Tough night

Baby girl has been pretty good at sleeping for long stretches of time at night. Last night was different. She had taken a couple of really long naps yesterday, so that may have something to do with it. She wouldn't really go down at all until about 1am, and she was super fussy after that. I think her tummy was pretty overwhelmed yesterday by the high-flow shower head that my breasts have become. I'd read that it's hard on babies in the first few days that a mother's milk comes in. I guess they just have to adjust. She was spitting up more yesterday, but she was still hungry. Catch-22, I suppose. Feed her more, make her gassier. Feed her less, listen to her smack her lips and wail about being hungry. We tried to keep her happy with a pacifier, but that only works intermittently. I settled on holding her. I was finally able to lay her down around 5:30, and luckily, she stayed good and asleep until around 7:30. Then she stayed in bed for about an hour after that, content to just stare. She's actually asleep right now in the MobyWrap. I have a feeling the wrap is going to be my new BFF.

"She looks great."

That's the pediatrician's official opinion of baby girl. She checked out fine this morning, and she is already three ounces over her birth weight (if you're counting, that's nine ounces more than when we brought her home Saturday). Needless to say, the milk has arrived. I don't feel so much like a cow as I feel like an entire dairy cattle operation. I'm glad she's putting on weight...especially since almost all of her clothes are way too big. I know she'll outgrow everything very quickly, but I had to put forth a lot of effort this morning to find something in her room that didn't fall off her...and something that would keep her warm since it's something like 25 degrees outside today.

Not only did we venture out to the doctor's office this morning, we took a little mini-road trip to Frankfort. According to our instructions, we thought we'd be able to come home today with her birth certificate (which we need for her SSN and passport), but it takes a month for the records to get from the hospital to the Vital Statistics Bureau. Funny, it only took us about 45 minutes to get there. Oh, well. If she doesn't get to go to Canada, she just doesn't get to go.

Amazingly, we haven't taken any pictures of her today. Maybe later.

All by ourselves

Today was our first day with absolutely no family around. I think it's going pretty well. S has been awake more today than previous days, so we had fun just talking to her and making faces and noises. She's just so precious.
Having accumulated four days of experience in the motherhood department, I can safely say that there are a few items that I think are positively brilliant. Items whose inventors deserve Nobel Prizes. First and foremost- THE BOPPY. We have two of them. They are invaluable. I'm also seriously loving PureLan, prescription strength Motrin, and Amy Coe receiving blankets. Just passing along my infinite wisdom...
There are a few new pics on Flickr, but most of today has been spent grabbing naps when I could as opposed to taking and posting pictures. That's also my excuse for not calling/emailing everyone who's passed along well wishes and happy thoughts. I promise I'll get in touch...just as soon as I catch up on some sleep (which may be awhile, so don't hold your breath!!)

Full house

The whole P family is now home and well. S has spent the entire day either sleeping or nursing...she even slept through the hack job we pulled on her little fingers. She's been clawing her face up pretty badly, so her nails had to be trimmed. Like all new parents (right??), we knicked her a couple of times. Luckily, she pretty much stayed in LaLa Land throughout the trauma, which was clearly more traumatic for us than for her. I've heard a lot of things will be that way.

Otis hasn't quite figured her out yet, but he can't stand to hear her whimper or cry, and he whimpers right back when he hears her. He's also already assumed his role of protector of S...he's like the Cerberus of baby girl. Wait, does that make my baby like the River Styx? She's not. I promise. She's perfect. There are plenty of new pictures on Flickr.

Happy Birthday

The morning started with this......



and it led to this....



Just wanted to spread the good news....


7 lbs. 11 oz.

19 3/4 inches.



Everyone is doing well.

The end of the world as we know it

This is the last day of the life I've grown pretty accustomed to. Everything changes tomorrow (assuming she doesn't buck the trend of staying put today). It is completely strange to have no idea what your life is going to be like in 24 hours. I can't imagine another scenario that would cause such instantaneous upheaval. Tomorrow morning will be the last time I take a shower before I'm a mom. The last time I make the bed before I'm a mom. I'd love to say the last time I eat breakfast before I'm a mom, but I'm not allowed to eat after midnight.

Knowing that it's the last night of just me and M has its perks. Well, it takes the guesswork out of it at least, and now we know that this is it. We're going out to dinner. Funny thing is, I feel like I'm choosing my "last meal." Sounds awful, right? Like I'm a death row inmate or something. I can't imagine how tough that decision would be considering I'm really not making a monumental choice...I just have to pick what I want for dinner. I've been craving a really good cheeseburger, but I'm sure that something that greasy and heavy is not wise. I'm sure a salad makes more sense, but I can't really see the appeal of that option. How silly am I that I am actually concerned about this? Don't answer that.

Wish us luck.

Cinnamon Mini Muffins

The muffins turned out very nice indeed. Not too sweet, which is often a problem I have with muffins. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but here's what I went with. I think I'm going to make scrambled eggs and turkey bacon to go with the muffins for dinner. Ironically, there is no cinnamon in the actual cinnamon muffins.

Cinnamon Mini Muffins
3/4C all-purpose flour
3/4C whole wheat flour
1/2C light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2tsp kosher salt
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
1/2tsp ground allspice
1 egg, beaten
1/2C skim milk
1/3C margarine, melted

For topping: 2 TBSP melted margarine, cinnamon sugar to taste

Combine dry ingredients. Combine milk, margarine, and egg. Mix all together until just moistened. Spoon into greased mini muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test. Brush the warm muffins with margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Makes 24 mini muffins.

*The original recipe called for all white flour and white sugar, which I swapped out. Next time, I'll try using applesauce for the margarine, too. I'm all for "healthier."

The baking bug

I thought that scheduling S's arrival would light a fire under me to make sure my house is completely spotless. Truth is- the house is already clean. The floors just need to be vacuumed. Amazingly, despite the impending visit from the stork, I don't care much about cleaning right now. Know what I want to do? Bake. And bake. And bake some more. I already made Pecan Cinnamon bread to take to the doctor's office in the morning. I'm trying to decide what I want to make for here. The cinnamon baking smelled divine, so I'm thinking I may make cinnamon muffins. I found some recipes online, and I think I found one that will pretty easily transition to whole wheat flour. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Other than the baking (both literally and figuratively), there is very little going on around here. I picked up some extra juice and milk and fruit this morning as I've developed a fear that I'm going to run out as soon as we get home from the hospital. It just feels like I'm existing in some bizarre parallel universe right now. Everything seems surreal because I can't imagine what my life is going to be like in two short days. I stopped by to see my friend Anne (and Annabelle) this morning and just watching Annabelle play struck me as strange. Why strange? Because I'm going to have one running around riding stick unicorns soon enough. I'm so excited I can barely stand it. At the same time, I feel oddly one-dimensional because the baby is all I think about lately (other than baked goods...clearly). I suppose that's normal.

I need to go bake something now.

Hysteria

I think I've been pretty calm throughout the pregnancy. I've only called the doctor's office once worried. This morning, however, there was a five-alarm freak out. At 40 weeks, S is taking up all of the available space in my midsection, and I know that at the end they stop moving around a lot because they just run out of room. This morning she wasn't moving at all, and none of my usual tricks for getting her to wiggle were working. Mass hysteria with big, sobbing crocodile tears ensued. (Otis was very sweet and just laid his head in my lap while I boo-hooed.) Needless to say, I went to the doctor's office and got hooked up to the fetal monitor. Also needless to say, about five seconds after I was hooked up, she decided she wanted to move around. Twerp. I think she was just messing with me. M met me at the office to make sure that both S and I were okay, and since we were both in the office, we went ahead and had an induction scheduled for Thursday. I'm hoping to go into labor on my own before then, but either way, we're having a baby this week. It's a very bizarre feeling.

So, between now and Thursday I'm sure I'll think of all kinds of ridiculous things to get done. Like making sure my eyebrows are plucked and the fridge is cleaned out. Ridiculous. For now, though, I'm going to take a nap. It's been an exhausting day- and now Otis is puking. Awesome.

Laugh out loud funny

You know what I love? Besides M, Otis, Baby S, clean air, and the usual? Nerd humor. What I mean to imply is intelligent humor. Don't get me wrong a nice dose of mindless 40 Year Old Virgin humor every now and again is greatly appreciated, but I really enjoy the stuff that requires a few more brain cells to "get it." A couple of examples: having picked up on MoWask's affinity for Threadless tees and falling in love with K's new "Cookie loves Milk" shirt, I finally made it onto their site to check it out. My two personal favorites: "The Birds and the Bees" and "Hypotamoose." Unfortunately, they are both sold out. Luckily, you can still get "Planetary Status."

In other funny news, we finally got to see Little Miss Sunshine last night. I've been dying to see it since it came out at Sundance last year, but I'd never actually gotten around to it. It was an excellent flick, but I think I had it built up in my head too much. I do that sometimes. The acting was absolutely terrific, and I really did love the movie. I think I liked Thank You for Smoking better, though. That movie had me laughing so hard I though I might pee. Both are great.

Have a wonderful weekend, peeps. See you on the flip side.

Hungry, hungry hippo

I feel like all I've done is drink hot tea and eat for the past two days. It's not accurate, but that's how I feel. Maybe it's because everything I see looks yummy. Wednesday night I was making a salad for dinner and everything in the kitchen sounded like a nice addition to the mix. There ended up being oranges, diced apples, sliced grapes, cheese, lettuce, grilled chicken, walnuts, and croûtons in a giant bowl. It was delish. Last night saw more of the same. We had pasta...nothing fancy there. I sauteed sliced grapes and diced onion in olive oil, added chopped walnuts, mixed it into some pesto, added it to the pasta, and topped it off with Parmesan cheese. It was remarkably good. Even M liked it after visibly expressing his fear of what grapes were going to taste like in pesto. Tonight I'm making a roast chicken with veggies and beer bread. I'm hungry already.

Five Senses Friday:

Sight- The impending due date on the calendar.
Smell- Banana Nut Muffins baking for M. (I added chocolate chips.) Bacon.
Taste- Hot cornbread with butter. All of the aforementioned goodies.
Touch- S's new hand-knit cashmere booties and cap. Softest ever.
Sound- Silence...I have a feeling I'll miss that one soon.

Hurry up and wait

Still no great progress to report on Baby S. The nurses have started joking that I've been pregnant forever. My doctor told me yesterday that he'll induce me any time that I want now...I just have to make the call. We decided to get through my actual due date. I'll go in for my regular appointment next Wednesday and if she hasn't decided to come out on her own by then, we'll schedule an induction. I'd rather not go that route, but I'd also rather not be prego anymore and I'd rather not have a 12 pound baby. I did pick up some raspberry leaf tea at Wild Oats yesterday. It's another of the crazy old wives' tales about naturally inducing labor. Walking just hurts too much now. So, I'm just hanging out...waiting for something to happen.

In Otis news, he's cracking me up right now. In between sentences, I've been throwing his ball around. He, like most dogs, loves to play fetch. He's unlike other dogs, though, in that he gets tired after awhile. Most other dogs I've played with are not physically capable of ignoring the ball back if you throw it. I've seen dogs that I thought were about to keel over from exhaustion continue to bound back with ball in mouth. Otis operates a bit differently. He'll always go after the ball, but he'll stall on bringing it back. If we're playing in the house, he'll decide he needs to look out the window for a few minutes or run upstairs to check on the status of things. Really he's just worn out. It makes me laugh that he won't just stop playing. I love that furball.

Lucky number seven?

There was some debate for awhile about my due date. I've remained pretty confident about the 24th, but my doctor was throwing around the 21st based on some early measurements. Whichever due date you choose to believe, the timer is about to start buzzing on this bun. While I've obviously been itching to get this party started, I've always had in the back of my mind the fact that my due date was still x-number of weeks away. Not so much anymore. Looking at the calendar, I realize that there are no more Sundays or Wednesdays between the competing due dates. We're almost there. Seven days from today...I'm approaching it like a countdown. Of course, I understand she still may not want to come out and there is a possibility that she'll make like a library book and be "PAST DUE." We've got the 39 week check-up today, so we'll see.

We've been doing some last minute things to get ready. We picked up the diaper champ and a humidifier Monday night, and I am still on the lookout for the Vick's baby rectal thermometer. (How fun, eh?) That sucker is sold out all over town. I'm not surprised since it was in Parents for (I think) the last two months. I also picked up some nursing bras yesterday afternoon, and let me tell you- I'm bringing SexyBack with these suckers. The Playtex Cross Your Heart bra looks like Agent Provocateur compared to these things. Of course, I needed the bras ASAP as I actually morphed into a dairy cow Sunday night and started leaking breastmilk while watching TV. Too much information? Probably.

I've got to jump in the shower...the doctor's office will be waiting. Oh, I also picked up this little happy for Baby S yesterday. I'm hoping I can convince her to like veggies- even if her daddy won't touch them.

Raindrops keep falling on my head

I think I've mentioned before that Otis basically refuses to go outside if it's raining. I think his "little sister" may suffer the same affliction. It's been raining since Saturday, and I'm blaming the rain for keeping her happily in utero. Of course, that was not a bad thing as her father spent the weekend in Philly. Now he's back home, and I am resuming my mission to pop out a child.

We (me and my family) had a very baby centered weekend here while hubby was partying. (I'm jealous, can you tell?) My friend Anne threw a baby shower for the neighborhood ladies on Saturday morning, and yesterday there was a "Blessing for Expectant Families" at church. Saturday's shower was wonderful, and S got loads of great new stuff. Her room is officially overflowing. She has so many gorgeous new outfits that I can't wait to try on her. The church service yesterday was also cool, but it was a little strange since M wasn't there. Part of the blessing involved a "birthing necklace". (Background: Church members donated beads that the women of the church arranged into necklaces. The priest then blessed the necklaces, and we- me and the other expectant mommies- are supposed to wear the necklaces during our labors.) The necklaces were presented to the husbands who were to place them on their wives. As my husband was on an airplane at the time, my daddy put my necklace on me. We were both laughing that people who don't know me and M probably think my daddy is a cradle-robber. That scenario is made funnier by the fact that I look a LOT like my father. I mean, I've heard of couples starting to look alike, but that would be pushing the envelope a bit. After church, there was a luncheon and massages for the pregnant ladies. The massage was great. I wish I was being massaged right now. The rest of my day was totally lazy.

As for M's weekend- I think there was a bit more "excitement" (in the traditional sense of the word...some of you may find my weekend exciting...). He had a great time with the Colgate crew...and an appropriately inebriated evening with DTS. I got to see some pictures last night, but I'm waiting for D to send the Friday evening pictures. As for the pictures from the actual wedding, everyone looked so fabulous. All of my friends were all dressed up looking gorgeous, and I was sitting at home imitating a whale. Again, the jealousy rears its ugly, swollen head.

Scrubbing bubbles

I just spent three hours cleaning the kitchen. I think they call that the nesting instinct. I dare you to find a spot on the oven door. Dare you. I'm planning to dust, vacuum, and mop in a few minutes...I really only sat down to eat some lunch. (PB&J and a banana- yum) Otis has been laying in the dining room floor, staring at me like I've lost my mind. Of course, he was thrilled when I cleaned out the freezer because he got loads of ice cubes.

Speaking of Otis, he got a new 99 cent ball yesterday when I took him to get his nails trimmed. It's amazing how having something new makes him so completely happy. The new ball is a green version of his favorite orange ball. I think he likes them better than tennis balls because they are softer, so they don't hurt when he catches them. On the downside, because they aren't coated in slobber-absorbing tennis ball fuzz, they are spit-covered orbs of nastiness when you play catch. He loves it, though, and who am I to deny him?

Ooooh, and speaking of balls- bowling at 38 weeks pregnant was not the brightest of ideas. I had an awesome time, but I am miserable today. It was a little freaky how quickly I started to get sore last night after we left the bowling alley. So, note to all pregnant women and future pregnant women- steer clear of the great sport of bowling when you're all enormously prego- or at least stop after the second game when you think you should. I think the third game really did me in. Oh, and under no circumstances should you try to pick up husband's 15 pound bowling ball when you're helping tidy up at the end of the night. That sucker is heavier than you think.

The Incredible Stalling Baby

No real progress over the last two weeks. I just got back from my 38 week check-up. Oh, well. At this point her complacency isn't a bad thing as M is out of town this weekend. Needless to say, I've given up on trying to coerce her into getting out...my efforts will likely resume as soon as M's plane lands Sunday afternoon. I welcome the vacation from walking and eating spicy foods.

M and I are bowling tonight with a gaggle of people from his office. I haven't been bowling in a couple of years, so between my general ineptitude at the sport and my sporting my very own bowling ball of a stomach, it should be rather comical. As long as I don't fall over, we're golden.

That's really the extent of the excitement around here. It was snowing yesterday, so I opted not to take Otis by the groomer. I've got to do that this afternoon and have the battery changed in M's watch. Once again, the excitement is overwhelming!!

Mudpie

Otis is a holy terror. His new thing is eating dirt. He's done it before on random occasions, but he's driving us bananas. It started the other day when he realized we'd brought the rubber plant back downstairs. He keeps sneaking into the dining room and stealing little clumps of dirt out of the pot. His grazing area has now extended to the outside. I did some research and can't find anything that indicates this is a "problem." Almost everything says it's a behavioral issue. Great, just in time for the baby- a behavioral issue. Awesome. Of course, his nails need to be clipped pretty badly, so I'm wondering if it's not really a digging problem that has carried over. I'm taking him to have the razors trimmed today. Hopefully that will help. I don't like for him to get into trouble. We'll see if the nail trim helps the situation. I'm also going to douse the plant's soil in bitter apple. Hopefully it won't kill the plant. It doesn't say that it's toxic in any way. I suppose I'll find out one way or the other...I don't imagine they sell bitter apple in quantities that would cover our backyard.

I'm off now to run errands. Have a great Tuesday.

Happy Birthday, Elvis

For those of you not connected to Memphis in any way- today would be Elvis's birthday if he hadn't keeled over 30 years ago. I had to give a shout out to the King...wouldn't feel right otherwise.

In our little world, nothing new is going on. I felt somewhat less than stellar yesterday, so we didn't do anything all day. M had brought me cinnamon toast and OJ in bed before we needed to get up for church, but being upright wasn't working for me, so I went back to bed. Instead of church, we watched A Few Good Men under the covers. Otis snoozed happily at our feet. The rest of the day was dedicated to the NFL playoffs, just as I am certain tonight will be all about the BCS Championship Game. I'm no Ohio State fan, but I'm not sure I want to bring my daughter into a world where the Florida Gators are the reigning champs in both basketball and football. Yuck!

Today I desperately need to go to the grocery store. We are out of all of the necessary stuff: milk, juice, bread, cheese, and M's cinnamon toast Eggo's. Looking in our refrigerator is just sad. I'm also craving pudding- specifically the concoction I know as Chocolate Icebox Éclair Cake. I don't know who named the dessert as it's nothing like an éclair, but it's the layered dessert of graham crackers, pudding, and cool whip (basically). So, after the grocery store and washing the sheets that Otis trampled dirt on this morning, dessert making is next on the agenda. I lead such an interesting life, I know.

Happy Monday!!

Laughter

It's too bad that laughter hasn't been proven to induce labor because if it had, we'd be at the hospital right now. M and I have spent the entire day laughing at ridiculous things. I can't even remember what all we've found funny, but for some reason everything is funny today, and we can't stop laughing. It's been such a great day so far. I do remember the last thing we had a hearty laugh over...a lady from our neighborhood owns a natural parenting shop here in Lexington and I knew that I wanted to go by for a Moby Wrap and some BabyLegs. We spoke to our neighbor and shopped around for a bit before settling on the burnt orange colored wrap. For some background on this shop, it's where the La Leche League meets here in Lexington and from what I can tell they are the premiere suppliers of nursing bras in the world. Needless to say, breastfeeding is popular at Mother Nurture. I was almost finished checking out before I realized that our neighbor was actually breastfeeding her child as she rang up our purchase. I had already noticed a woman hanging out in the back with a baby happily latched on. I didn't really think much of either situation as I knew what the shop was all about. The second the car door was shut, though, M busts out with, "Man, there was a lot of breastfeeding going on in there." It wasn't an earth-shattering comment, but the fact that I was certain he'd been about to explode waiting to say something made the moment absolutely hysterical. You probably had to be there.

I also just ran across this website, which I think has some adorable stuff. It's probably one of those things everyone but me already knew about. Here's my personal favorite, the tea towel skirt:

Happy Saturday, peeps...and Go Colts!!

No such luck

Turns out the man in the moon isn't wielding a Pitocin drip. Alas, no baby...the bun is still apparently baking. I'm not upset or anything- I just thought she was going to show up yesterday. At this point, I'm just waiting, albeit uncomfortably and impatiently. She'll come out when she's ready, and I suppose I should get used to things not going exactly as I hope or plan.

I did go straight to the mall after my appointment yesterday- just as I said I would. I walked for about an hour and a half. Correction, I was on my feet for an hour and a half. I'd say a solid 30 minutes of that time was spent perusing the sale racks. I also ate the spiciest chicken burrito I've ever eaten. While it did get her moving, it did not get her moving out. I'm about to give up on the spicy foods. I don't really like them, and I'm more of an instant results kind of girl.

Once I got home yesterday afternoon, I was pretty much pooped. Otis and I just chilled out in front of the TV, and I watched two of the most disturbing shows ever on TLC. The first (I only saw the last 20 minutes or so) was Diets from Hell. The portion of the show I saw discussed three people: one anorexic lady, the Las Vegas competitive hot dog eating champion, and a five-year-old who's never eaten a meal in his life. The anorexic lady was sad. The hot dog guy grossed me out completely...especially since he ate six hot dogs in two minutes while giving the interview. The little boy intrigued me. One of my fears is that I'll have a child who won't eat anything. This child would only eat chips and one particular type of cookie. At first, I wanted to blame his mother, but it showed her repeated attempts at getting the boy to eat. Anytime he saw food, he would start screaming uncontrollably- not in a defiant way, more of a terrified kind of way. Turns out he'd had severe acid reflux since he was a baby and the pain had caused a pretty intense phobia. I have to wonder how his treatment will go. How do you convince a child that something that has always caused him pain won't anymore??

The second show was The 750 Pound Man. It was, obviously, about a man who weighed 750lbs. Actually, he weighed about 760, but who's counting. It was very disturbing. I really had no idea that a human being could get that big. I guess I just thought that a person's organs would just shut down at a certain point, and I thought that point was well before 750 pounds. He ended up dying. He'd gotten a skin infection that traveled to his bloodstream and eventually caused his organs to go kaput from septic shock. It was absolutely awful. Of course, as disturbing as the shows themselves were the commercials airing during them. I'd say that easily 50% of the ads were for weight loss pills...you know, all the different kinds they sell at GNC. Why can't people just lay off the Doritos and go for a walk?? For the record, the rest of the commercials were for ProActiv Solution. I guess they were really feeding on people's insecurities yesterday. Happy New Year to us all.

Cross your fingers...

Ahhh, January 3rd. Today is the day that I've been saying for weeks would be "the" day. It's full moon day, and I'm banking on it sending me into labor. Well, that and the half of a pineapple I ate last night. I have a doctor's appointment in a couple of hours, and I've got my fingers crossed that things have progressed since last week. I'm just so afraid that I'm going to go into labor and not realize it after hearing stories from friends that they didn't even go to the hospital until they were seven centimeters because they didn't know they were in labor. It's pretty easy to convince myself that my contractions are all Braxton-Hicks and that all the pain I feel is pressure from her head. The question is: am I right, or am I just telling myself that?

Whichever it is, I've essentially felt like I've been running marathons for days because my body is so exhausted. Again, I'm telling myself it's my body's way of making me rest before the big show. I could just be tired. Being pregnant messes with your head.

So, I'm hitting the showers and heading to the doctor's office. Cross your fingers that the next post says that the P family has added its newest member. Go ahead and say a little prayer, too. It can't hurt. And if the appointment doesn't go as hoped, you'll find me walking laps at the mall and chowing spicy Mexican food for the rest of the day.

So long, holidays

I suppose the holidays are officially over now. They're definitely over at our house as the decorations have all been taken down and packed away for another year. Just in time, too, as Otis had started to develop an interest in the Christmas tree. I think he just wanted his window back. Who knows. I think he's very happy now. He's got access to "his" window, the leather chair is back in a place where he can rescue his ball when it rolls beneath it, and he can actually run in circles again in the living room. It's not a bad set-up for the little guy.

I think he was also pretty happy with the goings-on around here Sunday as M and I spent what we have declared as the laziest day in the history of our knowing each other. We did get up and go to church, but we didn't do anything else (at least nothing productive). Once we got home, we crawled back into our pj's and back into the bed. We let Otis in to nap with us, and the three of us slept in a pile for an entire three hours. We then proceeded to watch football in bed for the remainder of the day. We didn't get up until we got hungry, and then we went out to dinner. Like I said, a completely lazy day. It was glorious. As for the TV in the bedroom- I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we got one. We have always been proud of being a one TV family. We liked that we weren't glued to the TV in bed. We caved, though. I can't even begin to explain why, but I will say that Sunday afternoon was very nice (and it is a very small TV).

Beyond that, we are just hanging out in baby mode. I am sincerely ready for S to "get out." We're taking more walks, and I've started eating spicy foods. I don't even like spicy foods, really. What I do like is the idea of being post-natal. I'm ready to get this show on the road.

Oh, yeah- I suppose with the new year, I should admit my New Year's resolutions. I have two. The first is to lose the baby weight. I'm giving myself the whole year to do it, and we're not talking "much" weight, so I am confident I'll succeed. I'm not going to drive myself crazy about it. I just know that I'll feel better about myself at my normal size than I would carrying around extra weight, and I think feeling better about myself is going to be critical in my actually being a good mother (and wife). The second is to get back in the habit of walking Otis at least four times a week. I feel bad not saying I'll walk him every day (especially since I always walked him when I was still amongst the ranks of the employed), but I don't really know what life will be like once little bit is here. Also, I'm not holding myself to this resolution until the baby arrives.

I guess that's it from around here. Two of the nutcrackers wanted to say Happy New Year before they were put away- May the force be with you.