It’s a new year and the first real Friday of 2014. (Tuesday, the 31st, was kind of a Friday… but only a fake Friday. I had to go back to work after only one day off.)

Here is a baby-inspired Friday Five…

1) Take note that I didn’t mention “get pregnant” in my list of things I’ll be accomplishing in 2014. While I hope to join the masses of mothers that seem to be popping up on my Facebook wall, I feel like making that a “goal” for 2014 puts too much damn pressure on myself. (I already have a whiny mother-in-law.) Besides, I think I made that a goal for 2013… and we all can see where that went.

2) New Year’s Day brought in 2 brand new pregnancy announcements, with many others sitting in their second and third trimesters. I’m not sure what my sorority sisters are drinking, but clearly it’s not the cheap wine coolers we downed when we were in college.

3) Speaking of – pregnancy is like buying a new car. You purchase a blue car because you think you don’t see them on a road a bunch but ONLY see them on the road once you have. I notice pregnancy stories and announcements a lot more now.

4) Based on a suggestion from Cristel, I bought a Clear Blue Easy Fertility Monitor. Mostly because the loose charting I’ve been doing hasn’t yielded any results. (And I just like data, damnit!) Basal temps in the morning only really fluctuate after ovulation, in which case, it’d be too late and I get up during the night too many times for my basal temps to be accurate. The monitor is supposed to tell you when there is an increase in hormones – thus starting ovulation and making you primed for a pregnancy attempt. If you don’t see any changes, you are probably doing something wrong. I was concerned I was screwing something up because it’s been 16 days of a cycle and I hadn’t seen ANYTHING change. Until today. Cool – I didn’t break it or have terrible luck with technology. Thank goodness.

5) The hubs is very excited about this weekend. You’re welcome. 😛

Happy New Year!