8pm – Throughout last night Heidi had contractions and at 5AM she woke me up to start giving her lower back rubs during them. They were occurring every 10 minutes and have been getting more and more painful throughout the day. Now, 15 hours later they are happening every 4-5 minutes and she needs a rub or pressure for every one.

We’ve been using two things to make it through the day: a Buddha Machine and Northern Exposure DVDs.

A couple days ago I finally received my long awaited Buddha Machine. What is it you ask? A small plastic electronic box that runs on two AA batteries and plays 9 different audio samples endlessly. Each sample is an ambient electronic tune that fades in and out. To some this would be a good cause for insanity, but for us who love minimalist music like Philip Glass and Steve Reich’s we can’t get enough of this thing. It has been a HUGE help for Heidi as tries to relax and focus on breathing during the contractions.

You can hear all the Buddha Machine loops at the creator FM3’s website.

We’ve also been watching a marathon of Season Four Northern Exposure. They have helped to pass the time a lot faster. As the time between contractions has shortened it has been tougher to get through the episodes. Sitting in a dark room waiting to give a 1-minute long backrub every 10 minutes get be quite boring. However, to quote some words my father used to say to me as I was growing up, “The world is always about entertaining you, William.”