Week 31 Day 7

If you don't know what TED talks are, you should.  Here is one that is really spectacular and relevant.  I'm not sure I'd have watched it a year ago.  But it has a great deal of meaning to me, now.
   And to think that this is all going on in my wife's belly is pretty awesome.  Speaking of my wife's belly, here is a shot from her point of view.

Notice the larger bulge just to the left of the track pad on her laptop.  Yeah, the kid likes to stay mostly over there.  Obstinate.  Like it's parents.

Week 31 Day 5

   Wow, this is like 3 or 4 posts this week.  I must have some extra time or something.  Work is also slowing down a bit as we near Thanksgiving.

   So here’s something else I take for granted.  As the belly gets larger, it really does limit the ability to do certain things… like doing the dishes.

   Here my wife illustrates just how far the belly pushes her away from the counter.  We’ve always joked about her Tyrannosaurus arms but I think she’s really feeling it now.

That, or she’s using it as an excuse to not do the dishes…  Pretty good excuse.

   And she’s looking pretty good, too, dontcha think?

Pregnant.  Check.

Kitchen.  Check.

Barefoot?  Not sure.

Yes.  I am an ass.

Week 31 Day 4

Can I hire this babysitter?  Especially if he just works for dog treats.

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