The Debate Rages

Should we or should we not find out the gender of our baby?

That is the central discussion we are having these days. We are just about a month away from the ultrasound and we are still baffled by what we should do.
There are pros and cons to both sides.

PRO: We can call the baby by the name we have picked out.

CON: We may begin to think of more names and have trouble picking one.

PRO: We can start planning the nursery and what to buy.

CON: We will want to buy instead of save money.

PRO: We can tell everyone what we are having.

CON: We won't be surprised the day of delivery.

PRO: We can stop calling the baby "it."

CON: We will have an entire lifetime to know what they kid is going to be.

For every point, there is an opposite answer. Like Taylor says, we will probably decide the day of the ultrasound. And, knowing our track record, we will probably end up finding out if we do it that way.

Why My Wife Thinks I'm An Idiot

I am almost done reading the book by ESPN's Mike Greenberg. It is a funny collection of his journal entries about being married, having a pregnant wife, and dealing with life, sports, and kids. The book does discuss sports, but only in how they relate to his personal life and how he plans on raising his kids. I respect that, and it is a parenting book in a style to which I can identify. I like that and I hope he continues to write books.

I have found myself smiling and relating to a lot of what he is writing about, including the book title. Greenberg is a funny guy, a self-proclaimed metrosexual, and a sports buff. I always liked his mornng show on the radio and I listen to it every morning on my way to work. With less than fifty pages to go, I thought I would note his list of the 5 Simple Rules Every Parent Should Understand (Particularly Dads):

1. If you find a minivan in your driveway that you cannot identify, run.

2. You cannot remove snot from cashmere.

3. You cannot vacuum puke off a tile floor.

4. When alone with the children, hide the key to the liquor cabinet (from yourself).

5. Never bring home one of anything.

The book makes me laugh and look forward to the perils of parenthood. He makes it sound absolutely horrible and wonderful at the same time. I am starting to think it is that way for every parent, but in its own way.

Week 15

Fine hair is starting to cover baby this week. It's called lanugo. Bones are getting harder and retaining calcium. (Be sure to get your daily allowance of calcium in!!) Baby can suck his thumb now, and many moms to be, have seen them doing this on ultrasounds. Baby's skin is still very thin, and the blood vessels can be seen through it. By the end of this week, your baby is about 4 inches long and weighs 1.75 ounces.
(From Amazing Pregnancy Dot Com)

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Taylor asked me if she looks bigger at all. I told her she does. She is beginning to appear rounder, and it is mostly noriceable when she is sitting up straight. According to the Mayo Clinic baby book, Peanut is huge! I mean, only 4 inches, but that is huge! I cannot believe how big this kid is already. It is just amazing.

The (Uncomfortable) Return from Dallas

So, Taylor will not be doing anymore business travel during the pregnancy. The turbulence, the food, the discomfort. It all has led her to feel miserable, and when you feel that way it makes it impossible to work to full ability. So, her boss John told her she will not have to make the journey to Dallas-Ft Worth anymore. Obviously, she and I are both happy about that.

But, that doesn't make up for the fact that the trip made her feel like the nausea was back to full force. She threw up at the airport and told me she will no longer be eating chicken. So, that means at this point all she can consume to sustain her is air, water, gruel, and salt. Well, that is an exaggeration, but you catch the drift.

Sigh, I hope this passes because if she is sick the entire 9 month span of this pregnancy, she will not want to do this again.

What I Am Looking Forward To..

The more I think about it the larger the list that grows with all of the things I cannot wait to teach my Peanut. Some of it is stereotypical, some of it is generic, but it is all stuff I look forward to doing. My parents did it with me, and some of it is stuff I want to do myself.






1...Take the kid to the zoo
2...Teach him to play catch
3...Teach her to ride a bike
4...Teach him how to go camping
5...Teach her how to pet the cats
6...Take the kid to their first movie
7...Take the kid to their first Cubs game
8...Teach the kid how to read a book
9...Teach the kid about music
10...Teach the kid how to play nice with his/her cousins

So much, so much, so much to teach Peanut. :-)

Business Trip

Taylor is leaving for her first business trip in a long time. The previous one was very early during the pregnancy. The nausea is almost gone, but does occasionally come roaring back, as it did for a few hours last night. She is still 80% better, but that 20% is vicious. She will only be down in Fort Worth, Texas until Wednesday, but I hope the flight is much more generous to her this time. She may be better on the ground now, but who knows how turbulence will affect her. We shall find out this evening when she lands.

Until then, this is going to be one of the final times I will be alone. I mean, sure Taylor will take more business trips before the baby is born, but if you really think about it, these three days are going to be one of the final chances I have to do things without having a child to watch (or a wife to watch me). What should I do?

So many possibilities, but I will probably veg on the couch and pass out before waking up at 2:30 in the morning and crawling into bed for the remainder of the night. You know, the usual.

Nausea FINALLY Passes...

Taylor says she feels 80% better now compared to last week. She looks better and more comfortable. She still gets tired often, but there is a noticeable difference in how she appears. I am happy that she will be able to eat again like a regular person. The need for smoothies on a daily basis will be no more...for now. Hopefully we can also cook again as we are finally caving in to buy a new oven. Thank you, Tax Refund!

Today was also a big day because I started to clean out the "Computer Room" to begin the switch to "Peanut's Room." I started with my books and CDs. I have so many of both that I never use, there really is no sense in the clutter. The books, I will donate to our local library and the CDs I will sell at Disc Replay and the money will go into our savings account. As for what is left, so far I have been able to reduce the books down to the smaller bookcase. That is pretty good seeing as both of them were crammed to the breaking point.

Also, here is more proof that a Caucasian father and a Korean mother produce really good looking babies. Trek on over to my brother-in-law's blog and see the images of his new niece, Alexa. I hope our kid is this cute too!

Practice Baby

Taylor says that I coddle Newt.

She says that he will be jealous of the baby when Peanut is born. She says that I need to show Newt now so that he doesn't sit on the baby's face while he/she sleeps in the crib.

It is true, I do treat Newt like a baby. I favor him over Nellie. I love Nellie too, but Newt is "my" cat. Sure, he is a pain sometimes too, but I love him anyway. Yeah, I hold him like a baby and he nuzzles up to me in bed while I sleep, but he is a cat, who doesn't like a furry friend sleeping near you. That is what pets are for!

But, I will have to learn not to treat him like a baby, because that will make it harder when all the attention goes to Peanut.

But, click on the picture above to enlarge. He is just so damn loveable!

Birth Day Live!

Once a year, Discovery Health airs 6 hours of live births on TV. They show C-sections, vaginal births (they don't actually show anything, thank god), multiple births, you name it. We flipped the channel on, not realizing the special was airing tonight. At first, they mentioned one of the 3 hospitals airing births was Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland. Bizarre since that is the hospital both my brother and sister were born in and was less than 5 miles from my childhood home. So, I figured, might as well tune in.

Bad move. The first birth they showed was a c-section. Man, oh man! I thought they showed a lot on those prerecorded pregnancy shows, but this was something totally different. The opening did not look big enough, the skin no longer looked like it was human, the baby's head did not look like it would come out. And, the blood. Oh, sweet lord, the blood! Not regular blood either, but viscous dark red blood. It was brutal. I will never mock a pregnant woman ever again for anything related to the birthing experience. And when the kid was born, I got teary. I could picture us there in September.

So, now, I have banished myself to the computer room to post this blog and to watch World Baseball Classic games. Anything not to watch those horrible c-sections. I will have to face it when our child is born, but until then why should I suffer by watching all the pain now? No, thank you!

Lookin' For A Heartbeat!

We got it! This afternoon, we heard little Peanut's heartbeat at our 13 week checkup. Our appointment was at 4:15, but we didn't get to see Dr. Nakanishi until 5:45. Taylor was laying on the table and I was fuming mad. I am sure now that I was so upset because I was anxious to know our baby was okay. Taylor has been having such bad nausea, I wanted to make sure everything was tiptip for her and the pregnancy.

Dr. Nakanishi concurred that the fact Taylor has not gained any weight (in fact, she has lost 3 pounds since the last visit) is completely normal in the early parts of a pregnancy. She suggested if the weightloss continues or becomes drastic, only then do we need to worry. As for the nausea, it could let up tomorrow or not for another month. We won't know until it stops.

I was expecting a large machine like an ultrasound to hear the heartbeat, but instead Dr. Nakanishi pulled out a little machine the size of a cell phone or a walkie talkie. She put the gel on Taylor's stomach and my face was inches away from it. She searched around the lower stomach for what felt like minutes while we heard static and the occasionaly bleep or bloop. I heard several sounds I was convinced were the heartbeat but never repeated. In this "eternity" I began to feel nervous. Had we told everyone too soon? Was, God forbid, something wrong?

And then, the steady whoompf, whoompf, whoompf sound of our child's heartbeat. It was steady and I didn't register the sound at first. Then, the doctor moved the monitor a quarter of an inch to the left and the sound intensified. A loud, steady 160 beat per minute heartbeat of our Peanut. I felt the tears well in the back of my eyes and all the time waiting for this moment in frustration disappeared. I can still hear the sound in my mind and it is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. Even as I write this, I am getting teary.

The doctor prescribed Reglan for Taylor. It is an anti-nausea medication that she can take up to three times a day. Dr. Nakanishi gave Taylor a 10 day supply. Hopefully, that won't be necessary.

The next appointment is April 11, and just a standard check up I do not need to attend. They will draw blood for the Down's Syndrome screening test then and give us the form for our ultrasound. That will be in the fifth month.

Until then, I will dream of the whoompf, whoompf, whoompf of the little Life inside Taylor. Our little Peanut has a strong heart.

Nausea Keeps Coming

Taylor can barely move again. The wristbands just aren't cutting it. She called the doctor today to find a solution. The nurse suggested the following, in order of potency:

Ginger Tea
B6 Vitamins
Dramamine
Benadryl

Taylor is hoping to not have to use the Benadryl or the Dramamine. We have already met the end of the First Trimester, so symptoms should start to diminish, but that is not always guaranteed. Only time will tell at this point.

Also, no more greasy food. She ate pizza last night and she was miserable. A few nights before she had spicy Chipotle and barely got out of the bathroom that night. She says she may not be able to ever eat these foods again. I think she will, but again, only time will tell.

Florida -- Part 2

Surprising my parents was great, but the fallout was even better. I know that all of the grandparents (and the great-grandparent!) are fully supportive and just as excited as we are. I cannot wait to see the face of the newest member of our family!

My grandmother and my mother spent the better part of our stay doting over Taylor and calling every possible family member to inform them of the news. I am the first of my generation to have a kid on either side of the family, so it is a big deal. My sister is excited to be an aunt and my dad just wants vengeance on me by watching me be a dad to a kid like me. Thanks, Dad!

Taylor spent the trip sleeping in my sister's room. No one wanted to share with my grandmother (the snoring is pretty bad...but then again, so is mine...and my dad...and my mom...). I slept on an air mattress in the living room, which I must say was quite comfortable. That is if your idea of comfortable is sleeping on a rubber donut while a mean little Siamese cat nibbles at your exposed flesh, then yeah, it was peachy.

The trip ended way too soon. I wish we could have spent more time there. Unfortunately, we soon learned the price of travelling in the first trimester. Taylor and I experienced the worst turbulence I have ever felt on all three of our flights. I felt nauseous, so I can only imagine how she felt. Poor Taylor.

But, we did get to see Alton Brown on the connecting flight from Atlanta to Miami. He seemed kind of snobby, but it was a celebrity sighting!

The images are some of the first things my family has passed down to us for the baby. One is a teething ring made of Mother of Pearl and sterling silver that my father used when he was an infant. The other is my silver drinking cup engraved with my name and birthday. There is also a red coat my father and I both wore that my son/daughter will be able to wear too. It is so cool to know I will be passing these things down soon.

SURPRISE!!

Well, it went off without a hitch! We arrived (after a very bumpy flight) and my mother was shopping for her "trip" to Vegas. My dad called and told her to come home, where we were waiting. She came in and he told her that the trip was cancelled but to come into the kitchen to find out why. I quickly snapped the above pictures to capture her reaction. She freaked out and saw Taylor before me! Then, she freaked again when she saw me!

She was smiling and laughing and we then broke the news that we were pregnant. My dad was struck dumb and silent, but my mother freaked again! Lots of hugs and excitement continued even when my sister and grandmother were surprised as well. Everyone is truly happy. Just judge by the fact that my wife got more gifts on my birthday than I did! Lots of new maternity clothes and advice. Plus, some old family baby items that we can use for ourselves now. More to come about the trip!