Baby Blog

This blog has really turned into a baby log of sorts. I never really intended to go in a particlar direction with this, but I guess "the blessed event" has been on my mind a lot lately.

I am starting to feel like we are really in the home stretch now. Roughly five weeks to go. Could be three, could be seven. The due date is October 8. Debie is getting more tired now than she has been and I think she is having more difficulty breathing. Although it is normal, I think it is a little bothersome for her. I am just waiting. It is sort of like waiting for the first day of school. You want it to get here, but you are not sure what to expect.

I have lots of things to do in the next few weeks at work and at home.

Getting ready to decorate

It is time to decorate the baby's room. I will probably be buying paint and masking tape tonight. We are going to put a wallpaper border around the room at chair rail height with darker paint below and lighter above. I am also going to have to figure out how to hang the border, but I don't expect much trouble there.

Pediatrician Visit - Before

Tomrrow we go to meet with a pediatrician for the first time. This is a check 'em out visit. I guess it is a good idea to get feel for how they do things.

Progress

I got a little sad news today. One of my favorite lunch places, The House Grille, in Silver Spring is going to close on Friday. It is one of the few homey places in town and I will miss sitting out back to eat. Not only that, it is a family run business that is losing out to the chains.

Officially the parents want to retire and the son wants to focus on his real estate business. I think that they are also victims of the competitive nature of the restaurant market.

Silver Spring is in the middle of a revitalization project and has attracted several name brand chains in the last two years. This has undoubtedly put pressure on the local shop owners that were here before the "revival." Even though the lunch crowds are larger than in the past, they are focused on the mall-ish area that has opened up recently and where the chain restaurants are. This has taken traffic from the older establishments.

Even though the new "Downtown" is good for the area in the long run, it is sad to see the local folks edged out by big guys.

Baby School - Part Three

Well, yesterday was the last day of baby school and probably the most interesting. The morning session was about the same. The afternoon session was on Infant CPR. That is a good thing to know. Overall I think these classes were a crash course in what to expect when the baby finally gets here.

I feel like I understand a little more of what is, and will be, going on.

Baby Doctor Visit - 33 weeks

Debbie and I went to see Dr. Doolittle (not her real name) today. Everything with the baby is fine. He has apparently turned upside down, which is a good thing. I recorded his heartbeat. See previous post.

Listen to the baby's heartbeat

Baby School - Part Two

Blogger is really running slowly this morning. I suppose there are a lot of folks down in Florida writing about hurricane Charley. The storm passed to the east of us so we didn't get nearly as much rain as was forecast.

Baby school on Saturday went well. We got an education about cesarean sections; why they do them, how they are done, etc. In most cases it looks like the decision to do a cesarean is made during labor because of one or more complications. For instance, any time the baby is coming out any way other than head first. As an interesting side note, the teacher told us that part of the reason more cesareans are done is because the lawyers want it that way. Apparently they think is it less risky to do abdominal surgery than to try turning the baby during delivery. This may be so, but do we really want lawyers making our health care decisions in advance?

We went to look for a carpet for the baby's room yesterday... no luck.

Mozilla - Firefox

I've been using the Mozilla Firefox browser lately and I like it a lot. It is fast, clean and no-popups! I also downloaded a new theme for it called Noia Extreme which makes the browser look good too. It gives Firefox a little flash with not too much clutter. It is reminscent of the MAC OSX browser in some ways. I only use IE when I have to because of some tools that I have that require active x controls that don't run with Firefox.

My Mom's family in 1942

Mom is third from the right.

My Dad's Family in 1938

Dad is the little guy on Grandma's lap. My grandfather is about the same age as I am now.

The Baby's Room - Part 2

Ok, now it's starting to look a little more like the Baby's room. My brother and I carried the big furniture to the basement last night. We are going to get some new roller blinds for the windows, and possibly put up a wall paper border at chair-rail height. I suppose if we do that I will have to paint the wall under the border as well. That will be fairly easy. Actually, I would paint first and paper after.

On to the next thing!

The Baby's Room

Last evening Debbie and I finished putting together the furniture for the baby's room. We got a crib and a changing table/dresser. Both items were flat pack and had to be assembled. The designers of this stuff are definitely creating better quality furniture than they used to. Both pieces are solid and feel pretty substantial when you move them around.

Having baby furniture in the house is ok. Debbie is happy that it is done. She displayed some of the things that we have gotten as gifts in the crib and put the rest in the dresser drawers. Now she is thinking about buying Pampers and baby wipes.

The Burger King - about 1968

My First Birthday

Novenber 7, 1967

My First Birthday. That's my Dad and my sister on the right. I appear to be lecturing, as usual. Probably about the origins of chocolate cake as a birthday tradition. Note the coffee cup behind the cake. That cup is still in my Mom's kitchen cupboard and I use it often.

Baby School - Part One

On Saturday Debbie and I went to the first session of what I am calling Baby School. It's actually a labor and Delivery/Lamaz class.

I was a little reluctant to go, thinking that the whole thing would be silly, but I never mentioned this to Debbie because it was really important to her. As it turns out I think the class will be a good thing for both of us and I would recomend that first time fathers should just suck up their fears and go.

The reason that I think the class is good is that it really covers the whole process from how labor begins to deciding when to go to the hospital to what happens when the baby is born. I am a little squeamish about these things, but it is really going to make a difference when the day finaly arrives. Most importantly, I understand more of what will be happening to Debbie and what the doctors will be talking about in the delivery room.

Part of the class is designed to teach fathers how to help get mom through the delivery. This is such a stressful process, and it lasts so long, that she really needs support and encouragement to manage it without coming unglued. The baby is coming whether I help or not, but if I support Debbie and help her through this it will make things easier for her.

I also had the idea that when you get to the hospital and the baby would come and we would stay for a while and go home. A one level it's that simple. However, the details are much more complex. I won't go into what acually happens, but suffice it to say it is quite a process. After all of the build up of the last few months it will be quite a relief to have the baby born.

This is sort of the ulitmate story. Introduction, character development, plot development, climax, catharsis and resolution. All of the pieces are there.

So It Begins

So it begins. A new venture. A new paradigm. A soapbox, a platform, a pulpit.

A place to drop thoughts, a place to spread news, a shift in thinking, a return to writing.

This is my BLOG and welcome to it.