the-kirk-family.com: Dad's Diary

The Original Daddy's Diary

For those of you that remember way back when, I wrote a semi-regular commentary on how Emily and I were handling her pregnancy with Mackenzie and how life changed after she was born. It actually had quite a following of tens of people. I am starting to keep a record of the new baby as well as the joys of dealing with a toddler in my weblog, but I wanted to keep this on the site just in case anyone is ever nostalgic and wants to take a trip way back to 2002-03.

Monday, September 29

10:43 PM - - I'm not even going to kid myself any more. This diary is apparently now not so much a diary as it is just a random place to talk about Mackenzie when I feel like writing. And apparently, I only get that "feeling" every few months or so. I like to think I am spending so much time being a great dad, that I don't really have enough time left to write. Yeah, that's it.

Anyway, Mackenzie started crawling last week. She is absolutely all over the place now. And she seems very pleased with herself that she can move herself all the way across the room. And it looks as though she has little baby sonar to seek out things she's not supposed to touch or be around. It's uncanny. She really likes to be under the coffee table in the living room and right next to Matty's water bowl in the kitchen. We've already had 2 incidents that involved her playing with the water dish. Unfortunately, there was water in it at the time. You want to be mad, but it's just so funny that you can't. She also have a really abnormal crawl. Instead of moving her legs like a locomotive, she kind of walks and pushes off with one foot and then just drags the other one around. You know what a car looks like when it has one tire completly flat. It's kind of like that. Now her "drag leg" is getting a huge rug burn on it. Doesn't seem to bother her though.

She also began "talking" a couple of months ago. By talking, I really mean finding a single sylable made up of a hard consonant and a vowel and repeating it over and over again. It also means screaming at the top of her lungs when nobody is paying attention to her. She pretty much has Da, Ba, and Ma down so far. It's only a matter of time until she unleashes, "Hey, dad. Can I have a car?" I can't wait.

Another joy that Mackenzie brings is the wonderful experience of teething (catch the scarcasm there?). Two teeth have already come through, so only 18 more to go. It could have been worse....Emily asked me how many teeth we have. Her guess was 48. My wife really is smart. Just not great with math and numbers.

Our living room has now turned into Mackenzie's play room. If you make a wrong step in Mackenzie's play room, you are bound to trip over something that will either hurt, make noise or both. And you can guarantee that whatever it was, it does not, in any way have any colors that match the colors in the living room. I just don't understand why they can't make baby toys that are a nice tan or taupe color. They'd make millions.

Well, all caught up now. I'll chat at everyone again sometime around Christmas. Maybe.

Saturday, July 19

10:31 PM - - And two months later, here I am again. I am such a slacker. Actually, I like to think that I am spending so much time being such a great dad, I don't have any extra time to write things for my own web site. Or I'm lazy. One of the two.

Mackenzie really seems to be turning into a little girl and transitioning out of the "fragile baby" stage. She just started on solid foods with a spoon (we've been adding cereal to bottles for months) and she seems to really like it. The fact that she really likes new foods is unfortunate because her chubbly little legs already look like the Michellin Man. I assume that she'll work some of the weight off once she starts moving around, but if not, we're going to have to enroll her in Jenny Craig Jr. before she's 2. The doctor says she's only in the 75th percentile in weight. I really don't want to see the kids that are more "advanced" than her. They must be eating chocolate and lard for every meal.

Mackenzie also is sitting up really well now. We can sit her up and she'll play with toys or her hands for quite a while. At least until she leans too far forward and does a face plant on the carpet. She has finally rolled over, but since she first did it over a month ago, she has only done it 2 more times. I just don't think she's interested. She's about as interested in physical activity as her dad.

We are now in the "pick it up, and put it in your mouth" stage. That also puts us squarely in the middle of the "thin layer of spit on everything" stage. I am really happy that she isn't very mobile yet, because there's no telling what dog toys she secretly wants to put in her mouth. Just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

A story not dealing with Mackenzie....
A woman I work with is pregnant for the first time. Actually 2 are pregnant and 2 more just gave birth in a department of less than 30....there's definitely something in the water at the office. Anyway, I had told this one woman, Mary, about the childbirth video that Emily and I had seen and repeated the story of the couple that made the video a classic in my eyes. You know the couple. The guy that brought a picture of the couple's cat, Bensen, into the delivery room, sang "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" to relax his wife, and reprimanded his wife for eating a steak sandwich before leaving for the hospital. So, apparently Mary has begun her childbirth education classes as well. And of all things random, she sees the same video! She laughed alone through most of the video and nearly lost it when the husband in the video began singing. Her husband had no idea what she was laughing at and had to be satisfied with a simple, "I'll tell you later." Classic.

I'll try to check in again before the end of the summer....hopefully more than once. But you never know.

Saturday, February 1

12:04 AM - - It is only about 3 weeks late, but I finally just had to MAKE time to write about the day of January 9th. I kept worrying that I would forget about everything before I would have a chance to get it written, but now I know that there isn't a chance of me forgetting anything. I think it's all burned in my head forever.

On the night of January 8, the night before we went to the hospital, Emily came home and noticed that her ankles and feet were really swollen. It looked like her ankles had disappeared and her calfs went directly into her huge feet. I told her to go lay down with her feet on a pillow and that seemed to do the trick. We went to bed that night with no problems. The next morning, we got up and went about our normal morning getting ready for work. When Emily got out of the shower, she had said that she was seeing flashes of light in her periferal vision. She decided that it would be a good idea to call the doctor to tell them, and I am glad she did. Her doctor told her that she needed to go to the hospital to be put on a monitor to make sure everything was OK. We had hoped that we would get to go to Laurel Hospital, but her doctor sent us over to Holy Cross which ended up being a longer drive for us, but it wasn't a big deal.

We made it over to Holy Cross, got checked in through the red tape on the ground floor and they sent us upstairs to the 3rd floor and got us into triage. They immediately hooked up Emily to all the machinery there to monitor the baby's heartbeat, contractions and Emily's blood pressure. They had indications that her blood pressure was high because of the swelling and flashes of light, so they were very conscious of that. After taking blood and sending that to the lab, they determined that Emily had preeclampsyia and that we weren't leaving the hospital. This was a total shock to us because we assumed that she would be monitored for a few minutes and we'd go to work. Thank goodness I grabbed the labor bag on the way out the door.

Once we knew we were staying, they transferred us from triage to an actual delivery room. It was much more comfortable than a normal hospital room. It had a really nice bed (for Emily) and two nice chairs (for me) and a TV and bathroom (for both of us). We knew they were going to start to induce her labor, but we weren't sure how they were going to do it.

After her first exam in the room, they decided that they could break her water and get it started that way. So they pull out this big plastic stick with a small hook on the end. The hook was used to break the placenta and Emily's water broke. Gross. But after that was over, they started pitocin in her IV which is supposed to speed up labor.

Pitocin really did seem to speed up the labor, but it also started to make the contractions that she had been having much more painful. She did start to fairly rapidly dialate, but the contractions were coming quick and intense. Eventually, she got a contraction and it didn't stop. It was at that point that she got the "I really need some drugs" face. The doctor was going to give her something in her IV but decided that she could probably go ahead and get the epidural at that point if she wanted one. The answer was "yes!"

The anesthesiologist came in and went over all of Emily's stats, and prepared to start. He got out the little epidural toolkit that I had seen at our childbirth class. It looked like something straight out of Frankenstein's lab complete with a huge horse needle that would be inserted into Emily's spine. When he started, he was at Emily's back and I was in front of her with a couple of nurses to keep her still. Don't want to stick that needle in the wrong spot. He started his work, and I could picture in my head exactly what he was doing because I had seen one on TV. It was about that time that the room started to get warm. Really warm. I unbuttoned a couple of buttons on my shirt, but that didn't seem to help. I thought to myself, "Great, I'm going to pass out." I started to feel really awful, but I didn't want to leave Emily by herself wondering where I went. Then the doctor narrowed my options of what I was going to do when he said,
"Are you OK?" Then the nurse said, "You are a little white, maybe you should go outside." That's all I needed. I went outside, a nice nurse gave me some juice and I sat on the floor for a few minutes. By the time I felt better and went back in the room to apologize for nearly hitting the floor, Emily was feeling MUCH better.

Three to four hours went by with very little progress in the labor. Emily was still at not quite 5 centimeters, and wasn't going any further. Finally at 7 p.m. the doctor decided to call it a day (her words, not mine). She then began to prepare to get Emily in for a c-section. Me being me, I wanted to know a timeline, and she said that it would be within the hour. Before I had time to get nervous, they brought me my scrubs and told me to get dressed. And, after moving all of our stuff from our temporary home in the delivery room, we were taken to the operating room at a little before 8.

They took Emily in first to get her all hooked up and prepped. They made me wait outside considering my recent reaction the epidural. They wanted me outside for as long as possible. Eventually, they called me in and had me sit on a small metal stool by Emily's head. There were 2 doctors doing the surgery, a few nurses, an anesthesiologist, and a pediatrician in the room and before I could blink, they started cutting. I can't even describe how it felt to watch Emily being cut on but still being able to look down and see her looking at me and talking. There wasn't all the drama of a regular delivery. They cut her open, clamped her open, and then went back in for more cutting. It was less than 5 minutes of cutting and clamping before I saw our daughter's head. It all just happened so quickly. Before I could get really comfortable, I saw the head. Then one of the doctors nearly jumped on Emily's chest to push downward, and in a couple more seconds I heard crying. Our baby was crying. She was mad. It was really cold and there was an awful lot of light. They held her up for about 1 second after cutting the cord, and of course, Emily missed it. I kept staring over at the warmer where Mackenzie was trying to see what was going on.

Mackenzie was going through a number of tests as well as getting her lungs cleared. They weighed her and allowed me to take some pictures, but it all went so quickly. The process wasn't done, because I needed to go sit down again and be with Emily while they closed her up. It seemed to take an eternity, but eventually they declared it all finished and wheeled us out and into an observation room.

They brought us Mackenzie and we got to spend about a half hour with her before they had to take her to the nursery. Emily wasn't feeling that well, which isn't surprising, and she couldn't even sit up to hold Mackenzie. I held her until they took her away and soon afterwards they reminded me that I couldn't stay there overnight. Emily understood, but it still stung to have a new baby and not get to spend any time with her. It was an incredible downer to a really emotionally high day.

We were both thrilled though. We had a healthy baby girl. She had ten fingers and toes. She looked like Emily which is fortunate for Mackenzie and she appeared to like us. At least she didn't cry or anything when she looked at us.

And that was just the first day....

Friday, January 10

2:27 AM - - Remember all of that stuff I said late last night (or I guess 2 nights ago by the time I write this) about being tired of waiting and just wanting to get moving. It must have worked because Mackenzie Kirk was born last night. It was a really long day and I am exhausted. Emily is still at the hospital in recovery trying to keep a steady flow of pain medication. I'll write more when I get a chance and when I'm not so tired.

Wednesday, January 8

11:25 PM - - OK....we're officially tired of waiting. We got so geared up at our false alarm a month ago and now the excitement has waned. Don't get me wrong, we're still excited, but we thought the baby would be here by now after the contractions started, but here we are, 4 weeks later and still nothing. I've forgotten most of the stuff I learned in childbirth class except that you should NOT eat cheese steak sandwiches before going to the hospital or sing "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain" during labor. Everything else is a blur. I seem to remember something about breathing and really big needles, but I'm not sure. Oh, and you can give birth with a key and two zip ties. Not my prefered method and I assume there will be more advanced medical implements at the hospital.

Anyway, the bag is STILL packed. Cameras are STILL loaded. I keep just hoping Emily's water would break (preferrably on the linoleum in the kitchen or anywhere outside) so we can get in the car and go to the hospital. So, until then, we wait. And wait.

Monday, December 30

12:26 AM - - Well, we have made it safely to the other side of the holidays and everyone appears to have come through just fine. Emily's family just left today, and our house has never been cleaner. Laundry is done. Refrigerator is full. I think we really need another person here full time to take care of the house. Wonder if I could afford that on my US Airways salary? No.

Emily has now officially been taken off of bed rest and been placed on "just take it easy." Whatever that means. That's what her doctor told her. She had been abusing the bed rest thing for as long as she could and I am kind of glad to see it over. She would take it pretty easy but still do the things she really would want to do. But if I ever asked her to do something she didn't want to do, I got the standard response, "I'm on bed rest." Now she has stopped that finally, and she is moving around freely for no other reason that she thinks that if she moves around, the baby might come. She's ready. She's very uncomfortable and really wants to wear all of her old clothes. It really doesn't seem that there is any possible way that this could go another month....seems like she is coming any day.

And speaking of "she", we had another sonogram last week at the same doctor visit where Emily got put on "take it easy." It shows that the baby is definitely a girl which thrilled me because I now know I don't have to repaint the room. All the clothes were also then free to be washed because there was no danger of having to take them back. The doctor said that she looked really good, but the measurements that were taken looked like a little larger head than where it should be right now which thrilled Emily. We did get a couple of new sonogram pictures, but apparently my scanner is not compatible with Windows XP (hard to believe) and I have to get a new one before I can get them up.

We have the labor bag all packed up just in case she decides to make her appearance a month early. We have enough batteries in the bag to run a small midwestern town for a month. Cameras (film, digital and video) are all ready to go. My phone list is updated and printed. I think we are all set, but of course, we'll still probably run around here like idiots at the last minute throwing things in a garbage bag to take with us.

Saturday, December 14

1:48 PM - - This pregnancy, which has been pretty uneventful since it started, all of a suddend turned very eventful on Wednesday. Emily and I both got up like we normally do, but I wasn't feeling well so I called the office and told them I wouldn't be coming in. I figured rest would help me out. Emily had some back pain that started on Monday and had been getting weak cramps that she thought were just normal. She got out her "book" just to make sure and it said something to the effect of: "If you experience back pain and weak menstrual cramps, call your doctor immediately." So, Emily calls her doctor and he says he wants to see her that morning. So we both get dressed assuming it is going to be a quick trip to the doctor and then a trip right home. Nope.

So we get to the doctor's office, and of course, wait in the waiting room. You have to. It's called the waiting room. Anyway, we finally get in to see the the smaller room where a nurse comes in to poke around. She hooked up Emily on a fetal monitor and then left. Emily was on the monitor for maybe a half hour and the doctor came in to look at the little squiggly lines that the monitor created and said that Emily was having contractions. They were mild but they were there and they were in a pattern. The doctor then did an "exam" on Emily and determined that her cervix was still closed and didn't show any signs of being in pre-term labor. Good. Let's go home. I'm sick. Of course, the doctor didn't care that I wanted to go home and sent Emily to the hospital so that THEY could monitor her. That just seems weird to me. The doctor monitored her and then decided to send her to the hospital so that a nurse could monitor her. Doesn't that sound backwards?

Now we are at the hospital and get checked in. Emily gets hooked up to an IV (she didn't think that she'd get one of those when she woke up that morning) and climbs into a bed in her nice hospital gown. Originally, they had us in a birthing room which I liked because it had a recliner and a TV....almost like being at home. They apparently decided that they wanted us in a different room. Of course, it was one that was about half the size, no recliner. And no TV. And no magazines. All I had was to stare at the monitor for hours. I got where I could actually read it. I think I'll go to med school now.

They assumed that Emily was just a little dehydrated so they gave her a bag of fluids through the IV. That seemed to help the contractions (I could see that on the monitor), but it wasn't getting rid of them, only spacing them out farther. They then gave her a shot in the arm. It was an asthma drug. Makes sense. Apparently it is a muscle relaxant that helps with asthma attacks, but it apparently also helps relax the uterus. Sure. I'll buy that. Well, it does seem to work in making them spread apart even more. Now, one of the side effects of this drug is that you feel really jumpy and your heart rate goes up. When they didn't get the contractions stopped with the first shot, they decided to do another one. After this one, it looked like the arteries in her neck were trying to get out and her heart rate had gone from about 80 when she got in to 125. And Emily freaks. She finally gets relaxed and the contractions seem to be very far apart now. They had been about 5 minutes apart but now they were about 20.

They finally decided to let her go home, but they told her that her doctor had prescribed bed rest. Emily had been telling her office that labor could really happen at any time and that they really should work on getting all of her issues transitioned to someone else for the time being, but it just didn't get done in time. She shouldn't be down for the rest of the pregnancy, which is good. Emily's mom is coming out to help out for a few days so that'll be good for me. Emily seems to be in decent spirits except that she is really, really bored. She also was upset that she had such a boring birthday yesterday. I think she had really looked forward to going out and doing something. Instead, she was on the couch. All night. It'll all be done soon though and she'll never get to be on the couch again.

Wednesday, November 27

11:27 PM - - Thanksgiving Eve. We are gearing up for Thanksgiving here in sunny and cold Laurel, MD. Emily's parents and grandma are here but this is the first holiday season without my family around. I guess I will live but it isn't my first choice. Next year will be different. I am kind of glad that I wasn't travelling this year...It looked like traffic was pretty bad everywhere and I am just tired of flying in general. It will be nice to wake up tomorrow and have everything here at our house. Pies are already made and turkey is in the fridge ready to go in the oven. Can't wait.

We have been faithfully attending our Childbirth education classes every week. This week, we saw "the movie." It was nearly the same one that I saw in health class my sophomore year in high school. Isn't it amazing that whether you are 16 or 28, "the movie" only means one thing....there's going to be a lot of amniotic fluid, screaming and things that you don't see every day. This film was a little different than the one in health in that we saw three births and not just one. This one also didn't show the beginning of life and the footage of the pregnancy because we all pretty much had that covered. Been there. Done that.

The film was an excellent piece of cinematic work. Three New York area couples going through the joys of labor all in their own special ways. Couple one seemed to be the yuppie couple of the group who knew all of their breathing techniques perfectly. They both loved each other. The man of the family talked very low and told his wife how great she was doing. They were just the perfect little couple. The next couple however were just a normal everyday couple that just happened to be the funniest thing I have ever seen. First, the woman slapped the guys hands away from her when she just got tired of him touching her. Then he pulls out her "focal point." It's a picture of a cat. Now you have to picture this....she's screaming. She's in pain. She's mad her husband was even born. And he pulls out a picture of a cat and says, "Here, look at Bensen." Note to self...don't bring pictures of pets to the delivery room. They both decide that maybe a shower would make her feel better, so they both head into the shower in the labor room. The shower does make her feel better until her husband starts singing, "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" to her. When I think of relaxing music, I may think Kenny G, maybe Norah Jones, but definitely NOT "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain." The best though was she announced that she wasn't feeling that well (shocker) and he proclaims, "maybe you shouldn't have had that steak sandwich before we came." Classic.

Marge also taught us all pushing techniques, which when coupled with the breathing and relaxing that was taught the previous two weeks, we could go through a fake labor. Emily gets stage fright though and spends half her time giggling instead of relaxing. I can tell labor is going to be a treat. Hopefully it will be an easy labor for both of us.

The baby's room has been painted and is now sitting and waiting for furniture to fill it. It is a shade of cotton candy pink that is sort of overwhelming when you first see it. Hopefully, when we get everything in it and set up, it won't be so bright. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Tuesday, November 12

10:16 PM - - Last night was our first "Childbirth Education" class, or at least that's what Marge, our instructor calls it. She says it is definitely not Lamaze. Whatever. I was missing Monday Night Football for it. Anyway, there were about 10 couples in our class, one of them for a second time. Seems to me, that if you have had a child already, the need to be in a childbirth education class would pretty much go away. Wouldn't that be like taking Drivers' Ed. 2 years after picking up your license? Call me crazy.

Our instructor, Marge, is definitely full of energy and for the most part, pretty funny. She really seems to know what she is talking about because she is 1) a nurse and 2) has 6 kids. 6 kids. On purpose. She boasted that she could "pop one out in about an hour and a half" which makes childbirth sound remarkably like making a good pot of chili. We spent most of the first night going over a list of all the things that everyone hates about pregnancy and her explaining why those things happen or why you shouldn't worry about them. It was actually good to hear from someone that knew what they were doing so that Emily could find out that a lot of her worries were really unfounded. Unfortunately, Marge made Emily believe that she wasn't eating good enough and wasn't drinking enough water. Marge suggests 10 ounces of water for every hour she is awake. I told Emily that she really has to sleep more because there is no way that she can drink 160 ounces of water in a day. You can float a small boat in 160 ounces of water. I guess we'll just have to take our chances with about half that amount.

We also learned how to relax during labor. Her relaxation technique involves deep breathing and scanning her body to make sure that each part is relaxed. We're not sure we are going to be able to do this because Emily says that trying to relax "makes her nervous." Amazingly enough, trying to relax makes me "sleep." Plus, we are going to have a problem because whenever I notice her tensing up during labor, I am supposed to lightly rub that body part to let her know that it is tense. Unfortunately, nearly half her body is extremely ticklish and she slaps my hands away. I can just see labor now. Her all wound up because she's nervous...not because of labor itself, but because she's trying to relax. Giggling uncontrolably because I'm tickling her. Yelling at the doctor to bring her drugs. Yelling at me to go get the doctor so he can give her drugs. All of this is going to get us right in the middle of a c-section. Of course, that's what Emily wants (don't ask).

FYI...Emily is about 29 weeks into the 40 week pregnancy. According to babycenter.com, our little girl can open her eyes and will turn her head towards bright lights. Fingernails are starting to grow and fat layers are starting to form. She looks like this at 7 months.

Wednesday, November 6

9:50 PM - - Well, frankly, I have been embarrassed as to the lack of posts to my dad's diary since I started this. Everyone has told me how much our little girl will love to read all of this when she's older. I agree, however, from the volume that I have written, It'll take her all of about 14 minutes and it'll all be over. I am guessing that the lack of writing is mainly because that it is time consuming to open FrontPage, find my page that I need to use, format everything right, write something, post it, double check links....you get the point. So, I have not gotten this handy little script that I can use to post anytime that I want. Not sure that will change any of my habits but it sure is neat....right? Man, am I a geek.

Election night was last night. Democrats lost big. Emily and I went to a party at her office and the mood was great all night because Sen. Durbin won early. It wasn't until later that things got bad. Anyway, Emily was really wanting a glass of wine last night. She was even smelling beer. I guess whatever rings her bell. I figure I'll have to bring a corkscrew to the hospital in January because she'll want a glass of wine as the epidural wears off. It's not what you think...she's not a lush. It's just been a while.

Emily seems to be growing every day and she has become horrified that her belly button has gone from an inny to a partial outy. And you can't touch it. It feels funny. Whatever that means. And apparently, the bigger you get, the more sleep you need. Emily went to sleep tonight at 8:00 tonight. Eight o'clock. She saw about 5 minutes of Ed before she gave up. That's just amazing to me. At least with her asleep, I can control the TV and have some time time to write. I figure by January, she'll figure out a way to sleep through most of the work day only waking to eat and go to the bathroom, which is, ironically enough, the exact same life the baby will have the first few months.

October 28

We just got back from Emily's baby shower this weekend. It was a really quick trip home but I think everyone had a great time. We filled two suitcases with all of the great gifts and still had to leave some behind to be shipped. I have decided that every baby outfit is cute. It is impossible to make one that isn't. We got lots of them and all Emily can think about is "What if it isn't a girl?" I agree that might be a problem considering how much pink stuff we got, but I have tried to assure her that it's definitely a girl and to stop worrying. She still worries. Amazing.

October 17

We have begun the extraction of me from my office. We now have a new desk downstairs where the computer will go and we will eventually tear down the old desk that is still in the baby's room. It has lived a good life and now it is time for it to be put to sleep. I'll keep everyone updated so they know when I offically get the boot from my room.

October 12

Here's a question. What is even more stressful and takes infinitely longer than registering for baby items? Give up? Shopping for baby furniture. When Emily and I bought furniture for our living room, it took us about an hour spread across two different stores. In looking for a crib and dresser for our new baby, we've been to four different stores, one of them at least three times, and finally, we found something. I mean, come on, it's two pieces of furniture....how hard could it be? When you have to match the color of Emily's childhood canopy bed (which, don't get me wrong, is really cool), it turns out to be very difficult considering that apparently the most popular color for kids' furniture in the seventies is not easily found in 2002. We found lots of "natural", "cherry", and "sable" but do you realize how hard it is to find "brown?"

We thought we had this taken care of weeks ago, but we ended up changing our mind once we realized that Emily's mom still had her canopy bed that we could use instead of worrying about getting a crib that could convert to different sizes as the baby gets older. We started out today heading to a different Babies 'R Us store over near Silver Spring. It seemed nicer, but people there were just as informative as at the one by us (which isn't saying much). Miraculously, we found furniture that matched that we liked. After waiting for twenty minutes to order it, we were told that there was only one of the cribs in the werehouse and we wouldn't be able to order it. Not sure what they were going to do with that one crib, but apparently selling it was out of the question. So Emily, in tears (hormones stink, decides to leave. Because of the tears, I offered to drive over to Buy Buy Baby in Rockville (yes, that's the real name of the store). We braved the sniper that was on the loose because we HAD to have baby furniture.

I am glad that we went. The store was great. There were almost too many choices and you could order everything in tons of colors. We literally spent hours trying to get a handle on all of it and trying to figure out what we wanted. We eventually settled on a crib and dresser that matches Emily's old bed perfectly. Unfortunately, though, the time until delivery was 10 to 14 weeks which really pushes us close to the due date. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm just glad to have that little obstacle out of the way and we can move on to the smaller purchases.

September 28

We've been out all day registering for all of the things that we are going to need when the baby comes. I learned one thing. They need a lot of stuff. We registered for things that I didn't even know existed. They make baby wipe warmers. Who knew? And who ever knew that registering for baby items would take all day. And we've already decided that some of the things that we registered for will have to be changed because total strangers on Amazon.com gave them bad reviews. That's who I like to trust with my baby's well being. But I guess they know more than us, because we know nearly zero about what brand of play yard (baby jail) is the best.

I do have to say that being able to hold the little registry gun (is that the name for it?) was a lot of fun. I was just waiting for Emily to turn her head for a few minutes at Target so I could put an X-box on the registry, but she stayed pretty close to me. I almost got a Snickers bar added before she took the gun away from me. But, regardless, it was definitely an interesting day that got me used to the fact that our house is going to completely overrun with strollers, toys, clothes, bottles, and ear thermometers and it will never be the same. At least it will be a while before she gets old enough to be able to color on the walls.

September 16

Today was the day we have been waiting for for weeks. This morning we went to Emily's doctor's office to have her midterm sonogram done. I have to say that this was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen. Now, I thought that the first sonogram that we did was pretty amazing and all that was on the screen was just a small dot. Now, there is something in there that looks like a baby. Granted, it is still very small, but the features are definitely there and you could actually make out its arm and leg movements. Amazing.

Two main discoveries were made with this test. First, all the body parts are there and the baby seems to be normal and healthy. Second, we look like we are going to have a little girl (guess I'll need to change the colors of the site, huh?). Emily still isn't sure that she's got a girl in her...mother's intuition is telling her it's a boy. I'm by no means a sonogram expert (I'm going to have to take our doctor's word for it that our baby has kidneys), but what I saw on the screen were definitely female parts. If it turns out to be a boy, he could be the joke of the locker room.

By the end of the day, Emily had already picked out the bedroom set and painted the entire nursery pink in her mind. I think she's pretty excited about having a girl. I'm pretty excited about having anything that sleeps all night.

September 8

This is all starting to be very real now. Emily is definitely showing now, and is big enough that it couldn't be blamed on a couple of extra cheeseburgers. She has also started feeling little movements every once in a while. The kicks aren't violent enough for me to feel from the outside yet, so I kind of have to take her word for it that it's doing anything. We also bought a baby heartbeat monitor about two months ago (Emily wanted to get a head start on things), and we just recently heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time with it. We've heard it at the Doctor's office before, but this is different...this was with a little $20 instrument that you can buy without a medical license. And since the first time we heard it, Emily makes sure to check every day to make sure the baby's heart is still beating. Did I tell you Emily worries a lot?

August

This month has been pretty slow for the most part which is good for me. Of course, there has been the constant worrying that everything that she do is going to hurt the baby in someway. I guess I'll just have to get used to it, because I don't think that's going to change.

The baby did get to make its first trip to the Caribbean this month when Emily and I flew to St. Thomas for a few days. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we spent a majority of our time laying in the sun by the pool. The time away from work was great except that US Airways decided to declare bankruptcy while we were there. For me, two jobs, two airlines, two bankruptcies. Wonderful.

Emily isn't really showing much at all yet and nothing seems completely real yet. And, now with the morning sickness basically over, it seems like old times. I am trying to read up on what I should be doing to make sure that I'm not neglecting my duties. Apparently, I am supposed to only be worrying about insurance and saving for college. Why can't the books just say, "just do what your wife tells you to do." That would be much easier.

I assume that September will be much different. She's supposed to begin showing and quickly moving out of her old clothes into her new bigger wardrobe. We also can't wait for the sonogram at her next appointment. That's when I think it will all be real.

July 30

I figured I probably should get one more entry in here before the end of the month...it would have been pretty paltry to have two in one month. Not as if three is some big accomplishment.

Anyway, Emily is still doing fine. The morning sickness appears as if it is becoming less frequent which is making Emily pretty happy. I haven't had to run downstairs first thing in the morning for a Fruit Loops run in over a week which is making me pretty happy. We spent the weekend at my reunion in Mt. Vernon last weekend and everyone was really happy to hear that we were expecting. The Mt. Vernon rumor mill hadn't quite hit everyone yet, but quite a few people already had heard. Friday night's event was held outside and it was pretty hot and humid. After a while, Emily got pretty worn out and thought she might pass out. We got inside in the air, and after she cooled off, everything appeared to be A-OK.

We just went to Babies-R-Us to get a baby heartbeat monitor so that we can listen to the baby's heartbeat. It still is a little early to hear anything, but we are ready as soon as we hit the five month mark. I'll be sure to record it and put it on here when we get to hear anything (except for our own stomach gurgling).

July 17

I know that it has been a little while since the last update here, but there is a good reason. Not much has happened since the beginning of the month. Emily still looks exactly the same. She still gets sick in the mornings. She's still exhausted all the time. She still craves Italian food and sno-cones (although Fla-vor Ice has been a much easier substitute lately). In fact, she just finished her dinner of spaghetti and 2 Fla-vor Ice for dessert.

Everything is still progressing normally. At least that is what the doctor said last week when we went in for our second appointment. This one was much shorter and consisted of much less poking and prodding. There also was no ultrasound which was a major disappointment to me. We did, however, get to hear the baby's heartbeat. It didn't really sound much like what a regular heartbeat sounds like, but it was unmistakable as to what it was. It was absolutely amazing! We're planning on getting a home version of the little heartbeat microphone (I'm sure that's the technical name for it) so we can get a recording of it. Can't miss having a record of that.

By the way...it's ten minutes until 10 and Emily and the dog are asleep on the couch. Did I mention she was exhausted all the time?

July 30

I figured I probably should get one more entry in here before the end of the month...it would have been pretty paltry to have two in one month. Not as if three is some big accomplishment.

From the beginning until the end of June

It all started a few weeks ago when Emily came out of the bathroom and said she was pregnant. It all happened much quicker than either of us expected, especially, given Emily's knack for inventing her own medical problems. She was deathly afraid that she would never be able to have kids, but at the very least, she had always assumed she would have a difficult time getting pregnant. Nope.

After her first two pregnancy tests came up positive, she still wasn't quite convinced even though I was. She just wanted the reassurance of an actual doctor. In the mean time, however, 5 more pregnancy tests would just have to due. All of them were positive.

Just to be sure that she wasn't doing anything wrong until she got official word from a doctor, she enlisted the advice of Mallory and Kendra who have recently or currently are pregnant as to what she can and can't do and what she can and can't eat. While some doctors tell you to just carry on with your normal life without doing anything in excess and just cut out smoking and drinking, some tell you that everything is bad for you and advise to live on vitamins and water (not really, but close). So, for the next 9 months, give or take, Emily has cut out all deli meat, soft cheeses, yogurt, and any meat not cooked to a crisp. I'm sure that there will be more before this is all over.

A couple of weeks ago, Emily finally got the assurance that she needed from an actual doctor: she was definitely pregnant. We spent most of the morning at the office being interviewed as to our medical histories and Emily going through a battery of tests, none of which looked like any fun. They decided to do our first sonogram to set the due date. I assumed that it would be very fuzzy and you would have had to attend medical school to actually see anything. Nope. There was definitely something there. Right now, it just looked like a small blob, but there was only one of them. So no twins.

Emily gets sick every once in a while, but nothing too violent and nothing that lasts too long. Usually, as expected, it happens in the morning or when she is really hungry. The sense of smell also apparently gets really sensitive to bad smells. It doesn't help that we have a dead bird in the vent over our stove that we can't get out. And it was 95 degrees recently. We are both hoping the smell will go away soon.

We've been working on getting a list of names that we like. I think we have settled pretty quickly on a girl's name, but we have a handful of boy's names that we like that we aren't sure about. At least we've decided to find out the gender of the baby before it is born so that we can have the name picked out before the big day.

As I write this, Emily is just under 10 weeks pregnant, which means the baby is about the size of a peanut and growing a little more each day. Emily is also looking forward to getting out of the first trimester in a couple of weeks so maybe the morning sickness will let up.

I will keep updating this periodically to keep everyone informed of our progress until the baby is born.