After much ado, you have made your way into the world 12 days late.

I think the thing that was most noticeable was that you did look like I expected. I don’t know what I expected, but you didn’t look like what I had in my mind. The experience as a whole was amazing. Your mom is incredible, and joined the ranks of the women who have done what nature had in mind for them. There were times that I was not sure that she had anymore to give. It was those times that she found more strength. Clearly the stronger gender.

Nancy and Joanne who assisted with the delivery were better than I could have expected. They are two wonderfully powerful, connected, and soulful women. They made sure that your mom and I had what we wanted with the birth. I am sure that had we been under the care of a traditional doctor, you have been born via c-section. Nancy and Joanne allowed us to work through and allow you and mom to get in sync. For that, I will be forever indebted to them.

You are the most wonder us thing I think I have ever seen. I “understood” the whole parental attachment thing for a bit. I now know what that attachment really means. I get doing anything for you. I get the spiritual connection. To use an old Grateful Dead term, I am “on the bus”. I get it. Just a few years ago, I might have been weirded out by myconium, placentas, etc. It never crossed my mind with you.

So in your 9lb 6oz glory you have changed our lives in more ways than I am sure I understand.

Love dad.

Ok,

Due date +1. We gotta work on getting to work on time. When I hired you we agreed on a start date NLT Oct. 25. Now you don’t even show up. Who am I supposed to get to be cute, keep me up at night and generally change everything? Especially on this short notice? I am willing to hold this position open for a few more days, but you really need to get in here.

Joking,
dad

Well kid only 10 more days officially. Like that means anything to anyone. We have been doing bits and pieces to get everything ready. I think all the supplies are in place now. It was odd to go to Target and Home Depot to get birth supplies. Nothing is too good for you.

Mom is doing fine, in spite of the poking and kicking. She even managed to waddle around the State Fair on Sunday with Grandma, Grandpa, and Wilson.

Everything is going fine with you and the midwife and we are going to meet your doctor on Thursday. We are both Dr. BJW so that is good.

Keep cooking,
dad

So I had no idea that it has been nearly a month since my last post. Time is flying by. That is both good and bad. Good because you will be here soon (and I am getting anxious) and bad because there is still quite a bit that I need to do.

It seems like everything has been going well with you. Nancy was not concerned with you and she confirmed that you are now head down. She did quite a bit of squeezing on mom’s belly. While I don’t think mom particularly liked that she did like the confirmation that you are in the correct position. You still seem to have some freedom of motion, since you are able to be on both sides at different times. You are also having the hiccups a bit more. Last night in bed it seemed like you were having some really strong ones. It was pretty funny to feel you moving so much in a regular pattern.

We are working on what to do with your fur brothers. I think they will be fine. In fact, I think they might be soothing for mom in some ways. However, we have an alternative plan and E&A are willing to let them sleep over if we want or come over and walk them. We will end up playing it by ear. It is good to have friends we can count on like that.

We have been on a bit of a baby spree lately. We went and saw our friends M&J’s new baby. He is about two weeks old. Very cute and good natured. He had a good time sitting on my lap and looking at the mirror behind me. Then on Sat. we went to a BBQ ( did I mention BBQ to you yet? You’ll love it, or learn to :)) E&A’s boy C and our friend S’s boy C was there too. They were both a hoot. They were getting into stuff and playing. Very cute and very fun to play with. So all of this has made the waiting all the much more tedious. I am ready for you to be out. Playing music and push the belly is fun, but I’d rather have you out.

On the note of coming out, let’s hold off on that just a bit more. You still have some cooking to do, mom’s belly button hasn’t popped out, and I a ticket to the local Octoberfest Beer Festival. I’d really like the do the beer festival. If you have to come it will be fine, but try to hold out. Consider it a payment of future beer tasting experiences when mom isn’t around

Keep growing and root for dad in football tonight,
dad

Well again it has been awhile since I have written. Not because I haven’t wanted to, but because I have been exhausted and working too much. This is the 16th straight and I am not sure that I will get a day off until the baby shower on Sat. (still a full week away). That is ok, because the end of working like this is soon. We have had a lot to do and I have been having guilty feelings for taking off. There is really no reason that I should have to feel like I need to work this much, but I do. Your paternal grandparents instilled a good work ethic in me (or at least I think so) and I feel a loyalty to my boss. She has done a lot more or me than she needed to and when my Ph.D. adviser should have been doing it. So I feel like I need to get more done for her. I don’t mind, but I at this point I am getting a little burned out and need a week to feel better. I think the point that I realized that maybe it was too much came on Thursday.

I work for the University, but I am in a lab that is part of a large consortium of academics, government, and industry. The basis of it is to further dairy foods research and help farmers, consumers and industry. All in all a very worthwhile project. We have a several day long meeting once a year and it was this week. On the last day, we have a dinner, which was Thursday. Mom and I were invited, but I decided not to go. I wanted to stay at work and finish up a report for a client we are working with. This was unrelated to the work we do with the consortium. Mom tried her best to get me to go, but I wanted to finish. About 30 min after mom gets there I get a call saying that mom and I’s boss is mortified that I am still at work and not at the dinner. So I guess I am doing too much.

That said, there is something to be said for a job well done that you worked hard at. I hope that you find it as satisfying as I do. It is not so much the final product, but the process of getting there. Being able to do that will get you lots in the world.

Add to all this my not sleeping well. Someone it is just that mom is not sleeping well. That means she is up and down many times during the night. That means I am up and down at nights. I don’t mind per se, but it is just making me tired. I have been trying to sleep downstairs on the couch, but that has been failing too. I seem to have a lot/something big on my mind. I don’t know what it is, but it is there. It is very different from my insomnia during my Ph.D. where i could tell what the problem was. So I guess this is just training for when you come.

We went and saw Nancy on Wednesday. Everything was fine and you seem to be growing fine. Mom was well too, and we will see Nancy in two weeks again. Your heart rate was between 130-137 again. So you are consistent if nothing else. Everyone agrees that you are now head down. Mom and I think that you are in a transverse position with your butt facing mom’s side. Butt in mom’s upper right head in mom’s lower left. We have come to this conclusion because we feel you in the upper right. It’s either you have really big feet (and that is possible with my family history) or we are feeling your butt (more likely).

So we were able to do this feeling today at the birth class we are going to. The class is only two days, and we know a lot of the stuff. However, there are things we are still getting out of it. I thin tomorrow will be better since it is focused on the hospital. I hope we don’t have to go there, but I am sure that if we do, this will be good info. Interestingly, one of the other couples just found out they the wife was pregnant last month. That wouldn’t be surprising except they are due in 1 month. So I have met one of the kinds of folks that you hear about on TV. Very nice couple, with a mom taking notes furiously and a dad in shock still. Overall, this class seems to have been worth the time and money. The only problem is that the birth videos seem to have some dust with them. Every time I see one, I seem to get some dust in my eyes and they start to water. I suspect there will be lots of dust in the air when you are born.

It seems strange that you are less than 10 weeks away from coming. I am sure that it will pass by quickly. I was chuckling that it seemed liked only a couple of months ago we were all in Spain. Now you are about to be here. Time is flying. Nesting is kicking up a bit more lately, but I haven’t had a chance to get on it much. I have been thinking about what “our thing” will be. No idea what it will be, but it has been in my mind quite a bit.

The other change that I just realized recently is that you are a boy. Ok, well I don’t know that you are a boy, but you are in my mind. Not really sure how or when it happened, but it did. It just seems like it is intuition. I really don’t have a preference either way, but it was an odd thing I noticed the other day. If I am like my dad determining sex prenatally , then you are a girl.

Long post and a short time until you get here,
dad

So on another blog, the mom had her quads. She was a few weeks ahead of mom, but they were the same size (weight/size) as you are now. Ok, I was not ready to believe you were that big! You are likely two on my hand big (long-ways). It seems weird to think that you are that big. It makes it seem all that more real. And scary!

Mom’s glucose test come back fine, but on the high end of fine. So I will be adjusting the cooking and keeping an eye out so that mom doesn’t get too much sugar. I’m not really that worried about it, but it won’t hurt to work at it. We are also going to work to get more iron since Nancy wants mom’s iron level up just a bit more be the time you come. That won’t be too much of a problem. We have also started eating more fish and flax so that you get all the good fats you need to make your brain. We are also starting to have mom take alfalfa pills in her good so she can get lots of Vitamin K. It will help you both. So it has been fun trying to make the changes to cooking.

I got the final paperwork, and I am not officially Dr. Dad for everyone concerned. So I will be hired on the 15th as a post-doc officially. That means you get to have health insurance too :)! It will be with Blue Cross/Blue Shield and they have been very good with me curing the dumb things I have done to myself (broken thumb via soccer being the most obvious), so I am sure they will be good with you too.

I hope you have been enjoying the music. I have been trying to play it for you everyday. Hopefully it will come in handy for me to calm you and you so you love music. If nothing else it is a way for me to interact, since mom isn’t the fondest of me waking you up.

Keep growing that brain, I have all kinds of stuff to teach you,
dad

So mom says I am nesting. I guess I might be. I am just trying to clean up more and get into the habit of cleaning better than when it was just mom and I. You aren’t going to be crawling around and such in this house, so I guess that is why I am not worrying about that. I just want the house to be cleaner. Nesting or not, I’m not sure.

Getting the house ready for you,
dad

So mom and I are going for her glucose tolerance test on Monday. I am not sure if she is more worried about the outcome or the test. Blood drawing is not high on mom’s list (vein or finger). Needles and a sugar test here at work have done her in to testing. I am sure she will be fine, but I think it is weighing on her. Mom thinks you might have turned in the past few days. That is a good thing. We are getting ready for you to get here and I think we have most of what we need.

Grow, grow, grow
dad

As promised….notice all the green and yellow.

So I finally got proof that you are in there with my own observations. Last night when I got home from work, mom showed me her belly moving. It was you punching and kicking. It was really funny to see since you could distinguish it from mom’s heart beat and breathing. It was really cool and I made mom let me watch it for a bit. It was different than the heartbeat.

Feel free to put on a show anytime,
dad