And Finally...a Picture! Of Me!

Due to high demand (that would be two people) asking to see a belly shot, I've finally got one! And it's got two things going for it: 1. you can't really see my belly and 2. you can't really see my face! I love the picture, though. Feast your eyes on my expanding womb:



My friend is a professional photographer and was horrified when she found out I wasn't taking any pregnancy pictures, so she insisted. I'm glad she did as I really like what she ended up with (and I hate pictures of myself). There's even a great one of Kirk where he has his hands on my belly and he looks frightened. It's very appropriate.

In other news, I have finished four books in my Quest to Read 25 Books Before Another Person Invades My Life: Angels & Demons, Isolation Ward, Triptych and The Stolen Child. I am now working on Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.

Back to the same news: the heartburn and indigestion has started and, after a month and a half hiatus, Oscar the Hemorrhoid is conducting his comeback tour. Whooo hoo! Pregnancy is GREAT!

A New Schedule! That I Stuck To!

In an effort to not spend the rest of my pregnancy vegged out in front of the television, progressively getting stupider, I made myself a new schedule and amazed myself by actually sticking to it today! Here's my evening so far:

5:00 pm: Get home, make dinner. Tonight, I made pizza with a zucchini crust. Sound disgusting? It wasn't! Quite yummy, actually, but not as crunchy as I was hoping for.

6:00 pm: Work on the computer. Today I got a book review done and actually wrote 5 pages on the novel I'm working on. I haven't written five pages in one day in...months. Which might explain why I haven't actually finished writing a novel since college.

7:00 pm: Read. I'm already 3/4 of the way done with the first of my 30 Books to Read Before I Give Birth list, Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. It's amazing how much more reading you can get done when you're in a quiet room as opposed to in front of the blaring TV.

8:00 pm: Turn on television. Though there isn't much good on tonight and I'll probably end up reading more. Or eating. I had a doctor's appointment today and only gained 3 pounds. And this was directly after lunch and with my big klunky boots on. Considering this has been my worst eating month since the first trimester, it was somewhat of a shock. And now, of course, I'm convinced I can eat anything I damn well please and not put on weight. Dangerous, dangerous thought.

My next goal? To actually download the picture I took of myself so you can see my ever-expanding girth. Though it didn't expand that much this month. See? I just couldn't help but brag again about my small weight gain! Ha! And did I mention how little weight I put on this month? HA!! Okay, the new schedule has made me loopy. Must return to vegging out.

A Startling Revelation

Let me preface this post by saying everything is absolutely fine with my pregnancy. Had another cervical ultrasound today and it's a-okay, good enough that I will not need any further hoo-hah probing with this particular device, though I am sure there will be plenty of hoo-hah probing of a different nature in the months to come. This was not a sexual comment, though when I look back at it, it seems really dirty. So. On to the revelation.

I AM NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO READ FOR HOURS ON END IN A FEW MONTHS!!! For those of you who have not spend your life with your nose buried in one book or another, this revelation won't seem like much. But I've ALWAYS had a book I've been reading (many times, more than one) since I could read. I can remember back to my Ramona era, my Sweet Valley Twins addiction, my enthrallment with Christopher Pike. Then I discovered Dean Koontz at the ripe old age of 12 and have been reading adult novels ever since. I have wiled away plenty of mornings, afternoons and evenings with a book and I guess I've always taken it for granted that I would have plenty of time to read throughout my life. But things, they are a-changin'.

I don't expect I will have to give up book reading, but I do know that with a small person in the house who relies on me for every single thing in her life, I won't get to throw on my sweats on a Sunday and know that I can sit in a chair with a book and not budge until either hunger or bladder pains prompt me to move. It would be naive, simplistic and, well, dumb to think that my life won't drastically change. So that got me to wondering...why the hell am I not cramming in every single moment of reading time that I can now?? I need a backlog of books in my brain to get me through the literary dry spell that will surely occur throughout the first few months (years??) of my child's life.

So I have decided to issue myself a challenge: read 30 books by the time my baby is born. Not baby books, not naming books, BOOKS. NOVELS. THE GOOD STUFF. And, hopefully, if I'm on the ball, talk about them here. Then, in a few months, I can look back at my blog fondly and remember this golden era of pre-baby bibliophilia (I have no idea if that's a word and I don't care).