Week 36 Day 2

   Our child is going to be born at home. 

   If you haven’t been able to deduce from my earlier posts, we are pursuing a home birth for our child.  My wife has 3 siblings all of whom were born at home so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when she told me that she’d like to have a home birth. 

   I’m a pretty easy going kind of guy who tends to roll with… well…. whatever.  So I thought, “Sure.  Why not?”

   Things have been great.  She found a midwife that we both love.  She regularly sees a doctor to ensure that this will remain a low-risk pregnancy.  And we live 15 minutes away from a major hospital… just in case.

   There are lots of reasons to have your birth at a hospital just as there are lots of reasons to have your birth at home.    

   Here are the reasons why we’re having a home birth:

·        Enhanced bonding from the moment of birth

·        Home environment to relax both me and the mother of our child

·        Limited exposure to everything in the hospital

·        Dim lighting

·        Privacy

·        Control

·        Mobility – for the mother

·        Wearing our own pajamas

·        Going to sleep in our own bed

·        One on one attention from the midwife – if we need it

·        No rush to cut the cord or weigh the baby (the weight is not going to change dramatically in the first two hours of life)

·        Eating what we want, when we want

  And there are probably many more that I’m not remembering right now.

  But what it comes down to is we have to make our own choices.  We weigh the pros, cons and possible consequences and make the best educated choice we can.  We will trust ourselves with this choice.  We can only ask others to trust us with this choice as well.  Everyone trusts us to not be an ass with a child.  Why is the choice of childbirth any different?

Week 35 Day 7

   My wife sent me this video that she took with her smart phone.

   Now THIS is pretty freaky.  We have about a month to go (plus or minus) and the kid seems ready to be free.  I remember hearing that towards the end of the third trimester the baby will actually move less because it is running out of room.  It would be awesome if that were true but I think it might have been a lie to make us feel better.

   I thought this would have been an appropriate place for a link to the alien chest burster scene in the first Alien movie, but after watching it I quickly realized this would be a mistake.  Instead, here is a link to the Spaceballs version.  Which considering how much reaction we’re getting from musical events we attend seems even more appropriate.

Week 35 Day 3

   The kid is moving all over the place.  It’s absolutely crazy to see the movement just on the other side of my wife’s belly.  I hate to make this analogy but it’s like something out of a sci-fi horror flick. (She will call me an ass for saying this)

  But as I exclaim in this video, it is truly awesome.  Let’s define awesome:  Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement.  Let's see... Awe? Yes.  Terror?  Definitely.  Wonder and excitement?  Yes and yes.  Yep, this whole ride is pretty much awesome on all levels.
   The kid is already pushing my buttons, though.  It will move CONSTANTLY and then when I get the video camera out it totally stops moving.  It's like it KNOWS and is already being willfully disobedient.  I'm sure I probably deserve it for all the things I did to my parents growing up.  But seriously... my future will be filled with "smile for daddy!"  And the first sentence my kid pieces together will probably be, "Stop being such an ass, daddy!"

Week 35 Day 1

   There are a great many resources out there for pregnant moms and moms-to-be.  And there are beginning to be excellent sources for impending fathers to seek help as well.  But there aren’t nearly as many for us.  Not sure why other than the decades of cultural programming telling us that the woman stays home with the children while the man earns the money.  Yeah…  I guess that’s pretty much the reason.

   Thank goodness for the 21^st century, right?  Someone might want to tell that church in Kentucky what year it is.  And make sure they know it’s 2011, not 1911.

   But I digress.  I was talking about excellent resources for dads-to-be.  Sources like Empowered Papa.  I feel fortunate to be able to find guys who feel the same way I do.  It’s refreshing after slogging through all the ‘expectations’ (or lack thereof) that people have of me and my role in the birth of my child.  On the other hand… with the bar set so low, I could really excel without even trying very hard, right? 

   But that would make me an ass.

Week 32 Day 7

   Being a man, I really don't know what it is like to be pregnant.  I can ONLY imagine and even that probably pales in comparison to reality.  My wife puts it nicely here:

I imagine a bowling ball with angry eyes a la Mario Bros.  Maybe a Bullet Bill crossed with a Bob Bomb.  And this bowling ball is charging down the lane.  And my wife and I are the pins waiting to be knocked down at the end of the lane.  
   The best thing about there being 2 of us and one baby is that if we are pins with a 1/10 split, the kid will likely only knock one of us down leaving the other to pick up the pieces.  
   I know that being a parent is going to be hard, but I can count on my wife to not be an ass most of the time and I hope she can say the same about me.

Week 32 Day 5

Here's a visual update of what's going on with the kid.  If you can keep your eyes from crossing due to the Beetlejuice striped nighty, you'll see a lot of baby movement towards the top of the screen.  The baby is head down and has been pretty much for the last couple of months at least.  So what you're seeing is the baby's feet doing a tap dance.

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.