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Pumpkin was born Thursday, November 5th at 5:30pm after a pretty easy induction. Easy being relative to labor, of course! He weighed in at 8lbs, 2oz and 19 inches long. He's eating like a champ, sleeping more than I ever remember peanut sleeping and overall just about the most adorable thing ever.

We came home yesterday and are settling into home life.

I'm sure I'll have more to say in the days/weeks to come as we recover, sleep and get to know our newest little family member.

Three

After two days of 5:30AM wake ups, thanks to the time change, peanut actually slept until 7:15 yesterday morning. The hubby was already up, I was awake, but still in bed after a night of inconsistent, intense, almost more than Braxton-Hicks contractions. Peanut came running in our room, scurried onto the bed and burrowed next to me pulling the covers up to his chin. His eyes still sleepy, his breath stale from sleep, his arms warm around my neck as he buried his head into my shoulder. We called for the hubby and snuggled in for a few sweet, satisfying moments as our little family of three.

We decided with the midwife this week that if pumpkin doesn't make an appearance before, we will be induced on Thursday. It's strange to be so ready for pumpkin to arrive and yet be suddenly so apprehensive knowing the time I have with my little peanut is limited.

As much as his being sick recently has been a worry and a stress, it's also been a selfishly satisfying time for mama. He's been much more snugly and needy in an emotional way than he has in a long time. We had great fun reading stories and watching videos while he cuddled in my lap, or at least what's left of it. There was something sweet and reminiscent of his infant days knowing that sometimes, when he is tired and cranky and not feeling well, he just needs to be held by his mama to feel comfort.

Now that he's better and back to his old, active ways, I feel like I should take him to the zoo or the children's museum or the park to spend some good quality time with him before pumpkin's arrival. Unfortunately, every day past my due date has been exponentially more uncomfortable making it difficult to get to the bathroom, which is a necessity with an 8lb bowling ball sitting on my bladder, not to mention a full circuit of the zoo chasing a three year old, which I would define as "optional." Add in the anxiety of suddenly KNOWING labor is around the corner and wondering if I am really prepared for this time around. Add in the attempt to sort of straighten up the house before Grandma and Grandpa arrive this afternoon. Add in my hormonal roller coaster...

Instead of feeling guilty for what I can't do, I'm relishing in the small moments. The cuddle in the playroom chair discussing what peanut thinks pumpkin will look like. The rest on the bench in the park watching the leaves fall from the trees as peanut tries to guess which color leaf will reach the ground first. The silly moments that abound with this kid around ("I think he's going to be a lizard baby;" "Do you have issues, mommy?" "I can't bend over, daddy, pumpkin's in my belly;" "I wish I could be a teacher after I'm a truck after I'm a doctor..."). The jokes he's been making up that make absolutely no sense but send him into fits of laughter. The spontaneous hugs when he can see that I'm struggling.

As much as I'm looking forward to finally meeting and holding this little fellow who is currently causing me such physical angst, I'm almost more excited about the moment peanut meets him and our little family of three truly becomes a family of four.

And it looks like that moment is finally going to be upon us in the next 24 to 48 hours. Wish us luck!

30 Days of Thanks

First order of business: Yes, I'm still pregnant. Due November 1st. Today is November 2nd. I think we can all do the math on that one. Appointment tomorrow to see what's what. I gotta say, I'm really ready to meet this little dude, but, apparently, I give good uterus.

Now that that's done...

Last year, I embarked on a post-a-day in November that I titled 30 Days of Thanks. Obviously, this November was not the November to go for a repeat since, theoretically, a new baby will be coming soon with all of his new demands and sleep interruptions and, oh yeah, the three-year-old will still need some attention as well as that guy I'm married to and at some point I might get to pee.

Imagine my surprise when a friend posted yesterday on her own blog that she'd be taking up the torch? I was truly touched and excited. Particularly excited when I noticed that two other blogs (blogs that are new to me) read my friend's blog and also decided to join the party.

YAY!

So, if you want to join the fun, simply try a post a day for the month of November that highlight those big and little things you're thankful for, like new babies or buy one get one ice cream at the supermarket when you're overdue and figure what the heck, what's another gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream at this point?

I look forward to reading them.

Happy Halloween!

After the great costume dilemma of 2009 and the recent week of rest, Tamiflu and more rest, we made it for a brief appearance at the neighborhood Halloween party and the peanut handled 6 houses of trick-or-treating. Six may not sound like much, but have you walked the hills in our neighborhood? Yeah, that's why I'm home downloading pics and handing out candy.

So...here is a of pic of our finished and, yes, hand-made with love, costume for the peanut:

And yes, he proceeded to tell us all the things that were NOT Thomas-accurate.

Even Mama got in on the action this year:

Ready to meet this "bouncing" baby boy!

Hope you all are enjoying your Halloween tricks and treats! I'm off to indulge in a few Special Darks and Reese's Cups. Mmmmm...not so bad being pregnant on Halloween after all.

Pregnant with a Side of Tamiflu

As if week 39 of pregnancy wasn't stressful enough on its own. I've been hoping that every twinge is an indication we're close, practically praying for an early arrival. Until yesterday.

Peanut has had a cough for a week. I took him to the doc on Monday, assuming our pediatrician would pooh-pooh it like usual and give me the usual: fluids, rest, blah, blah, blah. Essentially, give me the peace of mind I was seeking in this final week before my due date. Instead, Dr. Killjoy would not commit and dropped the H-bomb: H1N1. Not that it definitely resembled it, but that he couldn't rule it out, he said while eyeing the basketball in my belly. He gave us a prescription for Tamiflu to only fill if his cough stayed the same but his fever got worse.

Well, Wednesday morning, peanut spiked to 101+. Great. Called in and they told me to fill that sucker, so we did. Then called the OB's office. Now I'm on it, too. Even though I've already had the scratchy throat and slight cough. Great. Nothing like being paranoid about possible swine flu during labor.

Needless to say, I'm keeping my legs crossed at least until peanut's 5-day course of Tamiflu is complete on Monday. I'm on the "precautionary" version, so I have a 10 day course to go. Hoping to put together a plan with the midwife at tomorrow's appointment, but to say I've been freaking out would be an understatement. Nothing like new avenues of paranoid thought to travel down while tossing and turning all night since no position is comfortable right now. Will I be able to be around my new baby? Will I be able to breastfeed? Will we all be healthy enough to bring the baby home? Why did this have to happen to us? Because, yes, I'm taking it as some sort of personal insult.

Last night, through the stressful tears that keep welling up at random times (thanks hormones), I looked at the hubby and told him one day we'd look back on this time and laugh. I hope that day comes sooner rather than later.

12 Days of Pregnancy

Twelve little days until my due date. Unless pumpkin is 10 days late, like peanut was, and I'm looking at 22 days to go which is such a dark and depressing thought that I am refusing to go there right now.

Instead, I have been humming the 12 Days of Christmas all day and wondering what the comparable 12 days of pregnancy would be. As impractical as 11 pipers piping would be to my life right now, I could relate to eight maids a-milking.

Here's my countdown of the last 12 days of pregnancy:

On the 12th day of pregnancy, my true love gave to me 12 bowls of ice cream;
On the 11th day of pregnancy, I will have 11 to-do lists;
On the 10th day of pregnancy, I will start 10 useless projects;
On the 9th day of pregnancy, I will give into 9 days of "Cars" viewing;
On the 8th day of pregnancy, I will be doing 8 loads of laundry;
On the 7th day of pregnancy, I will come up with 7 new name choices;
On the 6th day of pregnancy, the hubby will witness 6 mental breakdowns;
On the 5th day of pregnancy, I will be 5 centimeters!!! (I wish!)
On the 4th day of pregnancy, I will be up for 4 pees a night;
On the 3rd day of pregnancy, my mom will start calling 3 times a day;
On the 2nd day of pregnancy, I will only have 2 shirts that fit right;
On the 1st day of pregnancy, I am looking forward to...

A baby in a bassinet.

I'm definitely in the mentally challenging part of the pregnancy. The wishing an exam gives a glimmer of hope. The hoping a twinge is the start of something. The counting down to a day that doesn't really mean anything. So far, nothing's happening and I strangely feel physically less ready than I did a week ago. Which is frustrating. But typical.

Guess I'll just sing my new little ditty and continue to nurture this little guy inside since he'll be worth every minute of the wait. Better than four french hens, for sure.

Halloween Costume Conundrum

My mother made most, if not all, of our Halloween costumes when we were kids. If she didn't make them, we put them together ourselves. I don't recall ever having a store bought costume. Not once.

I was a clown, a crayon, a witch, a hobo (the same year my sister went as a rich lady), Little Red Riding Hood, and so much more I'm having a hard time remembering.

Peanut has been a frog and Spiderman for his only two Halloweens. Neither of which I made. Both years this made me feel guilty or somehow lacking in the mother gene since this was something fun we did with our mom every year.

This year, peanut is complicating it further by constantly changing his mind. At first, he wanted to be an astronaut, which thrilled the hubby. We found a great costume online that I loved because it was pretty inexpensive and could be used for dress-up all year long. Dress-up isn't something my kid does often, okay, ever, but he does pretend to take off in a rocket ship a lot and a costume for those rainy day spaceship forts made out of pillows would make it a bit more fun, don't you think? And the relief of getting the costume taken care of early while my due date looms on the Halloween horizon? Priceless.

Then, suddenly, out of the blue, he decides he wants to be a train. Great. I really don't care for the Thomas costumes all over the Internet and Target, so I tried to see if it would pass or I could convince him to go back to the astronaut idea (thankfully, I had not ordered it yet). Then it was he wanted to be a race car and daddy would be a race car driver. Then, no, I want to be the race car driver. Then, I want to be a school bus. Then, I want to be a taxi. Then, I want to be a train again.

We obviously need to make a decision soon. At dinner tonight, when he announced that he didn't want to be a train he wanted to be a car - no wait, a train again - I looked at the hubby and said, "I'm just going to make him be a carrot." Why? Because it was just the most random thing that popped in my head.

Peanut retorted: "You can't tell me what I am for Halloween, mommy. I tell myself."

Dude. Who knew the "You can't tell me what to do" thing was going to start so young?

I'm beginning to wish I had inherited the sewing desire, not to mention skill, so I could just whip something up. So the pressure was off a little bit and we could explore some options for costumes together. So we could enjoy that time together working on a special project, just the peanut and me. Maybe it's more nesting - the need to make things, create, solve, make my peanut happy. The problem? Totally uninspired.

Tonight, I'm going to dig deep, channel my mother, tap into the crafty side, go online and see what the heck I can do to come up with a short list for the peanut and try to knock out this costume conundrum by the end of the weekend.

Otherwise, I just won't comb out his bed head that morning and he'll be going as Dennis the Menace.

Other suggestions? Did you wear more home made or store bought costumes as a kid? What about your kids?