Five Things on Monday.

My one customary bare belly shot for the pregnancy. In which I scare everyone with that belly button. The miracle of liiiiiife.

1. My due date is Friday. The last time I was 39 weeks pregnant, I wrote this about waiting and it still rings true with how I’m feeling – minus the commuting part, add some more discomfort. I’m still very nervous about labor (“You’ve already done it!” “Yeah, so I know how hard it is!”) and still feel okay with waiting a little longer. The mystery of when it will happen still delights me more than it maddens me, though Mike starts his new job two weeks from today (where he’ll get no time off or paternity leave), so it would be nice to have the baby soon-ish so I’ll have him home for the first week or two. And I did cry last night to Mike because I’m in pain almost all of the time and the idea of going into labor scares me because I’m already so physically and mentally exhausted, so don’t think I’m not losing it a little. 

2.  My eardrum ruptured last weekend and it was terrible. The amount of pain I felt was unlike anything I remember experiencing since childbirth. Perhaps that was the infection? I have no idea how it happened or why I was in so much pain. At any rate, I cannot hear in my left ear, which is disorienting and isolating. But makes taking naps while Gabe doesn’t nap much easier. (And I’ve been napping every day, naturally.)

3. Mike had a day off and we wanted to go on a little adventure, so we took a mini vacation last week and stayed at a hotel (with a pool, of course). We ate out at restaurants we love and have been wanting to try, we visited the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, we found a MetroPark and went for a walk, and we watched TV in bed. All of our favorite things to as a family of three before we add a newborn to the mix. It was just what we needed. (Though Gabe went to bed when we did – between us in the king bed – and woke up at 6 am. HOW. We threw the TV remote at him and kept sleeping while he found Curious George.)

4. I made cinnamon rolls for Father’s Day and today I’m going to make cinnamon roll bread pudding with the leftovers. This feels worthy of mentioning as its own Very Exciting Thing.