Halloween Hottie

The staff at the clinic where Autrey is "working" decided to all dress up on Friday with the theme of an 80's Prom. He looks pretty good to me. I mean, I would have gone to Prom with him. Brian, Autrey, Greg, and Jeff (Autrey's clinical instructor):

The rest of the office:

Unfortunately, I didn't dress up this year. (Actually, I hardly ever even get dressed these days. My wardrobe has consisted mainly of pjs for the past 7 weeks.) I just look like I swallowed a little pumpkin. My dad keeps telling me that he wants Dylan to be a November turkey and not an October pumpkin. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that he is going to get his wish. If anyone wants to join in a friendly competition, I am taking bets on when Dylan's birthday will be. Guesses, anyone? (FYI: My official due date is November 30)

Week 34 Update

I have made it to 34 weeks. That's quite an accomplishment for me. It's amazing that it's already been 5 weeks since my hospital episode. My concept of time has become somewhat warped due to being on bed rest. It hasn't been fun being sidelined at home all day, but it has been a blessing in many ways. For one thing, I am able to sleep until my eyes pop open. Unfortunately, my eyes pop open more than they should leaving me feeling less rested than I would like. However, I know I would be way more tired if I was still working and getting up early to an alarm. Also, I would be around the kids and all of their germs if I was teaching every day. The swine flu has taken its toll in our area, so I am glad I am safely quarantined. This afternoon I went to both of my doctor appointments. Dylan now weighs in at 1 oz. under 5 lbs. and is probably about 18 inches long. Yes, he is still breech. He gets the hiccups 1-2 times every day. Either that or he has a great sense of rhythm. His favorite game is Tag. When the nurses put the heart rate monitor on me, Dylan likes to kick it (his way of saying "you're it!") and move around so we have to "chase him" and find his heart beat again. Invariably he will kick it again so the game continues. He sure likes to make things interesting!

Baby Shower

Christie and Meggan threw a great baby shower for me last night. It was so fun to get out of the house and hang out with friends from church that I haven't seen in a few weeks. Christie loves to bake and truly outdid herself. Check out the spread:

How cute are her onesie shaped cookies?

Best. cake. EVER! Coconut with butter cream frosting. A Paula Dean classic.

Meggan put her artistic skills to use and made this to hang in Dylan's nursery.

Thanks again, ladies! Love ya!

Photo Shoot

My dear friends, Christie Halverson and Meggan Boston, are huge into photography. They both called me the other day and wanted to take pictures of a pregnant person to expand their repertoires. It was difficult, but I worked them into my busy bed rest schedule...haha. I have become somewhat of a nappy looking hermit these last few weeks, so it was nice to have an excuse to clean up and look human again...and then let photoshop do the rest. Christie actually put this first headshot on her photography website and the next 2 on her blog. It was quite the ego boost. Meggan took the other ones and did a great job. These will more than suffice for my week 32 prego pictures. Enjoy me, me, and more me.

Murphy's Law

Murphy's Law is an adage that basically says: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Have you ever had the feeling that Murphy's Law is creating chaos in your life? I have. Don't get me wrong. There have been a lot of good things happening lately too, but here are the things that have been thrown my way to taint otherwise pleasant situations:

-Autrey finally gets home from Dallas ---> 24 hours later I am in the hospital and sent home to be on bed rest so we can't enjoy our last few weeks of pre-parenthood as much as we had hoped.
-My in-laws generously provide us with new nursery furniture ---> When we get home and unpack the boxes we discover the crib headboard is busted and it takes Burlington 2 weeks to track down both the replacement and the dresser we ordered that was coming from a different store in Illinois.
-Spend a few hours with the Husband going through finances to make a tight budget to accommodate Dylan's impending arrival and subsequent costs to support him and pay for child care when I go back to work ---> Start back at square one after being rocked by the unplanned expenses of spending 3 1/2 days in the hospital, getting in a car accident when you only have liability insurance, and going WAY over on your cell phone minutes due to recent events. I'm wary of attempting another budget meeting for fear of Murphy's Law coming into effect again.
-Car accident, you say? Yes. Let me explain. Yesterday I got the crazy idea in my head that after 3 weeks of doing well on bed rest I could drive myself the short distance to the hospital for my appointment. On the way home, the young girl driving in front of me started to turn right but suddenly stopped for no apparent reason, catching me off guard and causing me to bump into her. Here is the back of her car:

And here is the front of mine:

It is just my luck that my first time venturing out on my own outside the apartment in 3 weeks I would wreck the car. Isn't it ironic, don't ya think? Days like today you just have to laugh to keep from crying. Curse Murphy and his wretched law.