Baby by Numbers

So after having been chastized directly ("So. . . I just noticed the ratio of posts to your blog in the last three years.") and indirectly ("Now I know the big secret. . . . : Real writers write everyday.") by two of the best writers I know, I'm going to try to bring this blog into a comeback. No, for reals this time. At first, I had too little time to blog (honors thesis/finals), but lately I've had too much time to blog. That may not make sense unless you've spent a month alone in a new apartment in a neighborhood you don't know with no car. That's a recipe for ennui if I ever knew one--I couldn't get up the energy to read, much less write to my witty standard. But now that I have a part-time job, things are a lot better. I still only work 4 hours a day and it's temp work, but it's enough to force my brain to come out of hibernation and think about things.

During all that filing and stapling, I've been contemplating a little feature which I hope to make semi-regular on this blog for the next few months--i.e. until the baby arrives. After reading a bunch of websites and magazines on pregnancy, I'm highly bored with the standard pregnancy story. The excitement, the worries, all of that is all pretty much the same. At the same time, I know my friends want to be informed of my pregnancy progress. I've decided these two problems can be reconciled with the writer's favorite tool for adding interest to standard subjects: innovative formatting! And without further ado, I present "Baby by Numbers":

• 245 - bus I ride to work which still sometimes makes me sick, even though the morning sickness has mostly subsided. It doesn't help when the bus driver is a displaced chain-smoking cowboy.
• 5 - days at my temp job before somebody figured out I was pregnant.
• 12 - colors in this "Wild Stripes" baby blanket I want to knit. Baby things that aren't in pastel? Sign me up! I don't know why I'm so against pastel--probably because they wash me out. Unfortunately, a lot of the recommended colors are discontinued. I'm terrified to try to pick out 12 colors that will work together! Help?
• 3-5 - times I wake up each night. It's getting really hard to sleep. Three factors are combining to ruin my sleep: I am getting bigger and therefore more difficult to position, the bed at our corporate housing is uncomfortable (I miss our IKEA bed), and the sheets and blankets refuse to stay put and get all wrinkley. Did I mention that straight sheets and blankets are my OCD obsession? I cannot sleep on things that are wrinkley and slide around.
• 1 - baby blankets I currently own.
• 1 - baby outfits I currently own. I expect these last two in increase dramatically very soon because . . .
• 14 - days until my ultrasound on June 18th! George and I can't wait to find out it it's a boy or a girl; it'll make the whole we're-going-to-have-a-baby thing a lot more real.
• 21 - weeks until baby is due. For those of you who don't speak pregnancy, that'd be 4-5 months. :D