Countdown to One Continues

Um. Today is November 6th.

This date last year was a Friday. Funny how clearly I remember the days around William's birth. I thought that I still had a week left in the office - I had decided on a last day before my due date, but it wasn't going to be for another full week. My office wasn't cleaned out (which turned out to be a win for my coworkers, who later confessed to eating my stash of chocolate-covered pretzels, granola bars, and who knows what else I had in that desk).

We had had a company jack-o'-lantern contest for Halloween, and my department won, so on this particular Friday, we went out to a nice lunch as our prize. Looking back, it was a pretty great last day. I seem to recall a delicious chocolate-caramel torte with sea salt. (Who gets dessert at lunch?) Whoa. Being pregnant was awesome.

That weekend, Esch and I were nesting. I was pretty sure that WWM would be late, so the thought didn't enter my mind that it would be so soon. In fact, the same Friday as the lunch out, I had my 38 week appointment, and they told me the 2 most dreaded words of women past 37 weeks... "No progress."

I was disappointed, but not surprised, and Esch and I spent the weekend prepping. Our bags were finally packed (luckily), I ran errands, we refinished some furniture. It was warm out (Oh, Texas in November) and I was stressing that if W was indeed late and we had to go to our induction date, that Thanksgiving would be rough with a brand-new little one in the house, along with our many visitors.

The last picture of myself pregnant that I have is a good week before he was born. I was huge! I remember literally waddling up the stairs and that it was a bit of a process to get up into the bed. Can't believe that I look like a normal human being again. I still regret not taking more belly shots, though. At that point, I was doing them once a week, and next time to be safe, I think I'll do them daily at the end. It'd be neat to see a "before" from the same day he was born. Oh well.

Today, November 6th, is a Saturday. It's sunny and beautiful, but this year we're in PA. It's very much Fall. It's chilly out. Lots of things are different, but namely there is a beautiful, happy little boy taking his morning nap about 20 feet down the hall.

Wow.