it’s a boy…

Just a tad belated here now that he’s 10 weeks old… But that’s why I haven’t had anything to say lately. My wife delivered a happy and healthy baby boy on 2/2/2008. He’s a lot of work but the best gift God has ever given me.

where have i been?

Nowhere really. I just haven’t felt like posting anything. Well, I’ve felt like it, I just haven’t had the motivation. I worked really hard at getting the nursery ready (hard because I’m such a perfectionist), all the new baby clothes washed and put away, and helping to take care of my wife who is now out of work and on bed rest. But for some reason I woke up at 5am today and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I guess it’s time to do a little Bible Study and maybe post a couple random things before I start cleaning the house.

ugh, I look 23 weeks pregnant

I’m not a skinny guy and like most guys, I carry all my extra weight in my “pouch.” One of the things I’ve been joking with my wife about has been that with her being pregnant, she’d eventually get a bigger belly than me for the first time. Last week (at the end of week 21), I thought that “magical” moment had come. I pulled out a tape measure, only to find out that my belly was still a little bit bigger.

Ugh. That means I look 23 weeks pregnant. But, on the plus side, I don’t look as pregnant as I once did. 5 years ago I was 40 pounds heavier, and looked about 7 months pregnant. At least I’m moving the right direction…

kick for daddy

Friday night I got to feel our baby kick for the first time. For the past week or two, when my wife prepares for bed, I’ve been laying next to her with my hand on her belly since the baby often kicks when she’s still. But I had never managed to feel one of the kicks. We just finished week 19, so the baby is still pretty tiny in there.

We usually read a devotion before going to sleep. Friday she suggested that I read louder and near her belly. The baby kicked a few times while I was reading but I was reading and didn’t have my hand on her belly to feel it. After reading, I was feeling for a kick but none came.

As I was about to get up (I usually tuck my wife into bed then get up for a few hours since I don’t require nearly as much sleep as she does), I leaned over and put my lips right against her belly and said loudly, “Kick for daddy!” The baby immediately complied with a rather forceful kick–enough for me to feel.

Amazing. My child is only 19 weeks and can follow directions. Well, that or I scared the poor child nearly to death.

careful what you ask a seven-year-old boy

This weekend we went on a family vacation. We went to a very nice state park in Delaware. My parents own a 28-foot camper. In addition to my folks, me, and my wife, my sister and her family (husband and 3 nephews: 7, 5, 2) came along. We had a great time.

The best part was during breakfast on Sunday morning. The adults had discussed that we would probably tell the boys about their new cousin this weekend. We got discussing some friend of the family when my sister said, “you know, [name of person] is a really nice name for a girl,” which lead to a few jokes about several possible baby names. After a minute or two of that, my sister asked her boys, “do you guys know why we’re talking about baby names?” They didn’t quite get it, so we told them to expect a new cousin early next year.

The best part was my sister asking her oldest boy (7), “don’t you have anything you want to say to your aunt and uncle?,” to which he immediately replied, “good luck!”

Everyone got a great laugh out of that.

so, when do I get my wife back?

I feel like I’ve been living alone for most of the past two months. There are times that I see evidence that there’s a zombie sharing my house and bed.

My wife is now almost 13 1/2 weeks into our pregnancy. I just keep hoping that she will hit this “energy boost” that I keep hearing about that’s supposed to kick in at the 2nd trimester. The weekends aren’t so bad. But, during the week, when she gets home from work, I can usually get about 3 sentences out of her before the eyes glaze over and “zombie-mode” kicks in. I just hope I get back the woman I love here at some point.

Dealing with the food aversions and crazed eating games hasn’t been too bad–more funny to watch: going from “I’m not hungry” to “I need to eat something right now” to preparing a huge plate of something (usually pasta or mashed potatoes) to “I can’t eat any more” (usually after 3 or 4 bites out of the huge plate). I knew my wife would be tired early on in pregnancy. I just didn’t know she’d sleep 12 hours and be barely communicative during her pseudo-waking hours.

I’ll survive… I just hope the zombie moves out and my wife returns… I miss her. I miss us.

ultrasound pics

I thought it would be fun to post our ultrasound pictures. I’ll hope to update this post as we go.

praise to God for my house, family, and job

This week I celebrated the 5-year “anniversary” of closing on my house. At the time, I was dating someone, though not convinced it would last–and it didn’t. Yet, as I went through the house shopping process (finally opting to have a new house built–and helping design the floor plan) I was confident God was confirming that I would eventually find the right woman to marry, there would be kids, and I would need a home office. When I told people that I was having a 4-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot house built, most would say, “All that just for you?” I told them that it wasn’t just for me, that eventually the house would be full with a family.

In those five years, God has chosen to bestow those blessings on me. I’m feeling really blessed and believe God is honored as I give Him praise for His gifts to me. He gave me a wonderful wife nearly three years ago. I have been working from home for the past year and just accepted a new job that will allow me to continue to work from home. And, we’re 7 weeks pregnant.

God is good. God has been good to me. God will continue to be good to me. Praise God, He is worthy!

7 weeks, 11 mm, all is well

We just went for our week 7 ultrasound and checkup today. Our baby is now 11mm long and had a heartbeat of 138 BPM. All is well! The baby is starting to look like a baby on the ultrasound. I’ll get the scanner out this weekend, promise

we have a heartbeat!

It was an exciting appointment with the doctor today. My wife is an ultrasound tech. She has done hundreds–if not thousands–of baby ultrasounds in her career. So I was wondering how she’d react to watching the ultrasound today. As she was last week, she was a bit tense and her heart was racing. Her heart seemed to race even more as the tech got things going. We could see the sack was larger than last week. It took a few minutes for her to focus in on the sack, and we could soon see the tiny heart beating. My wife exclaimed “thank you God” and started crying. I think she really feared something would be wrong. I had no doubt whatsoever that things would be great. Now I have to go get my scanner set up!