So I wanted to wait until the next big milestone, the first doctors appointment, to dive into the day to day ranting, raving, and proliferating. Tomorrow we have our first big appointment to fully confirm, as my brother in law so eloquently put it, that “[you’re] really knocked up.”

But instead of talk about the hours of sleep that I’m going to miss, or the fact that my blood pressure is going to be slightly higher than normal just in time for my life insurance evaluation physical in the morning (also attributed to the baby), I’d like to talk about some other events that have happened recently that if anything, make me really appreciate what I’m gone through, and what I’m going to go through over the term of this pregnancy as well as beyond the next 7 months.

Today my wife and I attended the memorial service and burial of the still born child of some good friends. Without going into the details as I’m sure I would butcher in medical terms, out friends found out past the point of being able to terminate the pregnancy safely that their little boy was not going to be able to survive. After an induction and I’m sure heart wrenching early birth, they decided to have a service to celebrate a life that wasn’t had.  I really only wanted to mention this as it’s something that I’m sure every new parent worries about, and if anything, to recognize that even great people have bad things happen to them.  We’ll be keeping them in our thoughts through this whole process.

We also found out that a good family friend that has been going through cancer treatment down in Texas, has been having a rough go these last few weeks.  So on the completely other end of the spectrum, we’re seeing someone that we feel really deserves everything out of life, is unfortunately seeing some of the worst parts of it.  Again, it puts this whole start of a life thing into a lot of perspective.

Our hope is that tomorrow as we go in excited, nervous and happy all at the same time, we’ll be sure to think about others that are not at that same point in their lives, and that hopefully our thoughts and prayers going towards those we love will hopefully help those that we haven’t met yet.  More to come…..

So this is my first official post, hopefully of many, if I can just remember to keep it up to date along with the hundreds of other “honey do’s” that I will have over the next 8 or so months.  While I’d like to start my rant with a lengthy “this is why I’m writing a blog” explanation, for now I will leave it to this until I have more time.  Right now, except for the millions of public users that can view this blog, a minimal number of people yet know that my wife and I are pregnant.  So for the first few weeks of this thing we call pregnancy most of my comments will be shared with just you, me, and the millions……but no one that we know.  So if you see someone that I know, be sure not to mention that hilarious post you saw the other day, or forward on a comment stream that you had from yesterday’s update., we’d really appreciate it.

That being said, I hope that there is some interest in this blog, even if it’s just a couple strangers out there going through the same twists and turns, ups and downs, and smiles and cries that I’m sure my family will be going through.  FYI, this is the first official time that I’ve called my family…..a family.  Yes, I’ve got tons of brothers and sisters and in-laws and dog nieces and turtle nephews, but for the first time in my life I have my OWN family, which is pretty interesting to say the least.  More to come…..cheers.