The Final Countdown

Before I get started, I want to congratulate fellow blogger Ryan and his wonderful wife Katherine on the birth of sweet, beautiful Molly Grace.  I also want to get on to Ryan, not for not blogging, because we all know how busy having a newborn makes us, but for not posting any pictures of his angelic daughter on the site!  Chop chop, mister!



This is it, the last three months of pregnancy, the final trimester, the end of us being a couple and the beginning of us being a family.  We have a lot on our plate for these last few months. Not only showers soon to be here, but a full day of birthing class, bi-weekly doctor's visits, then weekly ones, and to top things off the wonderful holiday season.  Also, Melissa is going to be traveling for work soon.  Ah, the holiday season, a great time of year, a time I truly enjoy, but also the busiest we'll be at work.  I'm not sure how, but we'll make it through this season and before we know it, Ethan will be here.

Not much has happened since my last blog, we did get the baby furniture in, it hasn't been assembled yet, but it's here.  We also had a very enjoyable trip to San Francisco with Melissa's parents.  I had never been to California before, even though most of my family(me included) are huge San Francisco Giants fans, it was a tremendous treat to say the least.  We did some sightseeing and even toured AT&T Park where the Giants play.

My beautiful pregnant wife hanging from a stationary street car.

This was at the end of the street car line not far from Fisherman's Wharf.

Can't go to SF without going here.

Great shot of the street car line, and the very steep hill we came down.

Gotta go here too, they make some pretty good chocolates!

We took a boat tour of the bay, I got this shot of the Golden Gate Bridge on my iPhone.

Yours truly sitting in the Giants dugout, Melissa kindly pointed out that the Giants behind my head with the s covered made it an accurate description of my noggin.

Full House houses, aka the Painted Ladies.

Can't see it very well, but that's the 18th green at Pebble Beach

My lady standing in a Redwood.

Biggest trees I've ever seen, I'm sure they make a sound if one falls and no one is around.

Alcatraz, or as Sean Connery would say "The Rock"

The traveling baby bump is back! Notice, it's grown a bit since Florida. 

Baby Bump at the ballpark.

Baby Bump cruising the Bay.

Baby Bump at the beach in Monterey.



Baby Bump at Pebble Beach, which in this photo is not so pebbly.



There, I'm done channeling my mother, for those of you that don't know, she loves to take and share pictures! Speaking of mom, before we left for San Francisco my parents were in town for a few days on their way through to Illinois to visit more family.  We had a great time, which to my family is hanging out and eating, especially Guadalajara Grill.

We had a doctor's visit this past Monday, a check up and for Melissa to take her sugar test, which she didn't pass.  Therefore, she's going back in a few hours to do an even longer test, I think they said it will take three hours for this one.  We're hoping things go better this time.  I got quite a few responses when I posted this on facebook and most were mothers who had gone through this a few times during their pregnancies and everything turned out fine, but we still have our fingers crossed.  For the first time the nurse had no problem finding our boy's heartbeat.  Every other time he's either turned away or hiding some how and they have to chase him around, all the while smearing jelly all over Melissa's tummy.  Other than the test, everything checked out just fine on the visit.  I believe Dr. Chauhan said he's on his way to being better than seven pounds before he's born, which Melissa blamed on my large head.  What can I say, I come from a family of large noggins.

That's about it for now, I'll have more in a week or so (baby shower next week), and definitely pictures of baby furniture assembly party! We call it a party so people will come help us, hey, promise some food and you can get folks to come out.



Overwhelmed

It's not always easy to admit when you're wrong, right guys? Well, I know I've been wrong by not blogging as I should.   So, this could be a very long blog or a Reader's Digest abridged version. Let's see, it's been over two weeks since my last post, a lot has happened since then, well it seems like a lot. I know Ryan has his hands full with last minute details (Katherine too!), the countdown is on for Molly's big arrival!  Can't wait to see her.

Let me get straight to it, Melissa and I went to register at Babies R Us and Target, this is where the overwhelming sensation hit me.  It was fun at first, I, being a total dude, enjoyed the little scanner (which also double as a phaser in between scanning) just as much as I did when registering for wedding showers.  We looked at awesome outfits on clearance, where we bought his first beach attire for next Spring or Summer.  I picked this out, and am really pleased with myself.

Drink it up ladies, he's going to be the coolest little guy at the beach!

Then, after the playfulness and clothes shopping, things started to get a bit more serious.  This is when I started to feel overwhelmed.  I had no idea what or how much of anything a baby needs.  There is so much stuff to consider!  What kind of diapers, what kind of bottles, what kind of lotion for diaper rash, are we going with formula or does my wife think she wants to breastfeed, if we need formula, what kind, if breastfed, what kind of pumps, we need first aid supplies: thermometers, the little bulb thingy that squirts stuff into the nose or is it the ear, I don't even know what it's for, tiny finger nail clippers, etc, etc, etc.  I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, but there is so much stuff I didn't even consider about having to, well, consider.  They gave us a list of most common items, which was helpful, but I'm a guy, we don't ask for directions, do you think I'm going to follow a checklist?

Melissa sensed my frustration, and she already knows this about me, which is something I am learning of myself, if things don't go smoothly, I get detached, also known as A.D.D. I think. This is a self-diagnosis, or wife diagnosis, I skip around to different attractions and I can't focus on any one of them.  This is something not new to me, but I have a new awareness of it.  So sometimes when blogging, which is a typed form of thinking, I can get off on tangents, chasing rabbits is how some people put this, not that I'm frustrated about blogging or anything, it's just the way the ol' noggin works.  So she stepped up, which she does so well, and took the reins, which she already had anyways, and we started through the checklist.  Just to point out, I was never leading this venture, I was just kind of meandering around, so really what she did was put me on track, which apparently happens often.  So I tried to focus on the baby bottles.  There are many different types and we actually registered for a couple different sets, but one brand drew me in,  Tommee Tippees. 

I'm not sure what it is about them, they claim to be closer to nature, so they work much like the real deal.  They look neat, but there are mixed reviews online.  If any of you have tried them, please let us know how they worked out for you.  I will of course review them myself once Ethan arrives, hopefully I will find the time. 

I wanted to go all out for the baby monitor, with the camera and and night vision capabilities, but I let myself be talked out of it.  Which is quite alright, the ones we settled on are practical and a lot cheaper, I'm not sure of the brand, but when we start receiving these items and actually start using them, I hope to start a review section of the blog. 

Let's move on to something else now.  We had another appointement this past Tuesday, September 27th.  This was one of the quickest visit ever to a doctor's office.  I mean ever, any doctor.  We showed up on time, sat in the first waiting room for maybe five minutes or less.  Got called to the back, Melissa got to do her business in a cup while I waited in the second waiting room.  She rendezvoused with me there, where we waited another five minutes, at most.  Then we were called to our room, where we waited the longest on this visit, but not as long as usual.  The nurse took Melissa's BP and asked a few questions, I was doing my best to stay awake, sipping on a peppermint white mocha (too bad we can't get Starbucks to sponsor our site, everytime we name a product we'd get paid, like those Nascar guys...random I know, it's 4 am, I'm doing my best).  She then gooped the glob of gel on Melissa's tummy and searched for Ethan's heartbeat.  This is always neat to me.  We listen to him for a few moments and then the nurse cleans up the blob and is gone. Enter our doctor, Heather Chauhan, with her usual cheery self.  She's been great so far, and I can tell, will be thorughtout the pregnancy.  She asks a few questions, Melissa replies, then Melissa asks a few questions and she replies.  I don't usually feel the need to add anything, and if I do it's more than likely an awkward attempt at a joke or in response to a question Melissa looks to me on.  This whole exchange took less than 10 minutes, I believe, and we were good to go.  Everything checked out alright and we set up a few more appointments then left.  Next visit Melissa gets to go through the glucose tolernace test, or the sugar test as most say.  Some of the ladies at work say it doesn't taste very good, and that I, as the supportive husband, should taste it as well...we'll see.  I would try to explain what the test is, but you're better off clicking on the link. 

I want to thank everyone for being here for us, I think I can speak for Ryan as well, when I say that your support and kind words and information you pass along to us is what helps keep this blog going.  That and our want to share with our kids what things were like leading up to their arrival and of course the many years after they've been here. 

I also want to thank you Ryan for considering me for this venture, if it weren't for your creativeness, I would just be bouncing along on this journey (trip into fatherhood) with no channel to direct some of my thoughts and reactions. I hope we can keep it up.

Until next time, which should never be as long as it took for this time, but can't really say it won't be.