incubation and anticipation

there are unborn babies at my house. eighteen to be exact. eggs. being held at a temperature of 100 degrees for three weeks. everyone is very excited. even andy, who was not completely sold on the idea, is anticipating the hatchings. their unexpected arrival last thursday afternoon sent me into a whirlwind of last minute preparations. one friend brought over her incubator just before another arrived with the fertilized eggs. the first eight hours were spent fussing with the thermostat...not self-regulating. i was a bit paranoid after consistently swinigng from 100 to110 that i was going to kill all of the chicks before the weekend was over and have to crawl back to my friend and ask for more eggs. by lunchtime, i had gotten up the confidence to put the eggs into the incubator. we left to go rollerskating with friends, me a little anxious about what i would find when we returned. the temperature was holding at 100 at 5:30pm. i left for the basketball game with andy, praying the eggs would still be fine when we got home. they have stayed at 100 since i put them in the incubator! hurray! (and phew!) every 8 to 12 hours they are turned, all X's up or all O's up. andy had the kids design coops the other day...which means they drew pictures and had lots of ideas, but he will still build it the way he wants to. :) we're plotting backyard locations for early summer. with almost one week under our belt, we are nearly a third of the way until we hear the peep-peep of our new chickens! there are so many things to do and learn before they push their way out of their shells.