Baby Update

Junior still hasn't shown up yet. My sweetie's mom came over to be here during the birth when we all expected that I would still be in Iraq and now it's closing in on time for her (my sweetie's mom) to head back home. It would be extremely unfortunate if the little guy didn't show up while she was here. We went for a walk yesterday in hopes that it might speed the process along. There were moments where it seemed like it might have done the trick, but alas, the night ended quietly. The prospect of inducing labor or an elective c-section has pretty much been dismissed as everyone is of the opinion that it should be given every opportunity to be a natural birth.

On the bright side, because the baby didn't show up on the predicted date, I've been able to feel him kick from inside my sweetie's belly. It's one of the strangest and most amazing things I think I've ever seen. It's funny when her belly suddenly extends out to accomodate the foot or knee as he kicks, kind of reminds me of the movie "Aliens" but in a much more pleasant way =)

While I'm at it, let me throw a few more Little Known Facts of Victory at ya:

• There have been three democratic elections in Iraq, each marked with more success than the previous one:

January 2005 - 8.5 million Iraqis voted (that's 58% of eligable voters)


October 2005 - 10 million Iraqis voted

December 2005 - 12 Million Iraqis voted (that's 77%, how does that compare to American voters?!)

• In the al-Anbar province, home of Ramadi and Fallujah, only 2% of the Sunni population voted in January 2005. After seeing the success of the elections and having seats granted to the Sunni politicians who lost the vote in an effort to reconcile Sunnis, 86% of registered Sunnis voted in the December 2005 elections.

• Polling data indicates that over 75% of Iraqis identify those who carry out attacks agains civillians as "terrorists" or "criminals".