Dinner Conversation

Me: "Does it hurt your feelings or make you mad or anything if I decide I don't want to watch The Baby being born, or catch, or cut the cord, or anything? I mean, I might change my mind when we get in there, but at this point, I'm thinking no."

The Wife: "No, I just don't want it to be something you regret missing out on. You know, I don't really *want* to *have* it, but I don't have much of a choice in the matter."

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Man-Slave, Peel Me Some Grapes!

We're now to a point where The Wife gladly accepts help tying her shoes and has mentioned that shaving her legs might be in my near future. I've also made the suggestion that she sit down while drying her lower half after a shower. I thought that would be safest for all involved after watching her precariously balancing on one foot (after she was out of the shower, at least) and then strain to get her other foot up on the counter.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Letters To The Editor

The Wife has requested a clarification. "Quite a snore" does not mean an obnoxiously loud, keep-me-up-all-night, shake-the-walls snore. She's gone from almost never snoring, to snoring most every night. But it's not very loud, just something new.

She worked 4 days this week instead of 3 and that caused a little too much swelling in her legs, so she told them to cut her back to 3. The response she got was, "Oh, I didn't realize I started scheduling you for 4 days.". Right. Sure. 'Cause there are so many with the same name (only 1), and so many people to schedule, and you do it so far in advance (less than 1 week). Anyway, they cut her back to 3, so that's good.

Baby still moves like crazy. Still no name decisions. Not much else to report.

Something I have been thinking about. We love our dogs. They are our "kids". Neither were supposed to get so big according to the shelters, but we now have 55lb. & 75lb. dogs. Inside dogs. And they're clean. Well, as far as dogs go, anyway. But they get so much hair everywhere. And we brush them pretty frequently. I don't think I could ever bring myself to make them permanent outside dogs. But I sure wish our house was laid out where we had like a basement entrance, like a mud room type of thing that could be the dog room so the rest of the house wouldn't get so hairy. There are certain rooms they can't go in. Anyway, I'm just rambling.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, THINKING

Sawing Logs

Testing the Blogger pic upload thing I just noticed.

Also, The Wife has developed quite a snore. Sometimes she wakes herself up.

Oh, and with my last post, I started receiving spam comments, so I had to add an extra step for those who want to leave a comment. Hopefully that will help. Sorry for the inconvenience for those of you with legit comments.

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Baby Room Photos

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Originally uploaded by polesposition.

Here are the baby room photos. I don't use flickr much, so I'm not sure how this post will turn out.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Burn Baby Burn

That was the subject of an email I got from The Wife last week when she was having really bad heartburn. Tums and Tylenol weren't helping, but the Pepcid Complete seemed to help. I don't think she's had as much trouble with it since then. Knock on wood.

Her sister and mom came up this weekend and helped her paint the baby room. It's pretty cool. I'll try to get around to posting some pics. So now we just have to put a baby in there.

We looked at glider rockers yesterday. Damn those things are expensive. We're thinking of alternatives at this point.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Snubbed

Changing Table, Check. $100 @ Baby Depot / Burlington Coat Factory.
Matching Dresser, Check. $150 @ local furniture store.
Mostly matching crib, Check. Free from sister-in-law.

Yaaayyy!

Also, we went to a different grocery store this weekend, hoping for a better selection of lunch meat. And we got it. Since it was a store we weren't familiar with and since we didn't have a list, we were going up every isle to see what we needed. But when we got to the isle of frozen deserts, I looked up the isle, decided we didn't need anything, and moved on. I heard The Wife announce, "We snub you, isle of frozen delights.". Maybe you had to be there, but it was quite amusing.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, THINKING

Single Digits

The Baby had The Wife's stomach all out proportion last night. Normally, it's just a perfectly round belly. But The Baby decided to camp out on her lower left side for a while and it looked crazy because her stomach was now oblong and catty-wompass instead of round.

I chose Jimmy Buffett's Defying Gravity as the song to sing to The Baby. I'm not sure if The Baby hates it or loves it, but it sure moves like crazy when I sing it. I wish I had a cool-guy Radio Blog like KD so I could upload it and you could hear it, but I don't. Now I want to learn to play the Harmonica part of the song. I haven't been able to find the sheet music for it yet, maybe I can figure it out by ear. Any suggestions?

If we're going with the due-date of 10/16/05, then today marks the official day that we have entered the single-digit weekly countdown. We're getting closer to ready, but still have a fair amount to do. We managed to choose an infant seat / stroller travel system to register for. I guess we'll also register for a convertible seat since that's what they recommended. The Britax one's seem really nice, but based on Consumer Reports, there are others that are just as safe that are half or less than half the price.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Overload

We tried to go register for baby stuff but we didn't have a plan and we hadn't done much research before hand. What a nightmare. So much shit. And so many different kinds of the same shit. Convertible car seat / infant car seat / travel system / umbrella stroller. Straight bottles / angled bottles / baggie bottles. Hundreds of different nipples and binkies. We actually left one store without even scanning one thing.

So, we sat down and talked about how we planned doing things to maybe help narrow it down. That seemed to help and I guess we'll have to go back soon and sift through all that junk to figure out what we want / need.

There's just so much crap to do and think about. I guess we'll figure it out. It's been done a bajillion times before.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Turtle Surprise

The Wife called herself a beached whale the other day when she couldn't get off her back. I said that was really more like a turtle. She agreed, sort-of.

Her 30th birthday is 8/16/05. We had a surprise party for her yesterday. It was great. The rouse was a family baby shower at her sister's house about 45 minutes away. And then they would come back this direction to go furniture shopping and I'd have them swing by to get me. Except she didn't know about that second part of the plan until yesterday. The Wife said she was a little suspicious, because she thought, yah, I'll be gone all day and then have a party tonight. But her family played it cool and didn't act like there was any set time to leave. And when she called me to find out what I wanted to do and when, I was very nonchalant. "Yah, I'd like to go, just come by and get me whenever."

So she gets here, leaves her mom and niece in the running car, comes in and says, "You ready? Let's go."

"Yahhhh, come see what your dogs did in the back yard today."

"Okay, but mom and Kendall are in the car!"

"I know, it will just take a second."

I didn't realize she was carrying cake from the baby shower, and as she's walking through the kitchen, she starts to put it in the fridge, with all the party food (all the guests are out back).

"HERE. I'll get that!" As I accidentally stab her hand with my thumbnail. I've lost all my play-it-cool at this point.

She steps outside to a ton of people and, "SURPRISE!".

"Oh. Wow." Then she turns to me, "But mom and Kendall are in the car."

"No they're not, they're coming in."

"But everyone's going furniture shopping."

"No they're not, they're coming here."

"Oh."

Heh-heh. Even though she was suspicious earlier, she had completely dismissed the possibility, never suspecting her family was in on it.

It was good fun. I even made homemade ice cream like she requested.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Good Times

The Wife says, "Having kids must be great, 'cause I can't imagine anyone doing this more than once."

Editorial Note: This post is as much for my amusement as it is for The Wife to go back and read some day when she brings up having another kid.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

The Waiting Game

The Baby Dr. appointment yesterday went well. She ask if we had a pediatrician and if The Wife wanted an epidural. We didn't know the answer to either. She recommended someone, and told us we could talk to the anesthesiologist about the epidural.

The Wife is low on Iron, so we got some OTC Iron for her to take in addition to the pre-natal. She just loves taking pills (not), so she's excited about that.

Everything seems normal, we're seeing the doctor every two weeks now. Which is kind of painful because they always seem to be behind schedule. They always seem to have some lame excuse like, "She had to deliver a baby earlier, so she's behind schedule.". ;-)

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Baby Says, "I'm King Of The World"

The Baby is getting bigger and it likes to ride way out front. From the back, you'd be hard-pressed to tell if The Wife is pregnant. And from the front, it might just look like she's a little pregnant. But from the side, there's no denying it.

It's fun to feel The Baby move and talk to it. It's really neat when it moves after I say something. I'm having a hard time picking the song I want to sing to it. It will definitely be a Jimmy Buffett tune, but the 2 or 3 I really like really center around being a boy or a girl. So I'm trying to pick a gender-neutral song. Yah, I know. Silly. But, whatever. I'll figure it out here soon.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

hiccough

The Baby got the hiccoughs today. I didn't get to see it, but The Wife said it was funny.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Tice

The Baby is eating The Wife's brain. Today she made a comment about the four vowels in the alphabet. It didn't take her long to realize it, but it was too late. It had been said and I couldn't let it go.

And then there was Saturday. We went to a kiddie water park in Columbia named Pirate's Cove at Twin Lakes. We met her fam there for a kiddie B-Day party. It was fun. Anyway. As we're walking to the entrance, I hear her say, "No Tice? What's that? No Tice? What's a Tice?". So I start looking around trying to figure out what she's talking about. I say, "You mean that sign right there in front of us? The one that says 'NOTICE'?". She tried to come up with some explanation, but I couldn't hear her over my own laughter.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Leg Cramps, Butt Aches, and Heartburn, Oh My!

Although The Wife is feeling pretty good during the day, there have been a few nights when she wakes up with leg cramps. Which sucks because she can't reach her feet with her legs straight. I try to help if I wake up, otherwise she's left to try some crazy Cirque du Soleil move to get rid of it.

Although she'd probably tell you I'm the primary pain in her ass, it wasn't me this weekend. We stayed at my dad's and I guess the bed just wasn't right because she had butt pain. Like top of the butt/hip, like a knotted muscle kind of thing. I know it's juvenile, but it's really funny to hear someone say, "Will you rub my butt?".

We were back in our own bed last night. That eliminated the butt ache. But it was replaced by heartburn. Ugh.

On a happy note. We had a blast at the lake. I got to ski several times, and now my body is punishing me. But it was worth it. I realize in the grand scheme, 31 isn't old, but it sure feels like it sometimes. Damn I love to ski. That will be one of the things I miss the most when I get too old to do it. There's just nothing like laying over as far as you can, cutting back and forth, watching the sun light up the spray. And The Baby got to ride in the boat, so that was good. I kind of wish The Baby was going to be born in-season so it could go on a boat ride right away. I was on a boat at only a couple weeks old. Oh well, we'll just have to do it first thing next season.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, SPORTS

A Fool And His Data

We got some good loot from some friends who had a baby a couple months ago. He's already outgrowing some of his stuff. Some of it is not gender specific, and some is, but still, it's FREE!

We now have most of a plan for the baby room and the new spare bedroom. Now we just need to start working on it.

Our big dog (75 lbs.) hates fireworks. They make her a nervous wreck to the point she won't even go to the bathroom. She just wants to be inside and far away from them. The little one (55 lbs.) doesn't like them either, but she mostly ignores them except for the really loud and bright ones.

Our computer is back up and running, complete with a 300GB external drive for backups. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, DOGS RULE, GEEK

Movement (delayed post)

At about 21-22 weeks, The Wife was having trouble telling the difference between bubbles in her stomach and The Baby moving. At this point, about 25 weeks) there's no doubt it's The Baby moving. I can hear it and feel it when I put my head on her stomach. I can even feel it with my hands sometimes. It's amazing. I also think that sometimes, when The Baby is in the right spot and I'm listening to The Wife's belly, I can hear The Baby's heartbeat, ever so faintly. The Wife and The Doctor think I'm crazy, but what the hell do they know?

We had our second sonogram. This time it's not just a dot. It's a real baby!!! That was cool. It was moving & waving & moving it's mouth. All sorts of stuff. We did not find out the gender, so we'll just have to wait and see what comes out. Literally. Well, not me. No. Someone else will be watching it come out. I'll just get to see the end result. Later. After it's come out.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Vacation Good, PC Bad (delayed post)

Texas was good. We had fun. It was nice to see my brother and his family. Sea World was really very cool. We did it in 2 days which was a good plan. It could've been done in one, but I bought the 2-day passes on the Internet, and they were only another $4. That way, when we got hot in the afternoon, we called it a day and went back to the pool and swam. We had a lot of fun swimming. In fact, we had a lot of fun in general. Then we went back the next day, saw the stuff we missed, and saw the really cool stuff a second time. Getting to pet and feed the dolphins was very cool for me. And watching those people interact with the whales was amazing.

Oh, at one point The Wife kind of forgot she was pregnant and tried to "hop" out of the pool by throwing one leg up on the side. She kind of teetered on the edge for a second before she was able to get enough ooomph to make it out. I recommended she use the stairs or ladder from then on.

Then when we got back, the PC wouldn't boot. I knew it was the hard drive or the controller card. Turns out it was the hard drive. I've still got a guy trying to recover the data, but it's looking like a lost cause.

FILE UNDER: THINKING, PRE-PARENTHOOD

I suck

We were on vacation for a week, came back, PC busted. Big time. I don't know if it was lighting, a surge, or just it's time, but my hard drive is dead. I even tried swapping out the circuit board because the platter was spinning, it just couldn't seem to read anything. No luck.

So, I'm re-building. And between trying to recover from vacation, work being busy, and a lot going on around the house (painting, windows, doors, etc.), it's taking me longer than I should. It's also keeping me from posting baby updates. There's a lot to tell, and I'll get to it soon.

FILE UNDER: GEEK