Coldplay – Charlie Brown

19 weeks kids, you know what that means?  We’ve got movement, and not in the typical fashion that you would think of after a huge steak dinner.  This last week we’ve had an official 4 “I think it moved” moments, and to be honest, the first couple may have been questionable due to confusion on the amount of fish tacos we had that night.  That being said, we aren’t yet in full “stop moving, you’re making me have to pee” mode either, so we’re just enjoying our time before that hits.  I say WE, like I’m actually being affected other than the occasional nudge in the middle of the night when my wife has to hit the bathroom.  All in all we’re still in sit and wait mode as we learn daily about new people thinking about having kids.

Let’s see what else we did….baby furniture shopping maybe?  Our visit to the Mercedes Benz dealership of baby furniture only wet our appetite for items that would cost more than OUR bedroom furniture.  I mean when a lady that says she’s only 125 pounds, who is more like 145 pounds, stands in a drawer and it’s doesn’t break, you have to feel pretty confident that even using the furniture as a base for a baby trapeze act in the coming toddler years shouldn’t be a problem.  Of course then you go to the Hyundai dealership, other known as Baby’s R Us, other known as the seventh circle of hell, and you really just can’t see your kid living in something that doesn’t come from Europe.  Oh, there is a 3 month waiting period before it arrives and it doesn’t include the mattress?  NO PROBLEMO my Italian furniture maker.  Thank god that we have a friend who owns a business furniture store telling us that there might be a cheaper way to bring it in.  So for now, we’re going to go that route, or at least start hitting up the blood bank to save some extra cash.

Either way I think we’ve got some time to decide, and I have to come to grips with the fact that giving my kids a better quality item that I use may be something that I have to deal with.  At least now I’ve got a few additional gift ideas for wife.  Somehow I have to find a blanket that looks like a lamb and is softer than a cloud…..in adult size.  That or string 8 of them together…..

FYI, this is awesome: 

The Head and the Heart – Down in the Valley

I know, I know….you’re asking “Where have you been Mr. Blogger?”.  Without any excuses, the last couple of weeks have been busy with work as my new manager started after 6 months of not having one…..YAY!  Unfortunately this has limited my creative tendencies that usually pop up mid week during lunch.  So what does this mean to you the ever interested subscriber?  A DOUBLE LENGTH POST!  A lot has gone on since we last spoke, so here goes nothing for our 16.5 week blog post

First off, the Cardinals are the most amazing team in baseball yet again, and while this time the celebration was a little muted due to a certain someone’s inability to drink to celebrate, we still had a blast cheering on the red birds again.  I was actually looking back at pictures from 2006 when they won last, when we weren’t married and still could hang late into the night without remorse.  Looking at those pictures while we may have been a few pounds lighter and maybe a little more apt to jumping off bar chairs into the air to celebrate, we were the same people that we are today.  We were happy to be with our friends and their families as we just wanted to be around people that we cared about at such an exciting time.  If I remember right  we were hanging out with a couple of my wife’s classmates from nursing school and their uncle, or some guy they called their uncle??? Either way this year we were with friends and family again and it was just as good as the last time.   FYI, this kid is going to have more “my first” onesies then they’ll know what to do with between the world series and all these other events we keep having.

This last week we also received our super awesome new iPhone 4s devices with the new Siri functionality.  Nothing really more to talk about here other than now my wife can video chat and take pictures of herself more easily.  And with a new camera for all those great little videos and pictures that we’re going to take, along with the fact that I can ask Siri when my baby is going to be born and it tells me, we’re all in all pretty excited.  I won’t geek out too much more, but I figure the voice control thing was worth a mention.

While over a week back, I was also required by my wife to mention the following……We ran the half marathon, and my 15 week pregnant wife beat me by 5 minutes.  It’s even in bold honey.

So now that we’re a bit caught up, there is only one topic left to discuss…..the lack of trick or treaters around our house.  I did a lot of work: I carved the pumpkin (last minute), I put on scary sounds and music, pumping into the street to let kids know that we were home, and I bought way too much candy.  Only 3 “close to the age where trick or treating is creepy” kids showed up and that was it.  I did apparently freak one out when they got too close to the stereo to see what sounds were coming out, and while it was quiet when he walked up to it, it then blared a bass blasting scream which caused him to jump back.  All I know is that when my kids are old enough to enjoy Halloween, that we are not holding back, and every house up in this neighborhood is going to see us that night….candy or no candy.  I figure I’ll just stuff a few extra pieces in my pocket from home to give to the kid when the house doesn’t answer the door.

Oh crap, almost forgot…..our great friends that got married this summer who probably helped contribute to the “conception” of the baby by bringing us on vacation for 3 weeks to Chicago (this is a different couple in Chicago, no the other ones from a previous post),  just announced that they are having a baby 4 days after us.  These two are Halloween crazies and planned their awesome costumes around the announcement, so huge props to them.The Sweedish Chef and his wife who was an oven (with a bun in it), let us all know in great fashion, and they may win the award for best announcements of 2011.  Congrats guys, game on for first kid out.

Jermaine Stewart – We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off  (This is one of my favorite 80’s songs, wait for the refrain)

*Reminder, if you read this blog on a computer, a smartphone that works with flash, or using iSwifter on your iPad, you can listen to the song while you read.  You should see a little play button at the top. Still working on the ability to play on any device without paying money.

No one should be making any references between the title of the song I’m listening to and the title of the post…..but it’s pretty hilarious if you can figure out the reference. So we’re into the second trimester (36%), and I’d like to talk about how uncomfortable it is for a guy to talk about pregnancy with 3 women in the room.  So as to not make all the other males reading this blog feel as uncomfortable as I did, I’ll just focus on two things that I think are hilarious.

1.) Lady Doctor Office layouts: So when you first show up, you already feel like every woman in the waiting room hates you.  They don’t want you to be there as much as you don’t want to be there.  So then they call your wife’s name, and you of course follow not knowing what else to do, and you feel like again, “I shouldn’t be here, please don’t slap me.”  You then watch your wife get weighed, which I’m sure she just loves, and then they walk you into those awkward little exam rooms whose layout drives me crazy. Your wife hops up on a really uncomfortable bench, sometimes pantsless, where you then wait for an inordinate amount of time with no update as to when your doctor is going to burst in.   Oh, and where do YOU get to sit?  They have ever so carefully laid out the floor plan to where the “visiting bench” is right in view of what many people would refer to as “the business”.  On my first visit, I promptly moved my chair out of the bleacher seat view so that I was behind my wife, but now next to all the ridiculous looking tools and stirrup covers advertising HPV vaccines.  I tell you it’s set up to drive us mad.  Either way, maybe when I retire I’ll offer up my organizational services to change a future generation of uncomfortable fathers.

2.) Baby Stories from your mother in law…..beware: This is really just a quick note that you need to watch out sometimes who you end up with at the end of a family dinner.  If the ratio of female to male is 3 to 1, be ready to hear things like “At least breast pumps today are advanced, back in my day you be pumping this one and milk would be shooting the other way out of this one.”  Thank you 2 bottles of red wine, you won this round.

I actually finished this one a couple of days ago and just got distracted at work, but be sure I’ll be catching up this weekend with a second post.  Actually, correction, if I don’t die running the half marathon with my pregnant wife, I’ll write an update.  Have a great weekend folks, GO CARDINALS!

Guster – What You Wish For

So a couple of nights ago I decided to spend a decent amount of time looking at baby gear.  With pretty much a “sit and wait” strategy going, I needed to do something with my time to keep this thing on the forefront of my to do list, and looking at sweet baby technology was the only way to do it.  So where does a nerd look for baby items?

Phil and Ted’s

Thanks to a couple of old neighbors and friends, we stumbled upon this little gem when we saw that they had what they call “the black hole” sleeping unit/playpen.  It’s this awesome thing called theTraveller, and it’s the close to my gear head roots as it’s small and easy to manage….and totally sweet.  Either way, once you go onto that site to look at one thing, you’re gonna look at it all.  I guess it’s like the Apple store for baby gear.

I also found an Apple guys dream for a camera for the baby room in case we want it.  No, it’s not a video baby monitor that apparently everyone has strong political opinions about, but to me it’s an optional way to record and share some of the fun “I’m going to sit here and talk to myself” moments that you wouldn’t normally get…..and you can watch from an iPhone, iPad, etc (we may have a few of those).  It’s the iZon camera, and we’re getting one.

So that pretty much wraps up this sessions lesson in how to nerd out baby style, but I did want to end the blog with what I found to be a hilarious quote from a friend.  I told my friend in Chicago that we’re pregnant and while we had stayed with her on a trip sometime around when we got the “biscuit in the basket”, I assured her that it didn’t happen at her house or the weekend after when we were there for her wedding.  Her response : “I’d be proud to be a part of your birthing story Denny.  Nope, never mind, saying that made it awkward”.  Thanks as always Janers for making something a little funnier than it already was.

Amos Lee – Colors

12.5 weeks you say?  Another lady doctor appointment down you say? A role model in your life passes away you say?  Been a pretty interesting day to say the least.  Last night we found out that Steve Jobs of Apple passed away after prolonged health issues.  I took a shot of Jameson, said thanks the best way I knew how on my iPad, and woke up this morning eager to hear my baby’s heartbeat again, which by the way is only 150 beats per minute now.  My wife was nice enough to tell me that we could now throw “Steve” and “Apple” into the options for names.  But while I’ve always and will always been a dedicated Apple fanboy (and hopefully one day an employee), those names probably won’t make it to the semifinals of what I’m calling “WrestleNamia”.

Baby D on the other hand is “growing leaps and bounds” yet again, about the size of a peach or other midsized fruit that you may like to use as a reference.  This is the one food reference that isn’t ruining one of my favorites like the previously mentioned small bear like candy.  I’m thinking as long as they don’t say the baby is about the size of a pizza at any point I should still have some foods left that I can eat.

So while I was a little disappointed not to get a new picture today, I have to say that the excitement is still there when the nurse says that everything is looking great and that your wife is “extremely healthy”.  When that little heart starts beating into the microphone, you get to sigh in relief that there is still something there to be excited about even when you are having a pretty crappy day.

All in all, while one person has left this world a little bit better than when they got there, you can only hope that your child will think the same of you one day.  Someone once said that they saw an Apple commercial with a grandfather seeing his grandchild for the first time using FaceTime on the new iPhone, and after the commercial ended, even after the Apple Logo had flashed on the screen and they were well into the blaring advertisement for Oxy Clean, they still didn’t feel like they had just seen a commercial for technology.  They saw a commercial celebrating life, and giving people the tools to do that the best way they could when they needed it.  That was Steve’s legacy, and something that I hope my child learns from things that I do.  Until that day I get to enjoy the little things, even if it’s just a small rapid beat from some piece of technology.

Lucy Schwartz –  When We Were Young

So the big first trimester is officially over.  The kid is growing fingernails and toenails, and the last time we checked in, already has the ability to cause frequent urination, which for my wife always happens overnight.  What I don’t understand is what the baby world has against standard units of measure like 25%, 50%, etc.  Apparently our baby is 33.3333333336% done with growing, which as you can see is a ridiculous thing to type out.  The other item with baby tracking that I’m going to try and break the habit of right off the bat is counting the baby’s age in months, especially after the first year is over.  My kid isn’t going to be 16 months old, it’s going to be 1 year and 4 months old.  I feel like it’s cheating the child’s common society benchmarks by only counting in months and not in full years.  I may even make him/her a t-shirt for every month after the first year just to correct the common practice of people asking “How many months old are they?”, or “What month clothing size should I buy.”  This may even start off prior to the first year with the following: “Excuse me ma’am in the clothing department.  My baby is not 6 months old, he/she is half a year old?” or at 4months: “My baby is 33.3333333336% of a year old, or in your terms, 1 trimester into life.”

Either way I will say that we’re starting to see more and more everyday.  We’ve fully announced the pregnancy to anyone that asks, and even had our first big social event with friends at a wedding this last weekend.   We also have our first set of Baby making friends (that sounds bad), with another couple that is due just a few weeks before us.  Strangely, this is also the couple that got engaged the same night that we did over 4 years ago, and whose house we partied at the next day for St. Patrick’s day, aka my Christmas.  Like us they are also not looking to find out what sex the baby is until that magical day when they pop out and say “You got that college fund set up yet, I hope you don’t think I’m going state school?”.

All in all we have a big week ahead of us.  We have our 12.5 week checkup where apparently they are going to give us the run down on all the fun parts of pregnancy.  They made clear in the last appointment that Dad’s attendance is recommended. So again, I get to go to the lady doctor’s office and feel completely out of sorts while my wife glows in anticipation for another listen to the heartbeat or ultrasound pictures.  I wouldn’t mind a picture with a little more definition than our 8.5 week visit.  I mean, if they midwives on that show about polygamists in Vegas can see something at 10 weeks, I don’t see why we couldn’t snap a quick photo while we’re in there.

FYI, if you’re wondering why I picked the song that I picked when I’m in such a fired up mood…it’s my first attempt at using music to change my attitude while at work.   When I’m frustrated or over opinionated about baby age calculation, I’m going to go to a much more calm music selection and remind myself that I too like chick music and that it’s ok.

Oh yeah, the baby already has its first computer all ready to go.  For those of you that know me better, this is no surprise.    I figure we’ll need it on the late nights when an episode of Game of Thrones on HBO GO will be the only way to get the little one to bed.  Nothing like the sound of sword fighting or ancient English rhetoric to put a baby to sleep.

Gomez – Options

Well kids, it’s week 11 or so, sorry for slacking so much, but apparently this is the slower season for changes in our Baby D’s (my new nickname) development.  Apparently toes are forming along with other appendages, and pretty much like every week in baby iPhone app, it’s “a big week for growth”.  I’m starting to wonder when their going to say “Nothing really happened this week, enjoy that elbow in your bladder.”  I’m sure that is what my wife will eventually be sure to remind me of sometime around the holidays this year.   Per her request, I’m going to officially apologize for my obvious grammatical mistakes, that apparently are driving her crazy.

In other news, last week was the launch of the fall TV season, just in time for us to lay around on the couch growing a child.  My favorite character Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec is the inspiration for the title of today’s post.  It was in one of these watch parties that my wife also said something that I both have never heard her say before, and that I’m pretty sure she’ll deny after the pregnancy.  And I quote “God, I just can’t get enough food these days.”  Ah the joys of pregnancy.

We also had the opportunity to throw a couple’s baby shower for a good group of friends from college.  I guess this started a few years back with one of our friends in which we just wanted an excuse to party together, and while we are getting older and the partying is getting harder (to get up the next morning), it is still fun to see everyone and catch up.  That being said, I have a few suggestions for throwing one of these yourself.

1.) Anyone named Jimmy that shows up 6 hours before the party will probably be able to finish 25 or so games of one on one beer die while still live tweeting the outcome. Buy extra Sugar free red bull and don’t worry about the grass. #getitup

2.) Chipotle Chicken Sliders are a winner.

3.) Preggo cocktails are a must.  So are cake pops.

4.) The diaper game, while maybe on the agenda, can easily be avoided if you start the party late enough where the few pregnant women attending will get too tired to want to participate.

5.) If you have a friend that is a police officer, and he shows up to the party late after working, just remember that they were invited when they park a squad car in front of your house and come walking in the door before you pee yourself thinking it’s just another cop coming to bust your ass.  Oh, and remember that you’re 29 and that you’re not doing anything wrong.

That’s it for this week in pregnancy advice, I’ll be sure to start posting more now that we’re almost through the first Trimester and more and more people know about this crazy ride.

Song (now playable while reading): Good Old War – My Own Sinking Ship:

So we’re at the big 10, in double digits for this kid, only 30 weeks left which hopefully means 60 more posts for ya’ll.  As you can see above I’ve added an audio player for you to listen to what I’m listening to while you read…..the wonders of technology.

So with only 10 weeks of life under its belt, the wife and kid are already in the newspaper, she’s the one mentioned in the article as “found out she was pregnant and couldn’t attend”:

Patron Secret Dining Club

Already trying to show up his/her parents with a pregnancy mention is probably not the first time that we’ll be put in our place by this kid, and to be honest with a “no show” so far, I’m starting to wonder what’s going on in there.  Yeah yeah, my wife is reading me the daily “what’s happening now” iPhone app info, but I still have to wonder what’s next, and when do we start seeing the pregnancy as much as we’re talking about it?  From what I’ve heard this little thing has working elbows?  I mean really, elbows?  My wife I’m sure was thinking “I can’t wait until those elbows can jab me in the bladder when I’m trying to sleep.” Whereas I keep thinking, “At least the kid has a way of moving around if nothing else.”  Either way, I hope to see a little more movement in hopes to prove this is actually happening and not just a fluke TV show about people that had no idea they were pregnant until they get to the hospital.

As for other things going on in our lives, we bought blinds, a rug and coffee table, and this weekend I officially made room for baby products in the kitchen.  I know, only 25% of the way through the pregnancy and you’re already moving the serving dishes for baby bottles, what are you thinking?  If you knew me beyond this blog you’d be surprised that I waited this long.  For what it’s worth, I am going to wait to paint the bedroom which my wife was ready to do a year ago just to get rid of the white walls in there.  I’m just glad we blew $200 on bedroom linens for that room 3 weeks before we found out we were pregnant, I really feel that those things are going to look great on a closet shelf in 6 or so months.   The goal will be to just not have to paint the hall closet to match the pattern on the comforter.   Have a good work week folks.

So you wake up early, you’re a little groggy but you can’t drink any coffee because you have a life insurance physical in just a short hour.  Yeah yeah, you’re 12 hour fast before was easy, but you’re nervous about drawing blood, and then you find out that they have to take a urine sample after you’ve already emptied out what you may have had when you woke up.  The nurse then asks you to step on the scale and while you have the urge to either strip down in front of her to just your boxers and then step on the scale and flex your biceps like a well trained middleweight, or borrow a wrestling singlet and wear it under your clothes ready to pounce; you remember that that today is also the day that you’re going to the doctor for the first time as a potential parent, and that those childish antics probably wouldn’t be as funny when you tell your child as they get older.

Either way, today was the big first appointment with our OB/GYN to make sure that the last few weeks of sobriety for my wife have been justified.  When we walked in we weren’t quite sure if we were going to have an ultrasound or maybe just a quick “check under the hood”, but we did know that we were a little nervous with this being our first child, and the fact that we really only knew what kids were like after they came out with the abundance of nieces and nephews that we always seem to have running around. My wife is also a charge nurse in the NICU of a St. Louis Children’s hospital, so her day to day experience also plays a bit into the “what happens if” scenarios that you run through your head the whole ride up to the doctors office.

Needless to say, we were relieved when they said that they’d be able to get in an ultrasound and not only tell us what our real due date is, but also that they’d be able to give us our first pics of the baby aka. gummy bear.  Unexpectedly, we were also able to hear the baby’s heart beat, which for those of you that haven’t had the experience, it sounds like a Dr. Dre song on fast forward.   After a 45 minute wait in the waiting room and a informative first time visit for this gentleman to the “lady doctor” exam room, we found out that we’re 8.5 weeks in, and due on April 14th.  Two things to note: 1) this is a week before my 30th birthday and 2) I now have a confirmed sober driver for 3 of my 4 favorite holidays.  Kidding aside we now have a countdown that I can use to title these posts, as well as make reference to things like trimesters, due dates, and time to detonation.

So with that in mind, I’d like to wrap it up with my favorite quote from one of my brother in laws in response to the big news.  It’s sure nice to know your stuff works and that your guys can swim.

8 1/2 weeks