Monday, May 31, 2004

Don't make me explain

I want to skip work tomorrow. I am the Boy Who Cried Wolf. I am tired of "Still no baby?" It didn't help that on Friday The Wife picked me up for the appointment, so colleagues saw me running towards the street. They didn't seem to notice me getting into the passenger seat or realize that I was running to nowhere near the parking garage where my car was.

So I'm going to get it all over again tomorrow. "Still no baby?" "I thought they were going to induce." Um, yes, we had The Baby. The Wife is at the hospital but I felt like coming in to work.

*sigh*

We've done a lot of walking, even took the 75 pound monster with us tonight. Not sure when, if ever, he'll get to see The Baby. He's kind of stupid and likes to bite and slobber.

Today was probably the first day we didn't talk about The Baby much. We did some cleaning, watched a movie, went to a BBQ, but mostly just hung out quietly. She'll come when she's ready, I guess.

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Walk This Way

The Wife and I did a lot of walking tonight, just in case that might jump start something. She did report some new discomfort, but with nothing to compare against, didn't know if those were contractions.

AS who had a baby in September probably summed it up best... "At this stage, you and your family are your worst enemies."

Dad also called, just to check in. When he handed the phone over to mom, she said that he was very nervous. Oddly, I also found out that they've changed their plans and only intend to be in town for a long weekend. That means I'll be taking more time off to help The Wife care for the baby before Paid Family Leave kicks in.

Friday, May 28, 2004

All That's Missing is Black Socks and Shorts...

This morning as I listened to Duran Duran's "Decade" I thought back to my childhood and how my parents listened to Seattle's KOMO AM 1000, a station of oldies and news and wondered how they could listen to that.  But to them, it wasn't oldies.  It was just slightly older music from a time when life was probably easier... before full-time jobs, car and mortgage payments, before me and my brother.
 
And I thought "Why am I listening to this? Will my child hate this music?  How can anyone not appreciate Duran Duran?  This is good stuff."  Truth be told, it's probably only semi-good.  But I like it.  Music seems somewhat disposable.  We buy albums and listen to them for a few months or years and then they get relegated to a closet or in a 300-disc changer that's not plugged in and they slowly get covered with dust.  When we pull them out, we don't just remember the tunes, we remember where we were when the tunes came out, what we were doing, what the weather was like, how we didn't have to work full-time, didn't have car and mortgage payments, and so on.  After awhile, we get tired of paying $15 for something we know will eventually end up like the rest of them.  
 
But it's not just that life is harder or more complex, but I also think it's that we're less patient.  Sure, there is still great music coming out today.  The Wife can't get enough of OutKast's "Shake It" or whatever it's called and I'm really enjoying the current state of Pop Country and Contemporary Christian music.  But I think we're less patient, we don't want to sit through commercials, irrelevant traffic reports (Um, hello L.A. radio... ever heard of the 210 freeway?) and the inane blather of most morning DJ's.  So we pop in a CD, turn it up and regress to a happy memory.  And at the same time, we miss what's on the radio these days until one day we turn it on and say "I can't relate.  What is this garbage you're listening to?  Didn't we raise you with better standards?"
 
Maybe digital media players and satellite radio will change all that.  We have the opportunity to be exposed again to new music, we can pick and choose what we want to hear, and we can skip the commercials.  The Sony double cassette deck I bought in High School, while still shiny, will look as ancient to her as my grandparent's console record players that doubled as a buffet tables.  She'll never know the joy of listening to tapes warp and then frantically pulling them out of the car stereo only to realize it's too late as the shiny ribbon continues to be pulled from the tape in your hand into the player several feet away.  She may even find the Discman to be a historic novelty or buying music at a store a silly inconvenient waste of time.
 
How odd...

Still not a dad

It actually seems like with each day I'm getting further and further away from actually becoming dad.
 
At the 38-week appointment today, The Doctor made no mention of the planned induction for next Tuesday.  When we asked, she started to explain the difference between a medical induction and a non-medical one and we stopped her and reminded her that she had said last Friday that we would do a medical one on Tuesday.
 
She said that she only planned to do that if The Wife's swelling had not gotten any better or if The Wife had gained weight.  Now. she just planned to let nature take its course and if a week had gone by past the due date, then they would induce for medical reasons.
 
Information that would have been useful LAST WEEK.  I am so ticked off by that omission.  I told all my co-workers that I would be out, nearly definitely, my parents adjusted their flight and hotel plans and we got all mentally ready to welcome The Baby.  Now we're told it could be THREE MORE WEEKS?  Again, information that would have been helpful LAST WEEK. 

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Well, The Baby's entrance no longer seems like it's going to happen in the NEXT 20 SECONDS so I tried to make today a normal day.  Last night I caught our finances up (more than a week out of date) and finished putting together the furniture in the nursery — I had to wait until I received replacement parts in the mail.  It looks nice, but I don't recommend Sauder.  I had a ban on Sauder, but then was informed that I wouldn't like the prices on what would be purchased if I didn't agree to Sauder.  The piece looks nice, but it took a lot of work to get it all put together, I still have some screws left over, things aren't perfectly aligned (not due to any construction errors on my part) and I had to have them ship me some replacement parts for things that arrived damaged.
 
But I still got to bed at nearly a decent hour last night, slept incredibly well, didn't snooze too much this morning, got up, played with the dog, cleaned the cat boxes, rode the exercise bike, read the Bible, watched Bloomberg, drank my Slimfast... all the stuff of a normal morning for me. 
 
It's amazing how much routine helps.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Dress Rehearsal

Nope, that wasn't it. They monitored The Baby and The Wife for a little while, did a test and then dismissed us back home to feel silly. We had some fat free no sugar added ice cream and at and watched the world go by for a little while and then came back here and have vegged.

This might be it...

The Wife called in to The Doctor and reported the symptoms and The Doctor asked how quickly we could be at the hospital. So, we're off. Hopefully not to return home bashfully in a few hours.

KM sorry for not responding to IM earlier, was away from my desk.

No News...

No new news to report. I thought I wouldn't be coming in to work today, so I stayed up really late. I'm now regretting.

The Wife was experiencing pretty mild but fairly regular contractions all night long, but felt tired and was able to sleep all night long.

Here's a story of a baby born from sperm frozen for 21 years.

Baby Watch 2004

This is quite possibly it, folks... minor contractions have started. The Wife is taking the opportunity to get some sleep, but we don't think The Baby's content to wait until Friday to make her debut.

Friday, May 21, 2004

T-minus 7 days?

The Doctor this morning announced that The Baby is probably on the large side of average and she is also positioned lower than most 'first' babies. (Yay, overacheiver!) As a result, The Doctor doesn't want us going to full term, but wants the baby out sooner.

The lower baby position also explains why the swelling is taking longer to go away (when it does go away) and the pain in The Wife's feet. We knew that swelling that didn't go away and pain were possibly symptoms of a problem, so we mentioned them to the Doctor today and she gave us a few more symptoms we should look for before we worry and we haven't seen any of those. (The low baby presses on ateries and makes circulation more difficult to the lower part of the body.)

The Doctor plans to "strip the membrane" next Friday, a technique that in some case causes labor to begin. One person it's worked for 100% of the time is The Wife's Mom, so chances are we could be in labor next Friday. In any case, The Doctor said if that doesn't work, on to bigger attempts (petocin - lame!) early the next week.

The Wife hopes to avoid petocin at all costs. It's pretty effective at starting labor, but can cause more painful labor and other unpleasant side effects.

The HR Director is seeming to now go back on the plans we had approved at least a month ago and is either being incredibly unclear, incredibly unsympathetic to people who need time off or downright ignoring the law. And going on vacation starting next Friday.

In any case, we may be reading the last few entries in the pregnancy journal while holding The Baby.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

T-minus 23 days... sleep, where art thou?

The Wife is now officially on maternity leave from work. So, she stays up late and sleeps in. So, I stay up late, but then get up early to ride the exercise bike, read the Bible, watch Bloomberg and get the bills caught up. So, I'm now not getting enough sleep. And the work is piling on at work. They don't seem to realize that at just about any moment I could suddenly become unavailable for several days and then less productive for awhile after that.

The Wife's mom says that we will be on time or early. I can live with that. Being late would give The Wife extra time off from work, though, which I'm sure she'd appreciate.

We still do not yet have a pediatrician or daycare arrangements. Or our bags packed. Or our call list finalized. Starting to feel overwhelmed.

Monday, May 17, 2004

The Little Girl

Her parents never took the young girl to church,
never spoke of his name,
never read her his word.
Two non-believers walking lost in this world,
took thier baby with them,
what a sad little girl.

Her daddy drank all day and her mommy did drugs,
never wanted to play,
or give kisses and hugs.
She'd watch the tv and sit there on the couch,
while her mom fell asleep,
and her daddy went out.

And the drinking and the fighting,
just got worse every night.
Behind thier couch she'd be hiding,
oh what a sad little life.
And like it always does,
the bad just got worse,
with every slap and every curse.
Until her daddy in a drunk rage one night,
used a gun on her mom,
and then took his life.

And some people from the city,
took the girl far away.
To a new mom, and a new dad,
kisses and hugs everyday.
Her first day of sunday school,
the teacher walked in,
and a small little girl,
stared at a picture of him.

She said "I know that man,
there on that cross.
I don't know his name,
but I know he got off.
Cause he was there in my old house,
he held me close to his side,
as I hid there behind our couch,
the night that my parents died."
(c) John Michael Montgomery

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

T-minus 30 days...

Today's badvice suggests that after the baby is born, there will be no time to eat. I guess we're going to starve to death? Uh, yeah, thanks, no.

The armoire arrived today. Two boxes, one was probably 50-60 pounds and the other was 70 pounds. I got to step 14 before I had to stop for the night. It's going to look good, but I have to call tomorrow and have a few pieces replaced because they were shipped damaged. Wish I could get the rest done first because I'd hate to have to make multiple calls. Hopefully the rest goes smoothly.

Monday, May 10, 2004

T-minus one month

Well, according to our most recent official due date, one month, 32 days, if you count today. We've had one other 6/12 and I'd swear at one point, there was a third, 6/14. Not to mention reasons for other dates, such as 6/1 since her mom and are were born on the first of our respective birthmonths, or the 11th., since it's already a special day each month for her mom and I. Holding out for her to be born on Father's Day does not look likely, though, it's unseasonably late this year. Of course, then there's the daily baby journal we're reading which puts the date at 6/11, or 33 days left.

Status-wise, we're not all ready yet. Phone list of people to call, separated into "call in labor" and "call after delivery"? Check. Carseat? Check. Installed? Uh, not yet. Crib? Check. Assembled? Check. Armoire? On order. Changing table? On its side in the carport, mostly stripped and waiting to be repainted. Bouncer? Check. Mobile? Check. Diapers? Check, sort of. Only about 6-8 days' worth (possibly being too liberal in my estimate) on hand. Bags for hospital? Uh... hmmm... big one on the still-to-do-list.

Over the weekend we had an opportunity to talk to D&SC who had WDC at the end of February. They were confirming TP's promise that we will love being parents and that while it will change things, it won't be the end of the world. A very uninformed very fat very crabby lady at Toys 'R Us offered us congratulations and then pleaded with us to go out to dinner every night because once the baby was born, we would NEVER EVER EVER get to go out to eat again. We smiled politely at her unsolicited badvice and tried to tell her about the baby-swap program in our Sunday school class. She didn't know exactly what to do with that, so she stammered a little bit about how we'd never get to go out to eat again.

It's coming and I'm ready to fully embrace it. Bring it on, baby.

Friday, May 07, 2004

Rest Your Weary Head

Crib's all assembled. Thanks to the good folks at Babies 'R Us who figured out how to get the box into the Santa Fe.