Happy Halloween!
I bought this baby penguin costume from Old Navy for $5 last November. Jesse wasn't even in the plans yet. But I convinced Andy that someday we would have a baby, and I would want to buy said baby a costume. I could pay $20 in the future, or $5 right then. $5 won out. It is freaking humongous on my six pound baby. It was worth it for a few pictures. Since he was sleeping, I decided not to push my luck and try to get anything better or more posed. Have fun trick or treating, handing out candy, or attending a costume party tonight!

Wow. Now That's Some Before & After.

When Life Throws You a Curveball
I was definitely not supposed to be here, doing this, today. By all accounts, I should be at work right now, thrilled that it's 4:30 and the work day is almost over. I should be chewing on a Tums and waddling out to my car in a little bit, thinking about how great it will be to lay around on the couch all night because I'm exhausted. I should be wondering if Wednesday is too early to start saying I'm 38 weeks, if I don't actually turn 38 weeks until Sunday. I should be thinking - one more day down.

Instead, I am 5 days post partum. Instead of counting down the days, I'm counting the minutes he's been eating, and the hours til the next feeding. I'm waddling, but that's thanks to the emergency c-section I had last Friday afternoon. Instead of reaching for my Tums, it's the Oxycodin. I'm still exhausted, but, well you can imagine why.

After working a half-day last Friday, an appointment at my OB’s office to check my rising blood pressure turned into a fair amount of resulting drama. Before I had time to blink, and within minutes of my husband arriving at the hospital, I was celebrating the birth of my son, Jesse Cole, at 5:22 PM. There are lots of pictures I could show, but instead here’s a selection, one for every day of his life so far. Like everyone ever told me or warned me, I feel an overwhelming amount of worry and love every time I look into this face.

Day Zero


Day One


Day Two


Day Three


Day Four


Day Five

FAIL.
From time to time, I enjoy this blog: failblog.org

I won't rip it off by slapping a big "FAIL" across this picture, but based on the following evidence, I declare October 2008 a failure of an October. I have tried to be patient, but consistent temperatures in the mid-80s in the middle of October is entirely unacceptable. I demand proper fall weather!

36 Weeks
I haven't quite mastered this whole self-portrait thing yet. The camera is always such a prominent part of the picture. I was really anticipating getting to this point in pregnancy. In my mind, I thought that 36 weeks would finally sound really far along. Far enough along that I'd finally be allowed to look "full-term." But STILL people look at me, ask me how much longer, and then reply, "Oh still a month?" or "That's a long time!" Worse than these comments are the look that some give me, clearly trying to restrain themselves. Who can imagine what these comments might be if voiced? Apparently they think I should be delivering tomorrow. Ugh. I should have learned this already. When you are pregnant, some people can just be ridiculous. This is well-documented. Why should I be any different? There are plenty - many more - for whom a month practically is tomorrow. "Oooh, it's almost here!!" they squeal. I really like these people.



As you can kind of see in the background above, we got our baby cage - aka Pack 'n' Play - (thanks 8G ladies!) and have it set up in our room. Here's a better shot. We plan on having him sleep in the bassinet portion in our room when he is a newborn. Because we wanted a PNP anyways, we thought that by using the bassinet that comes with it, we'd save money and room by not buying a separate bassinet or co-sleeper.



P.S. Happy 60th Birthday Mum! I remember you signing a note you had left by my bed, "Love, Your 40-year-old Mum." You're still that young to me.

My Ridiculous Feet
So, I was wrong. I truly and fervently hoped and believed that once the weather cooled down my ankle size would go down as well. While we’ve had a pretty warm fall so far, the weather is certainly cooler than it was back in August. But this, along with the drop in humidity, brought no change in my swelling. My friend said to me the other day, make sure you take a picture of those, I did when I was pregnant. This honestly never occurred to me. They’re horrendous! Why would I ever want to remember them? But I considered that maybe after all was said and done, I wouldn’t be able to accurately remember how bad they were. Like forgetting the pain of labor, so they say? Once I get my feet back, I don’t want to ever take them for granted again. And maybe I will need the picture someday for a well-timed guilt trip for my son.

In all their freak show glory, here are my feet at the end of the day yesterday:



Wow, that was hard and embarrassing to post. And you guys thought I was kidding, didn’t you? Maybe being a little bit of a drama queen, hmm? Walking around on these bad boys doesn't do much for the waddling situation either. After years of people commenting on my "small" 6.5 sized feet, I find this all pretty ironic. I’ve been reading a blog lately (shout out to Mrs. Priss!), and I am quite impressed with her commitment to fashionable footwear, particularly heels, throughout her pregnancy. Bless her. I really had no choice in the matter. None of my shoes fit – even my comfortable-but-still-cute ballet flats. For most of the summer, I wore flip flops, every single day. Yes, I have an office job; and a very understanding boss.

About a month ago I decided I needed some closed-toe shoes to get me through the fall. Sadly, it’s not even about getting bigger shoes. When I go up a size or two, all I get are ill-fitting shoes that flop off the back of my heel. I needed comfort and give. I settled on the Malindi version of Crocs. My husband hates Crocs with a passion. He was highly chagrined last summer when I insisted on going back to this one store in Chinatown in NYC to get some hot pink mock Crocs for $8. Those were the classic clog Croc style however, which are admittedly not that attractive (but comfortable!) The Malindi Crocs, while not exactly the height of fashion, are much more understated and slim (unlike my actual feet). I’m not sure he’s even noticed they’re Crocs yet. Or maybe he has and in his great wisdom has decided that picking on them at this point would be a really bad idea. They’re working out well. But as you can tell from the shoe-less picture above, they still leave indentations in my feet, which would happily swell to the size of Violet Beauregarde as a blueberry if left unchecked.



*For those new to this phenomenon, I have a classic pregnancy condition called edema. Yes, my case is worse than the average pregnant woman. My doctor is well aware of it and is not worried, as long as my blood pressure stays ok, which it has so far. I just have to live with it until this baby comes out. As she said to me yesterday, “Let’s get those puffy little feet up into the stirrups.” LOVELY. I don't know exactly how much water/fluid I'm retaining, but here's hoping it's at least 20 pounds worth. :0. Also, I drink a ton of water, put them up as much as I can, and see no difference when I watch my sodium intake. So, thank you for the advice, but believe you me, I have tried!

There is no title for randomness

Here's some photos, since I have a brand new "I'm having a baby!" digital camera. Other interesting but random notes for the week include that the Steelers are now 3-1, but not without having paid the price. Apparently Safety Ryan Clark showed up to the press conference this week to say it was called off, joking, "I'm sorry, Coach Tomlin is injured." He may as well be too! It's going to be a looong season. And the Chuck season premiere was so fantastic. If you're not watching it, you should be. Onto the photos...

First of all, here's my baby's new bed!



And speaking of beds, here's the king-size, loaded-with-pillows variety I got to enjoy all to myself while on a business trip to Nashville this week. I was really looking forward to this. (sorry Andy). And the AC was cranked - Andy would have woken up as a popsicle. I loved it.



And finally, in case you're not on Facebook with me, here's a shot of the belly at 34.5 weeks. And my new camera. :)

Handbag Planet!
HandbagPlanet.com is launching its website on October 15th, and every hour for an entire 24 hours they will draw for another free handbag! You can enter on their website and you can even choose which bag you'd like to win. I had a hard time choosing! Good luck.