detailing our timeline for the birth. There is a potential that we will be parents in only 8 days! Whoa. And, no that has not fully set in yet.

We would love to be able to reach out and connect with all of you in the coming days but we realize that you are as busy as we are. I hope you are finding time to share quality time with your loved ones this season. Know you are loved and missed by us!

Official Junke Baby Update for Week 38: Our little girl is currently in what is known as a 'Frank breech'. Which basically means that she is right side up (which is upside down when it comes to these things). The good news is that she is a little off center so she isn't stuck, although she does get to ram her head into Carrie's ribs which isn't so cool. Carrie is spending a wonderful 30 minutes a day (split into two 15 minute sections) ass-over-tea-kettle in hopes of convincing baby to flip herself over and get ready to meet her totally awesome parents. I help out with amazing pep-talks to help baby achieve success and I get to pick the songs we play into the bottom of Carrie's belly because apparently babies are drawn to that kind of stuff. This leaves us with two scenarios:

Scenario 1, Baby shows her awesomeness early and flips over: Then it is up to her to decide when to be born. We'll let you know when that happens.

Scenario 2, If baby waits to show her awesomeness until later: We get an ultrasound on Monday, December 17th to confirm she hasn't flipped over. If she hasn't then we will proceed with a procedure call a 'version'. This is where the doctor tries to flip the baby 'manually' from the outside. Carrie will get a spinal tap and it will happen in the operating room. If necessary the doctors can move right into a c-section that way. If the version is successful they will induce labor so she doesn't have time to flip back over. Baby doesn't get any input on when she is born, her birthday will be the 17th.

Carrie has an appointment on Wednesday morning for another check-in to see if baby is making any progress in 'the great flip' of 2012. We will pass along any changes via this blog.

We love and miss you all!

John, Carrie, Cooper and Baby