Week 31 Day 3

   The closer the birth of our baby, the more we are realizing the impending responsibility of raising another human being to be a productive member of society.  Fortunately, everyone who does this is an ass at one time or another.  Here is a great article from a PHD mother talking about not being perfect.  (Thanks for the link, hon) And hey, if a DOCTOR makes all kinds of mistakes, how can I NOT make mistakes!  So it will be alright… right?

   This is great for taking some of the pressure off us.  But it still doesn’t change the fact that one day we will be 2 and the next there will be 3 of us.

Week 31 Day 2

   I would like to thank everyone out there for being an ass on my behalf.  I’m talkin’ about you, B-Dub.  You can get away with saying things that I just can’t.  Like commenting on how slowly my wife climbs stairs, for instance.  Or mentioning the drool factor.

   I tend to be a bit sarcastic.  (No, really!)  So I look forward to the day when I get to be an ass on behalf of some other poor guy who barely knows what he’s getting into.

   Nine –ish weeks to go.  We are definitely freaking out a bit.  But the first installment of our birthing class last Saturday assured us that we are on the right track.  Much of the information was review for us and we came away feeling confident, knowledgeable and validated that we can do this.  It’s such a good feeling and I still don’t understand guys who don’t want to play a more active role in the birth of their child or what their partner is going through. 

   I take much of this for granted as I am reminded often that I am in the minority.  Call me the 1% I guess.  But I feel like terms such as vernix, meconium, mucus plug, placenta previa among others should be something we all know something about.  Would you walk into a job interview without knowing the responsibilities of the job?

   But hey, I guess that’s just me… trying not to be an ass.

Week 30 Day 2

   Wow, I totally missed week 29.

   We’ve been getting a lot of concerned questions about the dogs.  We have 2.  Ricky and Lucy.  No, we didn’t get them at the same time.  But they’re quite a pair.

   Lucy can be seen here hiding under the crib that was generously donated (temporarily) by my mother and father in law.  Which, by the way, he made himself.  Very cool.

   It’s hard to tell in the photo because of her zombie eyes, but she is actually quite content.  She likes anything cave-like.  But in the picture it looks as though she will devotedly defend the future baby, or eat it.

   There’s lots of information out there on introducing your pets to the new baby.  So we’re reading up on that as well.  Check out this recent article, for example.

   We will certainly do everything we can to make the transition as smooth as possible hoping to get a dog like this.  Definitely not an ass.  Because dogs can totally be asses, too.  They just don’t know it and you can't really explain it to them.

Week 28 Day 6

   I’ve read a lot of books on pregnancy & childbirth.  I can’t even remember which ones any more.  I’ve gotten a great deal of useful information from them, but they all kind of run together after a point. 

   So one morning as I’m skimming a chapter I mention some factoid about something else that could go wrong with the birth and my wife says “the right answer isn’t in ANY of these books!”

   And of course, she’s right.  We could read every book available and still miss the one thing that might be really useful.  And 100 years ago there probably weren’t any books on childbirth at all!  Yet the human species has managed to continue for a couple hundred thousand generations.

   I’ve decided that I’m going to stop feeling bad about not reading this book or missing that point.  Because in the end, we have to trust ourselves to say or do the right thing.  And when that fails… “oops!  We learned”  As another friend taught me.  
   The only way to not be an ass is by learning from my mistakes that mark me as an ass.  It’s like good and evil; you can’t know one unless the other exists

Week 28 Day 3

   Early on my wife decided she didn’t like the term “Preggo” or “Preggers”.  She warned me that I would get it if I ever called her either of those things.  I may have slipped up once or twice, but I don’t think she’s holding it against me… too much.

   But this got me thinking about all the other names that have been given to women who are pregnant and if their partners have any clue as to the effect that using them has.  I remember some friends years ago that were expecting and he actually called her “fatty”.  It seemed almost cute at the time but looking back at it, it is pretty appalling.  I can only imagine how this would make a woman feel.  Especially when experiencing major hormone changes along with the physical changes.  As if women weren’t already self-conscious enough in today’s media driven idea of appropriateness.

   Along with infantile name-calling, there are a slew of things that you could say to a pregnant woman if you want to be an ass.  Here is a good link of what NOT to say to pregnant women.

Week 28 Day 2

   I went to bed the other night after my wife as I sometimes do.  This was one of the few instances I was able to crawl into bed without waking her.  I rested my hand on her belly and felt the little one moving.  I thought for sure she’d be awake with the baby moving so much.  So I started prodding a little bit.  I was able to actually push in a half of an inch or so and get a reaction from our child-to-be.  At this point I thought my wife was surely awake and just humoring me.  But then I realized that she hadn’t stirred, moaned or made any indication of wakefulness.

   So there it is.  I totally played with the baby and didn’t even wake up my wife in the process.  ‘Course, if I HAD woken her, I can imagine the verbal berating I might have received.  So maybe I’m an ass for playing with the baby in her sleep.  Fine.  I’m an ass.

Week 27 Day 1

   Dense.  I can’t get over how dense everything feels in there.  It’s real easy to tell where the baby is because there is a lot more resistance to poking depending on where it’s located in the belly.  Not only that, but we were also lying in bed and one side of my wife’s stomach was visibly higher than the other.

   A little later it had moved to just below the belly button.  I was actually able to push in on it to evenly disperse the baby throughout the womb so there was equal resistance all over her stomach.  And judging by her reaction, I assume that this is a more desirable location for the baby.

   Not only is this really cool, but the baby fights back.  Our child is going to be “strong like bull”. (insert thick Russian accent)

   According to the pregnancy assist app on my phone, it is almost 2 ½ lbs and between 13 ½ to 15 inches long.  (That’s head to toe)  But if you ask my wife, it’s much much heavier.