NaNoWriMo 2011

Well, the month of November has officially begun. I think when most of us picture November we think of colorful falling leaves, lots of rain (at least here in the Pacific Northwest), and turkey with stuffing. But at least for Tom and me it just wouldn't be November without NaNoWriMo. This is the fourth year both of us have participated in this 30 day 50,000 word writing challenge. In spite of our nutty lives, it's always something we look forward to.

Every year on Halloween night we attend the Seattle kickoff party from about 10:00 pm to 2:00 am on November 1st at a local Denny's. This is apparently the 7th year they have had the party hosted there, and this year they had to close down the place to all other customers because there were so many of us in attendance. We filled up every chair and bench, and when more people kept coming, they ended up sitting cross-legged against every wall they could find just to be part of the event and have a place to write. The final count for this year's event was 160 people. considering the fact that the Denny's only seats about 145, it was a very full house!

They of course had the traditional countdown to midnight and then the crowd went absolutely silent except for the tapping of keyboards and scratching of pens on paper. After a few minutes, people started calling out every thousand words they had completed, but otherwise the noise stayed pretty minimal. As always, it was a good time. I'll admit this year I didn't make it anywhere near 2:00 am, though Tom and I both got that initial thousand words and then some before I dragged him out the door to go home.

In spite of the fact that I could go into labor this month, I'm determined that I'm going to finish the challenge this year. I guess that means I'd better try and finish early just in case.

Happy November, everybody!

-Amy

Ultrasound pictures from 10/06/11

Okay, so I realize I'm about a month late posting these pictures, but we were having some trouble with our scanner until today. My ob is having me do a lot of extra ultrasounds to keep an eye on the baby's size and growth patterns. Since he's looking so big, there's a chance they'll plan to take him early, but the doctor won't make that suggestion until we get closer to the delivery date. Back on October 6th, baby was weighing in at about 3 pounds 6 ounces, though average for that week is 2-2.5 pounds. He was also measuring in the 96th percentile (length of long bones, head, etc.), and my uterus measured a full 4 weeks ahead.


I love seeing how round he's getting these days, and I think the fist at his mouth is adorable, but I'll admit I'm pretty biased.

We have another ultrasound coming up on November 14th and they'll do more measurements then. If he's still growing at that rate I'm assuming he's going to be somewhere over 6 pounds by then. I'm still hoping to naturally go into labor sometime around the first or second week of December and not have to worry about cesarian or induction, but we'll have to see how it goes. We just want to bring home a healthy baby, whatever that takes.



-Amy