The night before the first appointment!

Well we have finally chosen our midwife.  It has been an interesting process of talking about what is "normal"   (again that word keeps coming up).  We are headed in tomorrow to go to the first "real" appointment.  By real I mean that we start paying for it.  I don't really know what to expect on the first visit to be honest.  I think it better to go in with no expectations and be surprised.  I do love surprises after all.  Well that is a not totally true, actually it is the farthest thing from the truth.  I hate surprises.  That is one of the reasons I want to know the gender of the baby.  Look how PC I am, I used the correct adjective.

That is another who crazy debate in our house.  We are still going over whether or not we want to know.  Personally I really want to know.  I think it helps me identify a little easier and also helps me prepare.  Remember that whole not liking surprises thing.  Not that either gender will mean less or more but I kinda want to know.  Am I crazy for that?  I want to be able to prepare for buying tractor toys or  buying dolls.  These past couple of weeks have kinda been crazy.  

The weather has started to get a little nicer and warmer as well.  When we had that heat wave it was a little uncomfortable to sleep.  I think my wife had issues too.  It seems that no matter how much sleep she gets she is always tired.  I feel so bad because she seems so upset with it.  But in retrospect if exhaustion is the worse symptom I guess that isn't too bad, coming from the guy.  

Things seem way more important now.  Life, love, friends, and family.  The closer I get to becoming a dad, I know it is still pretty far away, the more I seem to notice how important little things are.  Simply being able to take my dog to work everyday seems way more important now.  We have started getting close with people in our small group and I feel comforted and encouraged going into this amazingly scary time.  Even going out for ice cream seems far more exciting than it was 3 months ago.  

So when life has you down...... head to the creamery and start the 50 scoop challenge!

Thanks Kinship!

 

Shopping for a midwife???

Well the search is finally over.  We have done it we have shopped and finally chosen our midwife.  I must say that it is one of the most interesting things  I have ever had to do in my adult life.  I never thought I would have to go out and shop for the person who would catch my just-born child.  It is a crazy world that we live in that you must consider doing something like this.  We went to two different providers that both had interesting things to bring to the table.  It was kinda crazy I must tell you.  

Things I learned:

Always go with questions- you never know how someone is going to react to you asking questions about what they do for a living.  I think I had to of talked more than my pregnant wife.  I guess my job is to do all the worrying so she doesn't have to.  

You can always tell what sort of provider he or she will be by how much time they spend for free- We must have been at both providers for about 2 hours.  The first place we went to was a home birth midwife who works out of her home.  We got there at 3:30 and left about 5.  The second place we went was a Nurse Midwife who spent almost the same amount of time.  Both appointments were free which was nice to be able to spend that amount of time talking about this whole crazy process.

This whole process is crazy but it can't be anything compared to what my wife is going through.  I did a bad thing I must confess.  It is so difficult for me to step back and always remember that there are some crazy things going on inside of her.  She has always been amazing and totally in control of both me and and things that happen in our life.  I feel like she has lost control and that is so scary.  She has been my rock for so long.  I came home Friday and was stressed because we bottled and I didn't recognize that she was as well.  I was not as sensitive as I should have been.  In the future I now know that as weird and tough as this is for me to deal with it is ten times harder to loose control of what is happening to your own body.  

 

What to Expect when YOU are expecting??

I am truly amazed these days what types of materials and the load of advice out there.  When I first learned I was going to be a dad in oh 40 weeks I decided that I would hit up amazon and do some book searching.  

I didn't want to go and just read the typical what to expect book, and let me tell you there are so many of those! So I went and looked for books that were written by guys for guys.  Do I want to know what is going on inside the body of my beautiful wife, of course I do.  Do I want to know every little minute, no not really.  I wanted to know how to make it out of this whole birthing thing alive!  

I decided to buy this book called "The Guy's Guild to Surviving Pregnancy. Childbirth, and the First Years of Fatherhood." By Michael Crider

This was a great book.  One of the first things that I have already noticed is the word "Normal."

When you get pregnant people start throwing this word around like its candy.  Well lets just be honest, the word "normal" when applied to pregnancy is just wrong.  No matter where you look if there is something weird happening and you don't know what is going on you check the net and get 20 different answers that all claim a different cause then tell you "its Normal" 

That just totally freaks me out because nothing is "Normal" ever again and everyone who has been in this situation and keeps telling you "this is normal" knows it isn't.  

Well we are about 8 weeks now and getting so close to day we hear the heartbeat.  I can't wait.  For me these past weeks have been filled with constant shuffling from this isn't happening to I can't wait till he/she (secretly hoping for a he) to get here.  All I do know is that I pray everyday for this miracle growing in my wife's belly and I think God for the blessing he has given.

Those two pink lines that change your life

What do you say when you walk home from work and you see those two little lines in that results window.  My jaw dropped and the first thing I could think of was "they didn't think i could do it on the first try!"

Yes I did.  Well if you haven't figured out what I am referring to is the affirmative results window of the little stick my beautiful wife had to pee on.  Yes the pregnancy test.  My wife and I decided to make our little home resound with noise of the pitter pattering of little feet.  I don't think I have ever used that term before.  

The decision to do this was not a light one.  My wife, God I love her, never makes a single decision lightly.  We finally decided to start trying in March but last march she decided to start reading.  After she made the decision to actually start this process, by getting of birth control, she went out and got every book she could.  There must be 3 what to expect books on my night stand.  Not only that but a lamaze book.  So she read them almost every night turning over to me and saying things like "did you  know that when a woman pushes she craps herself." 

So we are on this road of discovery and invite you to tag along on our journey.  I will attempt to inform all of those in our life and those not of all the little things leading up to "THE BIG PUSH"