Guilty pleasure

Since I'm not Catholic, blogging is as close to confession as I'm gonna get.

I admit it, I watch and take great pleasure in watching The Girls Next Door. Heard of it? Seen it? It's a reality show on E! featuring Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends and their lives at the Playboy Mansion.

I know, I know...it doesn't get any worse than this, does it? This is just the kind of show that I would normally rail against, but...but...it's just so good. Okay, not good exactly, but so bad it's good. But really, it's not bad. Hmm, what am I trying to say.

Okay, it's the kind of show that leaves you with as many questions as answers about the life a Playboy girlfriend would lead. Holly, Bridget and Kendra are not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, but the former two aren't as dumb as they appear (Kendra, is in fact as dumb as she appears). Holly, the primary girlfriend, intrigues me the most as she seems to genuinely love 80-year-old Hef, while the other two seem to have taken on the girlfriend role more as a job than anything else. So I wonder...how does this arrangement really work? Has Hef included all three in his estate plans, or maybe just Holly? How does his daughter, now CEO of Playboy, accept her father's significant otherS? Or maybe this is a nice change from the 7 girlfriends of yester year. Do each of these girls have contracts? What kind of "allowance" do they get? At what point will they "break up"?

I know I could probably find the answers to most of these questions with a little digging on the internet, but I haven't succumbed to such measures yet. I'll just keep watching and see how much I can figure out. Fascinating!

R.I.P.

Life is all about beginnings and ends. We celebrate the new and mourn the dying. We endeavor to enjoy what we have knowing that everything must change. Saying goodbye, while painful, is as much a part of life as saying hello.

Today, I must say goodbye to some old friends. Good friends. Friends who have seen me through big events and small daily jaunts. I love these old friends, even though I really like making new friends.

Today I will be trying on all my shoes and making decisions about who fits and who doesn't. It seems my feet have made some permanent adjustments and now I have to unload everyone who doesn't make the size cut. Oh this is painful. What if my cowboy boots don't fit anymore? Or my cute green suede flats that I got on sale and will never be on sale again (actually they probably don't even make them anymore). Or my red faux croc boots that have seen me through several fall/winter seasons. Or last year's brown BCBG kitten heels. What will I do without the Dansko maryjanes...they've been my everything for several years now.

Maybe I can get some of those shoe stretchers...those wood and metal things that you slide in your shoes to stretch the leather. That might work...a last reprieve for the dying. But first I need to face the music and try everything on.

After that, if you wear size 9.5, you're in luck. And the upside: I get to make a LOT of new friends.

It's called Midwest Country. And it's ugly.

Towards the end of my home bedrest, I discovered the home design channel. Bretney came over to paint the baby room, and flipped to HGTV (I think) before starting on the room. In between chatting with Bretney while she worked, I watched some design show. I thought was the early part of the show...you know, the "before." This woman's sewing room was done completely in mauvey peach -- walls, shelving, etc. -- with kelly green accents on the floral drapery and other upholstery. Hideous.

What's even more hideous, I realized shortly, is that this was not the "before." Oh no. This was the "after."

"Oh my god Bretney. You have to come see this! It's horrible!"

"Yeah...it's bad. You see lots of this in the Midwest."

"But it's beyond ugly...look! Look!"

"Yeah, that's Midwest Country for you."

"Oh my god. I always thought ________ had no taste, but now I know she does. And it has a name?! Good lord, make it stop!"

"You better calm down or I'm going to change the channel. This is not good for your blood pressure."

Must post something

I'm concerned my lack of energy will completely derail any creativity, so I'm forcing myself to blog in an effort to keep the juices flowing. The problem is my experiences right now are limited to babydom, the occasional errand, and drs. appointments. My blog posts, therefore, can be limited to 1-2 sentence post-ettes:

August's first friend (besides Sammy) is the cow blanket my mom gave her. We hang it on the side of her bassinet, with the cow face looking down at her, and she looks and talks to it for longer than she does any other waking activity (minus eating). I don't think she realizes how disturbing a disembodied cow head can be.

The doctor okayed me to swim today!

Ray and I are still talking about the spinach salad and chocolate cake a la Swedish Hospital menu.

Ever since I had a pre-cancerous mole removed a few months ago, I keep finding other moles that I think are also new (and therefore potentially problematic). I hope I'm just being paranoid, as I really don't want them to continue punching out holes in my skin.

Our 140-year-old neighbor has been giving us 3-4 tomatoes from his garden every day. We've had tomato sauce, pasta with tomato, tomato/zucchini bake, grilled cheese and tomato, and are still looking for more recipes. I know: bread salad with tomato and fresh mozzarella.

If August isn't colicky yet, will she become so in the next few weeks? Crossing my fingers on this one.

This is a funny site: who said it -- Dick Cheney or Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos?

This is possibly the best website I've ever seen. It's so Science of Sleep. And the bags they sell are cool too.

That's all I got.

New friends

Milestones

Today was the 3rd day in a row the mailman saw my boob.

Also today, I got my first non-medically related trip out of the house in weeks. And this quick trip to Barnes & Noble made me realize that yes indeed, those pain meds they prescribed are narcotics.

Quicker than a root canal?

I've never had a root canal, so I don't know if this is true. But whatever...it took 4.5 hours to get August Elizabeth out of the womb. When the "ripening" drugs started working quite suddenly Tuesday morning, I landed in the middle of labor. Three intense hours later, I was 8 cm dilated and the anesthesiologist gave me an epidural. We hung out for about 45 minutes waiting for those extra 2 cm. Then the doctor was back next to my head saying "okay, baby needs to come out right now...we're wheeling you into surgery." In I went and out she came...screaming, though we'd been warned she may need resuscitation measures. She's been making her opinion known ever since, I'm pleased to report.

We're finally back at home. The cat freaks out every time AE cries as she thinks, apparently, we're hurting her kitten. Tomorrow, August will meet Sammy the dog. Maybe it's good that Sammy can't hear a thing.

Here we go

Since the baby's lungs are mature, we're starting in on induced labor. I may need to do a c-section if it doesn't go so well, but we'll probably know that tomorrow.

Cross your fingers and send good vibes!

Wi-Fi!

We just found out yesterday that Swedish has wi-fi as of a few months ago. Sweet! Why didn't we ask about this sooner? Only problem is I can't access any blogs using the larger blog services, including my own. So Ray is posting for me.

Tomorrow is a big day, maybe the big day. I'll get an amnio to determine how the baby's lung are maturing, and if mature enough, they will likely induce labor then or on Tuesday. Since I'm early this may necessitate some measures to get my body ready to deliver, which I understand could take a while. Like even a few days. Or they might decide I need a C-section. Or they might find her lungs need a few more days to percolate and they'll keep monitoring me for a week and hope my body stays as stable as its been in the last 48 hours.

So basically, this baby could arrive anytime in the next week, I guess.

Meanwhile, I am trying to stay really relaxed, watching videos and reading. The day nurse this weekend turned out to be someone I knew from the lacrosse team freshman year in college, so it's been fun to chat and pick her brain about different delivery scenarios. She's been an OB nurse since graduation. Seattle is a small town.

It's really weird to be confined to a small room for days on end. Who knows what's happening on the other side of that door...a jungle? a carnival? I have no idea, but it's fun to imagine.

Blogging for Becca

Hey Becca's readers, this is her friend Jana making a post on her behalf. Becca wants to point you all to my blog temporarily until she has internet access once again. I can make occasional posts about her status on my blog until Baby August arrives.

The latest update is Becca will deliver on Monday unless something changes. She is at Swedish Hospital on bedrest until the baby's arrival.