I’m posting some photos at my Flickr site. Go have a look!

Baby Jonathan and Mom are doing great. We’ve had a busy day with family so I haven’t done much in the way of updating this site, but I’m sure you guys understand

I’m in the process of setting up my Flickr account so I will be posting some more pictures soon. We’ve had a really great day visiting, plus I got to take a much needed 3 hour nap (best nap ever).

Stay tuned for more!

Jonathan Henry Driggers was born at 4:04PM. He weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces. He’s 22 inches long. He’s totally perfect and we couldn’t be happier!

Meghan was amazing, and she’s doing great. We’re both exhausted. Jonathan is in the nursery right now getting his checkup. Meg’s Dad is bringing us some food. We are starving!

OK no baby yet. She’s 9.5 cm dialated and the doctor is going to give it another hour to get up to 10. Also, we’re getting a more powerful epidural dose, since as the contractions have gotten stronger, they’ve become more noticeable.

Little more time…

We just saw the Doc. Meg is now 9 cm dialated, her water has broken, and when the doc examined her, he said he “felt hair” as in, the hair on the baby’s head!

According to the doctor, by noon, he will be born! No more updates from me until after that…I’m needed elsewhere.

Here we go!

Meg’s folks are here in the room now. Meghan is relaxing. The contractions are really strong now. Even though she has the epidural, she is still feeling some pain. Mostly in her ribs, since the baby loves kicking them for some reason.

Dr. Goggin will be by soon to check her out, and possible break her water to get things rolling along. Until then we are just sort of hanging out. I ate some McDonald’s for breakfast, but it is sort of sitting in my stomach like a rock. The coffee was good though.

We got a little sleep last night but then Meg’s contractions really started kicking in. At about 5:00 we called for the anesthesiologist. Right now Meg is getting ready to get some real sleep. That epidural worked like a charm.

I’m pretty tired myself and am about to take a short nap. So far everything is going great. More to come

Meg and I are at the hospital right now. We been checked in to our room. All the prep work has been done, Meg is hooked up to all the monitors and whatnot.

Meg’s parents came by and brough me some dinner. I had a golden bowl with cheese and veggies from the Grit. Meg had two red popsicles.

I’ve got free wireless internet, so that means I’ll get to keep you guys up to date on things as they progress.

Meg has been given her first dose of medicine, called cervidil. Without going into the details, this medicine will prepare her body for the next phase of medicine which will induce the contractions. Right now she is falling asleep. I will probably be sleeping soon as well.

Here is the picture of Meg and I as we are headed out the door! The next time the two of us are back at the house, everything will be different. Pretty amazing stuff

Somehow I have to get through this day of work…tonight is the night we get induced!

We’re both really excited/nervous/terrified, but so far we’ve been able to get the day going like any other day.

More posts throughout the day and night. I’ll try to keep everyone updated on Meghan and the baby’s progress as we get through this ordeal.

Nothing new on the baby front yet. Looks like we are going to make it to Tuesday.

On Tuesday at 6:00PM we are reporting to Athens Regional. After getting checked in and what not, the inducement will be under way. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll be ready for the doctor first thing Wednesday morning. So far everything has been by the book, and the doc thinks we have a very slim chance of needing a C section.

Tomorrow night, Kelly and Steve are coming over to watch a funny movie. It will be a great way to spend our last calm night.

I’m so ready for this to get started. Waiting around is the fucking worst. Meg and I are really getting impatient.

We have our weekly doctor’s appointment this afternoon. So far, all is status quo, except Meghan is experiencing a cornucopia of assorted aches and pains.

Our collective mood can be summed up like so: “We’re tired of this shit, and ready for the baby to hurry up and get here.” Every day seems to be an hour longer than the last. neither one of us is sleeping very well. I wake up about 6 times a night, and half the time meghan isn’t even in bed, she’s up on the couch because she can’t get comfortable. It is just dragging on and on.

We were hoping the baby would come early but it is looking like we are going to make it to our induction date. Next Tuesday at 6:00 PM is when we are kicking this thing off.

I’ll post another update this evening after the doctor’s appointment. Meg is worried that somehow she has “un-dialated” and the baby is never coming out. I told her he is probably building a fort in there and we’ll have to go in with dynamite.

Today we took the cars to get washed. Meg’s is getting detailed on the inside so that it is as clean as possible for the baby. Then we went down to the Last Resort for lunch, which was great.

Now Meg is taking a nap before we go pick up her car. She’s having a lot of cramps and whatnot. Pretty normal for someone about to have a baby. We’re pretty sure it’s not contractions, but you never know. We’re sort of on edge, waiting for this thing to get started.

Now I’m watching golf and just sitting here.

I know that most of the people who come to this site could give a shit about bikes. They want news about the baby!

We had our weekly doctor’s appointment yesterday. The baby has dropped lower into Meg’s abdomen and Meggy is now about 2 cm dilated! What this means for those keeping track at home, is that it will soon be time to head to the hospital So from now on, I will be providing more frequent updates. The doc still doesn’t think we are going to go into labor before our induction date, but he also keeps telling us to call him if something happens so he’s not too sure.

Today they came out to steam clean the carpets, so all of our “nesting” is pretty much done. Now we need to pack our bags, charge up the digital cameras and the Nintendo DS, and get ready for the big moment.

Ricardo Ricco of the Saunier Duval team, who has personally won 2 stages of this tour, and his team who have won 3 total, are now out of the race. Ricco was busted for EPO.

Personally, I’m glad. Ricco is an arrogant asshole. I’m glad they are catching people, but I do get tired of hearing about this. When are these idiots going to realize that they are really close to getting the whole sport shut down. If sponsors go away, the money goes away.

More later.

The first doper has been busted, and it is none other than Manuel (Triki) Beltran, the super-domestique who is famous for helping Lance win several tours by escorting him up some tough mountains. He tested positive for high hematocrit levels, indicating that he is an EPO cheater.

My feelings on the matter are stated thusly: “Get the hell out.”

Anyone else?

It is going to be time soon to start thinking about my next CCIE exam. People who know me remember the two years of my life that were totally consumed by passing my CCVP and then CCIE certifications. It was hellacious, and that is being kind. But all of that work that I put in will help make the next attempt a little bit easier, and I am certainly not under as much pressure as I was before.

The next concentration that I’m going to do is Routing and Switching. This is the fundamental CCIE that will give me a good foundation to build on for the future. After passing my CCIE Voice, I understand that getting the certification does not make you an expert. It just gives you the training and methodology to become one. My goal this time is to pass the lab in 3 tries or less. I think that is a reasonable goal.

Before I get ahead of myself, I’m going to get my CCNP first. This will consist of 4 regular computer-based exams. I should be able to finish that up by the end of the year. After that, I will need to recertify my CCIE Voice by May, which will be just a written exam. Once that is done, I can concentrate on the CCIE R&S. All told, I want to have my CCNP and CCIE in Routing and Switching complete by the end of next summer.

In the meantime, I have a baby on the way, and that’s all I’m thinking about right now. But the wheels are always turning and I have a plan….I think it’s a good one.

Check out Dave Zabriskie’s website. He is the American time trial specialist who was the 3rd American to wear the yellow jersey. Currently recovering from a broken vertebrae, he will be riding for gold in Beijing as a member of the American cycling team.

He is also selling DZNuts on his website, a special cream for your nuts (and taint) while you ride. I laughed. Also check out the t-shirt “Official Applicator” for that special someone.

Stage 4 was the first individual time trial of the tour. This stage is a little different than your normal day of racing. In cycling circles, it is known as the “race of truth”. Each rider sets out on the course alone, and rides against the clock. No team to help.

The stage was relatively short for a time trial, only 30 km. The overwhelming favorite was Fabian Cancellara, who has won the world time trial championship in the past as well as previous Tour time trials. My personal pick for the day was David Millar, who has been gunning for this stage since it was announced.

Ultimately, it was an upset. Stefan Schumacher came out of nowhere to blow away the field. Fabian Cancellera had an ok showing, but the real winner on the day was Cadel Evans. As a GC contender, his goal was to gain time on his rivals and he did that. He’s starting to set himself apart as the favorite to win in Paris.

David Millar also had a good day, coming in 3rd behind Kim Kirchen. The American teams are having a pretty good show so far.

Tomorrow is a sprinter’s stage. I’m hoping Robbie McEwen can make something happen.

I watched an interesting segment on RealSports the other day about David Millar. It was sort of a summation of his story (clean cyclist broken down by the system into a doper, then caught, banned, and now an anti-doping advocate). The part on Millar was nice, and a good interview with Jonathan Vaughters about Slipstream’s anti-doping methods, but at the end, Bryant Gumbel and the douchebag reporter on the segment had to turn around and drag Lance into the story.

Bike Snob NYC had a pretty good take on the story.

Will Frischkorn of Garmin-Chipotle put on a great show today as he came up just short at the line. He came in second and made a fan out of me. He is a relatively inexperienced rider compared to the others, but he sure made the most of his opportunity. It is fairly rare that a breakaway succeeds but Will, along with 3 others, managed to keep away the entire day. It made for some awesome racing.

Couple of interesting items from the day: On occasion you will run into some group or another that tries to stage a protest and interfere with the Tour. That happened today. Not too sure who they were or what they wanted but they got on TV for a bit. During the podium where they awarded the stage win, some bonehead protester got up on stage and managed to piss off Bernard Hinault. Monsieur Hinault won the Tour 5 times, and is known as “The Badger”. He immediately came out from backstage and knocked the guy off the podium, to many cheers. You don’t fuck with the Badger.

Tomorrow is the first individual time trial. I am rooting for David Millar, but Fabian Cancellara is the favorite. We’ll see how it goes.