Week 13

for all the folks following along at home, just an update on the baby's progress. word has it the baby is about 3 inches long, or about the size of a jumbo shrimp. i think i prefer fruit analogies rather than seafood. anyway, our little jumbo shrimp already has its set of fingerprints. it's head is now only a third the size of it's body, rather than the proportions it had just a few weeks ago. (like when we had the 8 week ultrasound....that baby was all head). even though the baby is only 3 inches, i feel like i am starting to show a little bit. maybe because i'm eating for two grown adults instead of eating for one grown adult and one tiny person. i should probably be careful about that. i asked my mom about stretch marks and she said she indeed had them when she was pregnant with me. then she added that she gained 70 or so pounds. wonder why she had stretch marks?!

CiN Weekly Must Have Heard Our News

Why else would they have a 'Baby Time?' cover story in their weekly? It follows three moms as they tell their baby story. Fairly interesting and also provides tips on workouts, clothes, and books.... but to my point yesterday, this is almost 100% focused on the moms... even the promotion of CincyMoms.com.... where they heck is CincyDads.com? The Enquirer has registered that URL, but they haven't rolled anything out yet... wonder why?

New Favorite Website - DadLabs.com

Similar to weddings these days, the 'baby industry' is not really set up for men. Sure, there's a little more involvement required (aka birthing classes and the like) than with the wedding, but most everything out there (magazines, websites, books, doctors, etc) is setup to support the Mom. Okay, I realize this makes some sense, after all Melanie is the one carrying the baby for 9 months, while I continue to go to ballgames and drink beer.

But still, there should be some love for the dads in all this, don't you think? And it should be more than just the addendum at the end of articles that typically says something like, "oh, and dad's be aware that this is an emotional time for mom, support her." Okay I get that... but there is something else to being a Dad, right?

So... I stumbled on DadLabs.com. It's a great site focused on dad, that is funny and informative. It's still focused mostly on what to expect after the baby arrives, but it's good fun.

It has everything from 'how to make a birth video' (click the baby on the left, and don't worry, this is not your 6th grade sex education class, there is nothing graphic)... But one word of caution for the other hormone-imbalanced pregnant women out there, I tested this on Melanie and even though you have no idea who the mom is in the video, it may still bring you to tears, apparently.

But there is also fun stuff like the following, click and enjoy:

Week 12

we had our 12 week visit this week. this is basically the visit where all the fun testing begins....pee in a cup, take 5 vials of blood, all that jazz. lovely. and other details i will spare you. but, on a much brighter note we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. i have never heard anything so amazing. i really don't quite know how to describe it, although hearing it made me seriously think about going and buying a doppler so we can listen to the heartbeat whenever we want. (and don't think tom and katie....i don't plan on getting a sonogram machine anytime soon). 12 weeks also marks nearing the end of the first trimester. it's a cool feeling to know that we've made it this far. we've seen the baby, we've heard it's heartbeat. i can't wait til our 20 week visit when we can have another ultrasound.

more details

so, here's how it went down with telling our parents. i bought a frame for each set of parents, and on the frame were the words "grand kisses, grand cuddles, GRANDCHILD". (or something like that). then where the picture would go, we wrote "we're having a baby!" on a piece of paper. we wrapped the frames up and decided to give them to our parents this weekend. joe's parents were hilarious...EXTREMELY wary of opening a gift that we were giving them for no apparent reason. joe told his mom we got them a gift and she said, "why?" :) however, they were very excited when she finally got the present open. my mom was hilarious too. we took their gift out to dinner with my mom, stepdad, and my brother and his family. my mom opened it, read the part about the baby, and then said, "is this true?" :) of course it's true. everyone was very excited for us and had lots of questions. especially about baby names. seems as though everyone has an opinion about that. as joe said in an earlier post, it is so exciting to share this news with people you love and who love you. i'm crying just thinking about it. (that seems to be a trend these days). by the time my mom got home she had called basically all the women in our family. and i'm sure joe's mom had spread the news just as fast. makes me realize how lucky we are to have such supportive and loving people around us. what a lucky baby this will be.

AlternaDad Disclaimer

So, by reading this blog, you obviously realize I'm reading this book.... you also realize I find it pretty damn funny... I just wanted to put a disclaimer out there, in case anyone else decides to pick up this book that there is one thread that occurs throughout the book that I am not in support of...

Neal Pollack is a casual and somewhat frequent Pot smoker... I will say that smoking pot while your kid is in the next room, and you may need to watch him, is not something I'd support in any way! It's one thing to want to be 'cool' and retain some of your current identity. It's another thing to introduce drugs into a home with a 2 year old. Not my definition of cool...

AlternaDad - Cool Kids Go to Music Festivals

Pretty funny chapter about Neal Pollack taking his wife and kids to Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2004. Melanie and I were actually at this festival (with a couple hundred thousand other people). Zilker Park is just across the Colorado River (aka Town Lake) from downtown Austin, and it's a HUGE park with virtually no tree coverage. It's late September in Austin and it's 'supposed' to be pretty nice... around 80 degrees. Well this year it was about 110. So it was pretty dang miserable to be there. Well, it was even more so for a two year old that was hot and grumpy....

I fully expect to have music and festivals be part of our childs youth experience, so it was interesting reading this. Perhaps a big music festival like this is not the best way to go, and going to things like "Tunes and Blooms", "Earth Day" and other such day time, family-friendly events is the better way to go. These types of events are easily accessible, but perhaps more importantly they are easy to leave.

One funny part that relates pretty directly to Melanie and I was Neal Pollack's comment when his wife asked if he wanted to go see Patty Griffin.... his response, "Nah, you go ahead, I'll watch Elijah, I'd rather chew my own arm off than see Patty Griffin"... I couldn't agree more :)

Everyone Knows - Well Most Everyone

We told out parents today, and some of our friends were told on Wednesday (at dive of the month) and Saturday (at Scott's B-day)... pretty exciting to be able to share with others. We saw all kinds of reactions from excitement to disbelief. It's great to have so many people in our lives that are excited for us. That's pretty awesome!

AlternaDad - Penalty Box?

Okay... so I don't really believe in the concept of 'Time-Out' for a punishment. It doesn't seem all that effective, and typically the punishment doesn't fit the crime. But I did find the concept Neal Pollack put out there to be pretty funny. It's basically just time-out, but he added in a hockey twist to it. He physically created a 'penalty box' that when crime/misbehavior is done, he goes to serve his time. I won't be creating my own penalty box, but I did think that was pretty funny.

Sock Monkeys??

so, already we have the ongoing discussion of how to decorate the baby's room. i know that there are other, much more important things to discuss as new parents. but it's so fun to discuss. joe seems to think that i am being sexist to think that a room decorated in, let's say, a sports theme or a airplane theme would be more appropriate for a boy than a girl. i see his point....girls play sports and enjoy airplanes. but seriously. when you think "girl" room, you think pink and cutesy. not that i want that either. i want to try to find a neutral type theme, number one because i think i'd gag if i had to look at butterflies and ponies everytime i walked into the room if we have a girl. but also because we haven't really decided if we want to find out the sex of the baby before it's born. we both go back and forth on this issue. so....any ideas on nursery themes?? i found a really cool sock monkey room on the internet, but joe didn't go for it. although, we've still got 29 weeks for me to win him over.

Sonograms - Weeks 6 and 8

Well, we have been in for two sonograms already to check in on things. These were very early on and really just to check and make sure things were progressing. As I mentioned, we head in Tuesday for a final first trimester sonogram, but thought I'd share the first two sonograms.

Almost Week 12

On Tuesday we go in for a sonogram... and this will be great to see again, as it's been a month since our last one. After we go in on Tuesday, we are going to start tell friends/family... can't wait for that

Speaking of Sonograms, I'm going to scan in and upload our first two... pretty funny to look at really, as it's so small!

Week 11 - Fig Newton

The Baby is now about 1.5 inches and the size of a fig. Maybe we should name the baby Newton...

Yesterday marked 11 weeks for the baby which is pretty exciting.. Melanie goes in for a blood test tomorrow, and then we head for another sonogram on Tuesday Apr. 17th... that'll be 12 weeks, and very exciting, as assuming all is well, that's when we'll start spreading the news...

I'm trying to think now of all the people currently expecting... Brent and Janet, Tony and Emily, Ryan and Kara, Jeff and Angie, and at least two others who I won't name here in case we start sharing this blog with others before they start telling people :) Pretty crazy!