Crazy last few weeks

Around the holidays it gets to be a little hectic. Having a baby lurking around the corner doesn't help at all either. We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner at my brother and sister-in-laws house. I flew Alison's sister, Lauren, up for Thanksgiving as a 'suprise' and it was really nice to have some company for a little while.

This weekend I have Daddy Boot Camp, so that will be interesting. I think it's a 'hands-on' experience so I will be sure to wear some new clothes.

We just ordered a camcorder (Canon HF100) and I am really excited about it. There will be no HD filming of the birth, but shortly after we will have some video that we can show to her future boyfriends on first dates. I think computers make that a lot easier. I won't have to dig through boxes to find old home movies, just open the folder and its good to go.

Christmas is coming up very soon. It will be the first and last (for at least a long while) Christmas with just the two of us. We have made plans to go see "Marley and Me" in the theater on Christmas day. I started to read the book, which was very good, but I stopped once Marley got old, I didn't want to have to think about that since Marley reminds me of our Cody (the good parts of Marley, and some of the bad) :).

Baby in 3D!!!

We had our 3D ultra sound the other day and it is amazing the amount of detail you can see with the images. We have determined that she will have Alison's lips and my nose lol. She wasn't being very cooperative during the procedure, but we were able to get a few pictures that came out pretty good. She seems to like to have her hands in front of her face a lot. Most of the pictures we have she has at least one hand up (sometimes a foot too).

We went on the tour of Wake Med Cary to see the rooms etc. It's a very nice hospital and we hear great things about it from anyone that has given birth there. We actually saw one of our doctors there in scrubs. I was a little surprised to see him there, but I probably shouldn't have been.

We are really looking forward to everything that is coming, even though it is coming very, very, VERY fast. This morning we were talking about it almost being December. Now when we tell people that the baby is due in January they say, "Oh, you have some time." If you say that the baby is due next month it sounds like we should be waiting around the hospital lol.

Baby update

Well, I haven't been very good about posting recently so I will try to have a little summary recap.

I was surprised at work with a baby shower. It was terribly embarrassing having to open and hold up all this little baby stuff, but it was fun none the less and I am very thankful for it. Alison is going to be having her baby shower at work in December.

We graduated our Birth and Labor class, so we are now officially ready to have a baby... whatever that means. It was a pretty good class and we met some nice people and got some good information and mental scars for life from some things that should not been seen on a huge projected screen.

The baby's room is on its way to being done. We have the furniture and we ordered a few things online to finish it out like a glider, curtain rod and curtains, the sheets, bed skirt and blanket, changing pad cover and a french memo board to put some of the pictures that Anna and Audrey (our two nieces) have made for her. Her closet is starting to look like a girl's closet filled with clothes and pink things.

Our appointments have been going well. Both Alison and the baby are doing very well with everything.

I guess that is about it. We are really excited to meet our little girl and I will keep you posted on anything new.

The only thing I need to know about birth, I learned from Dwight Schrute.

At our class on Monday we were talking about Birth Plans. I never really thought about this too much before, but it makes a lot of sense. We didn't realize how many different options there are for giving birth. It's almost like Sonic's 168,000 drink combinations. I think the first thing I am going to put on my own personal Birth Plan is an idea I got from Dwight.

When the baby emerges, mark it secretly in a kind of a mark that only you could recognize and no baby snatcher could ever copy.

The other thing we discussed at class on Monday was packing the bag to go to the hospital. I am still relieved to know that once the water breaks its not a mad dash to get to the hospital before the baby falls out on her own. I think Hollywood puts unnecessary stress on expectant fathers. Every movie you see with a woman going into labor is preceded with someone having to drive down the highway at 120mph in order to get there in time. They should say that you are actually supposed to wait until you have been having contractions 5 minutes apart for an hour before you go to the hospital, and when you get there you will be do that for a while before the baby comes. I guess that wouldn't make a very exciting movie though.

JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

This weekend Alison and I are going to walk in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes with the team from her employer (RTI International).

Last year we walked and it was pretty incredible to see the amount of people that came together to support a really good cause.

This year they expect over 500,000 walkers across the country to participate. The goal is to raise $105 million dollars.

If anyone would like support either me or Alison to reach our goal, you can go to http://walk.jdrf.org/ and put one of our names in the “Donate to a Walker” box and donate any amount, no matter how small or large.

Please don’t feel obligated to donate, but it will be greatly appreciated by not only myself, but millions of people around the world that will be that much closer to a cure.

Hands on baby training

Today we have a hands on training for baby care. The Wake Med Cary campus has a Baby Basics class that is just a bunch of stations where you go around and try different things to practice and learn the correct way of doing things. It should be fun.

We had another appointment yesterday with the Dr. and he said that the baby is right on target for growth and he said he would "fall out of his chair" if the baby was really big. I hope he meant that he would be surprised that the baby was big and not that he would actually fall out of his chair trying to support the weight/size of the baby. Might have to ask him about that...

The appointment went well though. Alison got a flu shot which is something I need to do as well. I love that burning, sore feeling once a year.

October is great...

I am going to take a slight detour from writing about the baby (even though that is probably the biggest thing going on right now) to write about something that I realized today at lunch.

Well, two things actually.

First is that I love and miss my wife. Alison is in Nashville for a work conference and she will be back on Tuesday :). Secondly is that I really love this time of year and where we live. I went out for a drive and opened with windows and just took in some of the beautiful autumn scenery and some fresh crisp air. It felt really good to get out of the house and unwind a minute.

Baby School... day 1

We had our first Birthing and Labor class at WakeMed Raleigh yesterday. It was pretty interesting and a little scary. It is much smaller than I was expecting. There are only 3 other couples in the class with us. We got to watch a video that wasn't too graphic (but I am sure we will get some non-PG ones in the upcoming classes). It was showing some women as they were going through their contractions etc. We learned all about what they were and what was going on etc. We had to bring 4 pillows to the first class. We didn't really use them, we only used 2. I think that they just wanted to make us look funny trying to carry 4 pillows (which is not easy). We did use the 2 pillows for a relaxation exercise that about put me to sleep. Well, I guess a pillow and a dark room would put me to sleep, but the exercise seemed to work pretty well.

In the 3rd week there will be a tour of the hospital. We will not be going to that part with our class since we will be giving birth at the WakeMed Cary hospital. We were unable to find a class open at WakeMed Cary, so we ended up going to the Raleigh one. We can sign up for the tour at our hospital which we will be doing in the near future. I am looking forward to seeing it. I hope the cafeteria is good :)

*** I put the picture up after searching for "uterus" on google images and having to close the window real fast and then search for "uterus cartoon" which came back with much better results. Some things can't be unseen. :( lol, jk.

THANK YOU!

I just wanted to say "Thank you" to everyone that showed up at the shower this past weekend. Alison and I are greatly appreciative of all the love and support our friends and family have shown. I wasn't able to be at the shower sniffing the "chocolate" diapers, but after speaking to some of the people that were there... it sounded like everyone had a good time.

Another big thank you goes out to Lauren and Tina for throwing all of this together. I am sure the baby is very thankful as well since she got some good food :)

Thank you all again!

Back to school... back to school to prove to Ali that I'm no fool :)

We signed up for some classes at the hospital the other day. The ones we picked out were Labor and Birth Education, Newborn Basics and I am going to Boot Camp for Dads.

The Labor and Birth Education class is actually a few weeks long. You go once a week and they go over the whole birthing process and what to expect, what you can do etc.

The Newborn Basics class is more of a "lab". They have stations where you go around and you can practice changing, burping, holding, picking up, juggling, dressing and hopefully not dropping the baby (lets just hope they are fake babies). That class is just for a few hours, but it should be fun.

I am looking forward to the Daddy Boot Camp. You get to learn how to make Baby Burritos. Contrary to popular belief, Baby Burritos are not a delicious Mexican treat... it's a baby swaddled in a receiving blanket... I am sure you can make Baby Burritos too though, I may have to start my own class. Jason's Baby Burritos. It's catchy.

Baby shower... wait a minute, that means the baby is coming!

This weekend is our baby shower. Alison's sister and best friend, Tina, are planning it down in Florida and Alison will be flying down there on Friday. She is really excited to see what Lauren and Tina have in store for her. :) I will not be going down since it is a girls only shower... I will be up here knocking a few more things off of my daddy-to-do list. I know Alison is really excited to see her friends and family. I am sure that our little baby isn't going to know what's going on with a whole bunch of people rubbing her momma's belly, but as long as she gets some good food, she will be happy. ;)

I think I have moved past the whole "I can't believe we are having a baby" phase and hit the "Ok, we ARE having a baby, now what?" phase. I knew there was a good reason for it to take 40 weeks grow a baby... its like a 12 step program of emotions. Well its really only a few steps that just go back and forth between panic and excitement. It definitely takes a while to wrap your head around it. The positive pregnancy test, seeing the ultrasounds, hearing her heart beat, feeling her kicks and loving her with all your heart. It's so incredible that you need those 40 weeks to comprehend what is going on and how it is going to turn your world upside down.

Beep... bee boop... Beep... bee boop... "Dad, you're so old!"

When our baby is old enough to play video games (if she wants to) they are going to be so much more advanced than the stuff that I played when I was younger. Last year for my birthday, Alison got me a Wii and I have downloaded a few of the older NES games on it. I recently got MegaMan which was a huge hit for me back in the day. I play it now and it looks horrible... its fun still (although really frustrating), but it looks pretty bad. I am sure that when she is old enough, she will surely ridicule the lack of motion sensing and thought reading controls lacking from the games her 'old man' used to play. Who knows, maybe I will still be up on those things when it comes to that time. I think it's much different now than it was when I was growing up. The parents to my generation didn't have video games growing up so they had no idea what was going on and kind of started in a hole. Maybe when I am 60 I can play some Playstation 9 with my grand kids, I might even let them win once in a while ;)

Have baby, will travel... well at least attempt to...

Our baby was at her second wedding this past weekend. Our good friends Gary and Samantha got married down in Florida and Alison and I were both in the wedding party. It was really great to get down there and visit with everyone for a little while. It will be much harder at first for us to travel after we have our little baby. I have been thinking about traveling after we have the baby and I know it is going to be much harder. Not only will we probably stop every 45 minutes, but we will also be listening to every Disney song imaginable (probably the same one repeating if I am lucky :-\ ). I am thinking that we are going to have to get one of those trailer hitch shelves to pile stuff on when we travel... either that or one of the pods for the top of the Murano {shudder}. I know that our first test in traveling will be trying to get down to Florida shortly after the baby is born to meet everyone that isn't able to come up and visit... should be fun. {crosses fingers} :) As hard as it will be, I am looking forward to being able to travel with my daughter. I remember the countless road trips when I was growing up and I actually had a good time on them. It was always fun to go to new places and get my seating area all set up for the trip, I hope she has some good experiences with the family trips as well. Even though the traveling will be hard, there are two words that make all of the "Are we there yet?" comments, bathroom stops 5 mins after getting gas etc worth while... Disney World.

Nothing spells baby like G-R-A-C-O

We are having a baby. As if the multiple positive pregnancy tests, the first ultra sound, setting up the room, getting the crib, and the first time feeling her kick were not proof enough we got one more slap in the face "You are having a baby" moment today. Alison's Aunt Ginger and Uncle Ron got us the stroller and infant seat for the shower. I opened the box up and put it all together and then I looked at it for a min. There is no turning back now, we are definitely having a baby and now we have a rolling billboard for it :).

Another thing I learned so far this week is that babies produce a lot of garbage... before they are even born. We have a box for the crib and all the packing materials, a box for the dresser, box for the light, box for the stroller... I don't think we had this much cardboard to recycle since we moved.

Everything is coming together now. It's almost kind of surreal. We have spent the last few months thinking of all these things that we had to do before the baby got here (at least I was) and now they are actually getting done. It's a nice "you can do this" kind of confidence boost. I know that confidence boost will go out the window as I am driving Alison to the hospital in the middle of the night with my pants on backwards... but at least it will keep me from staying up all night worrying about it (I hope).

This week on Cribs...

Alison's parents got us the crib for the baby's room and we picked it up the other day. We just got it put together and it looks really nice in the room. It definitely looks like a baby's room now. We also have the dresser that Bobbie and Grandpa Jeff & Eileen got us... it's in the garage for now until I can get some help bringing it upstairs. I will get a picture of that once it's up there.

a great ride...

One of my friends had a birthday the other day, I sent him an email saying Happy Birthday and asked how things were going etc. He knew about our baby on the way and in his reply he said something that was another eye opener / reality check for me...

...after hearing my little one sing Happy Birthday, I know I never had it so good. You are in for a great ride.

I have been thinking about how much I love my baby and all these things I will do for her and take care of her etc, but I haven't really thought about stuff like that. I mean, how great will it be to have a little toddler run up to me when I come home? My birthday is coming up in a few weeks and it will be the last one without my daughter. For my next birthday I will have a 9+ month old. That will be the best gift yet. I am looking forward to all of those little smiles and hugs from my daughter. Things are going to change... a lot and I am going to completely welcome it.

Is it too early to pick our a Halloween Costume for our Baby... for next year?

I try to imagine how different everything will be once our baby gets here and as much as I prepare myself, I know it is going to blow me away. It's almost like I am boarding up the windows to a tent and there is a Category 5 Baby headed directly at me. Alison and I were talking about holidays the other day. This will be our last Thanksgiving and Christmas with out a child. We started going through the holidays and thinking how old our daughter will be at 4th of July and what we can dress her up for at Halloween and how old she will be at her first Christmas. Last year was the first Christmas in our own home which was really exciting... next Christmas we will have a little girl that is almost 1 year old. I think Halloween will be a lot of fun. The little kids costumes are always really cute. It's scary, I can remember when I used to get excited for Halloween to dress up and go out Trick or Treating and now I am talking about dressing up my own child. I feel like I am getting old, but at the same time I think having a baby will also make me feel young too. I think having the baby will change our holidays in a good way. It will be fun to get to play with my daughter and let her keep me young. I hope that our baby will grow up liking Duplo and Legos. Playing with that kind of stuff never gets old, it just becomes socially unacceptable to keep playing with them. That's probably one of the reasons people have kids, so they can play with toys again :).

Lights (chandelier), camera (took a picture), action (I put it up)

I just finished putting up the light in the baby's room. It looks really nice, I can't wait to see it tonight with the dimmer. It hangs a little low so I will bump my head on it if I walk in the middle of the room, but I think it will work out fine. I will probably be so sleep deprived I won't even realize that I hit my head on it.

She shoots, she scores.... GOAL!!!

I felt our baby kick the other day for the first time. I had my hand on Alison's stomach not really expecting to be able to feel anything and then all of a sudden I felt a little tap on my hand. Alison said that my eye's got really wide and I just said "Woah!" It is safe to say that I was completely taken off guard and didn't expect that to happen. She is now about 11 inches long from head to toe and she weighs about a pound. I think that it will be weird when we will be able to see her move from side to side.

Alison and I went out to lunch today at some restaurant that made salads and grilled sandwiches etc. It was right next to Babies R Us so we decided to go in and take a look around. We were walking by a clearance table and I saw a really cute chandelier for the baby's room. I had remembered seeing it online and the reviews said that it was misleading in the pictures since it was actually yellow with sprays of white instead of all white. It gave it a textured look. We ended up getting it since it was a really good deal and I just got a can of white spray paint and now its hanging in the garage drying, just waiting to go up into her room. The picture here is what it looked like on the website (it looked more yellow than that picture, but now it will be completely white). I will be sure to post a picture when I have the light up in the room.

Baby's Room.... TADA!!!

Here is a picture of the baby's room. The colors don't show up quite right on the camera, but you can get the overall idea. The difference in this room is drastic. Before it was dark blue walls with a faux finish... now its light greens and white with woodwork. I am happy with the way it came together. It seemed to take forever, but I think it was worth it. I know our daughter will not notice it when she first gets here, but I hope she will have some good memories of this room when she gets older.

Ok, room is done...only took two tries.

Well, in my last post I said that we had painted the room Tinkerbell green and Pooh's Corner on the ceiling... well, things change. We decided that the colors were a little too bright, so we toned it down a bit and went with Christopher Robin's Swing on the walls and Skipping Stones on the ceiling (the room isn't Winnie the Pooh themed, just like the colors :) ). We used the Behr Disney colors again. They all seem to go well together and its pretty easy to pick out the colors that match. The colors we picked are a pair of pastel greens. I think it looks really nice for a baby girls room. The crown molding and chair rail is up and painted, blinds, new outlets, switches, dimmer, new door knobs/hinges... yea its been a busy weekend. The only thing left to do in the room (construction/renovating-wise) is putting up a light. We saw a really nice light at Pottery Barn, but we haven't picked it up yet. My crazy expectant father list is getting shorter... I guess I should start adding more things on to it. ;)

Something else happened this weekend, we decided on the name for our beautiful baby girl. It is ________. (Not going to tell you that easily ;) ). It is nice knowing the name of the baby for sure. It makes it even more real. The other night, after Alison had fallen asleep, I had a talk with my daughter... it was nice being able to say her name. I am looking forward to meeting her.

Half way there....AHHHHHHHHHH

Well, this week we are at the half way point. I can go into the whole glass half full or half empty thing, but it still means there is a baby on the way and she is not slowing down at all. I put up crown molding and a chair rail in the baby's room this weekend. We used Disney colors for the paint. The colors we used are "Tinkerbell Green" on the top half of the room and "Pooh's Corner" on the ceiling. The bottom half of the wall and all of the molding will be white. Once it is all done, I will be sure to take some pictures. It looks pretty green in there right now, but once we get some pink curtains and girly decorations up, it will look more like a baby's room.

I put some shelves up in the closet for the obscene amount of baby things we will eventually be storing in there. We put an outfit on a little kids hanger and hung it up in the closet. It's funny to see tiny clothes hanging up, altough I am not sure why. It is probably because I am used to seeing my huge clothes.

We decided to go with the darker wood baby furniture. I think it will look really nice, and it will go well with the light colors on the wall. After we get the furniture in there, I am going to mount some bookshelves to the wall. I can't wait to read stories to my daughter. I guess I won't have to wait much longer, huh? We have our next appointment on Friday, and hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly. We have been very fortunate so far.

Registering for baby stuff is serious business...

Alison and I went to register at a few places this past weekend and I am still recovering from it. Target and Pottery barn Kids wasn't that bad but BabiesRUs was terrifying. There are so many things in there we didn't even know where to start. We got a little trigger happy on some stuff, but I think we got most everything we needed. Alison's sister, Lauren, and Alison's best friend Tina are throwing a baby shower for her in Florida in October. They seem really excited about getting all the little girly stuff together and I am sure Alison will have a blast.

My brother and sister-in-law were nice enough to let us use some of the stuff they had so we will have to take those off of the registry. It's nice being able to talk to people who have went though this already so they can let you know what worked, what didn't work etc. There are tons of things that I have no idea about. If you can think of anything that you would have loved to know when you had your first, please post a comment.

Thanks.

Ultrasound pictures

I am attaching one the 18 week ultrasound pictures. She's beautiful, isn't she?

Houston, we have girl parts...

Well, its 99% official now. We are having a girl! The ultrasound seemed like it took forever, the technician did a full scan of the baby to see how she (it’s weird to say that) was growing and then right at the end she says, “…and there are the girl parts.” It was so nonchalant that it kind of took me by surprise. I think that OB/GYN offices should have a game show announcer or something… at least a drum roll. We have been waiting like 4 months to find out, how about a little build up? :) It was amazing though. Our daughter is beautiful and I can’t wait to see her.

Now we are on to figuring out names, colors, curfews, no boys in the house after dark and everything else that comes with having a baby girl. For being as scary as it is, I honestly have never been more excited.

T-Minus 210 minutes and counting...

Today is our ultrasound appointment to determine the sex of the baby. It's kind of nerve racking. Pretty soon it will be even more of a reality than it was before. Before we were having a baby... now we will be having our son or daughter. Alison had a dream last night about us having a baby boy; she has seemed to think it was going to be a boy from pretty early on. I have been on the fence though.

This weekend will be fun either way for sure. We will probably start some of the decorating in the office and start registering for all kinds of baby stuff. It's a very exciting time. I will be sure to post again in a few hours to let you know the sex.

Brother Cody, Sister Haley...

I had trouble sleeping last night, and I started thinking about our dog, Cody, will feel being a big brother when we have our baby. I know he will not receive the same amount of attention he does now, but Alison and I are both going to try to keep giving him as much attention as we can afford. Cody is a real gentle giant, he is a little over 90 lbs., and I have a feeling he will fall in love with our baby. I can easily picture him sleeping by the crib or sleeping by the baby's door. I think our cat, Haley, will be good around the baby, and if not, that is another story. However, I don't picture her spending too much time near the baby. I see her as the hiding under the bed until the little human leaves type of animal. She will probably not be as accepting of the new addition to our family as Cody will be, but you never know; only time will tell.

One thing we will teach Cody is that just because something is brightly colored and on the floor, doesn't necessarily mean that its a toy for him to destroy. He is very good about only chewing only on his own toys now. However, I'm not sure how we can get him to understand that not all toys are his anymore. He will probably be able to distinguish the smell of baby drool versus his own. I guess a trip to the store to pick up a few inexpensive baby toys wouldn't hurt to see if he can resist the temptation of a shiny new toy. I feel bad for those toys; they don't know what's coming.

You're gonna miss this...

We had another visit with Dr. Sidel yesterday. We were able to hear the heart beat for real this time. Previously we have only heard a fake heart sound based off of the speed of the hearts movement, but this time we got to hear the actual heart (and Alison laughing which was pretty funny ;) ). I know I have said this before and I am sure this will not be the last time, but it was pretty incredible.

We have another two weeks until we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I am really excited about that visit. I have been wanting to know since day one. It must have been really hard to be pregnant 50 years ago when you weren't able to find out the gender of the baby until the doctor said "Congratulations, it's a _____". Hooray for modern medicine.

There is a song by Trace Adkins called "You're gonna miss this" that I can easily relate to right now. The song pretty much tells of people's situations where they can't wait for something to happen and then he goes on to say that they will miss this when it's gone. When I was thinking about it, that really is true. People end up always waiting for the next big thing (graduating school, getting a job, moving into a house, getting married, having kids etc) and don't sit back and enjoy what is going on right then. I know Alison and I are really excited about the baby coming, but it is also really nice to just take it all in now because we too will probably miss this time when it's gone. We are very fortunate to have each other, I love each and every moment that I am able to spend with Alison and our little growing family.

I guess for the time being, I am going to try to enjoy this time and the excitement leading up to finding out if we will have a bouncing baby boy or girl... (Hopefully we won't find out if they REALLY bounce though).

Once upon a time...

I have started reading to the belly. I know that sounds kind of funny, but I have seen a few sites that recommend reading to the baby while they are still in the womb. Most of them say that by about 18 weeks the baby will be able to recognize your voice; I am starting a little early mainly because I found a book I wanted to read. As our pregnancy progresses I plan to continue reading out loud for about 15-20 minutes a night. I start off the story telling with a few taps on the belly to let the baby know what’s going on. I like doing this so the baby can get used to my voice as well and I think it is good practice.

I don’t really remember many books from when I was younger other than the Golden Books and the Shel Silverstein books (Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends etc). Alison and I were at Barnes and Nobel the other day waiting for the rain to let up a bit before we headed out to our car and we looked around in the kid’s book section. I didn’t see any Golden Books though. I hope they still make them, if not eBay is a pretty useful tool. I am really looking forward to reading to our baby. All the parenting sites and books say that it is really good for the child’s development and helps with their attention span and learning ability for the rest of their lives. It’s pretty cool that something so simple (and fun) would have such a wonderful effect on our baby.

And on that farm he had a... umm cucumber?

A while ago, Alison and I had made a trip to the local Farmer’s Market and we picked up a bunch of young vegetable plants. We got tomatoes, green peppers (Alison’s favorite) and cucumbers. Other than a few cherry tomatoes, we haven’t gotten all that much from it. I went out today to water our little garden and I went over by the cucumbers and saw that there were about six really good size cucumbers, so I was pretty excited about that.

Over the past few years we have been trying to eat healthier foods, buying some things organic and when possible buying local fruits and vegetables. We were considering joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program this year, but I think we will for sure next year. It is a pretty cool idea and it is good for a few different reasons. You basically buy “shares” in the farm and you get a portion of the crop every week. It ends up being a box of fruit and veggies that you would go and pick up all season long. It would be nice to get a locally grown product as well as get something that doesn’t have to be processed and shipped half way across the country before it gets to the store.

When we have our baby, I think we are going to attempt to make at least some of our own baby food. I say attempt because I have no idea how tired and exhausted we will be, but it’s a nice thought. I feel that using locally grown produce will be a nice alternative to getting processed jars of food; it will also reduce the amount of waste and garbage etc. Now that I have a baby on the way, I want to try to do my part so that the world he/she inherits is a healthy place for their family. I am not going to stop driving and only eat what I grow, but a few little things here and there can go a long way.

Well, it's for sure now... we must be having a baby.

Today I had one of those "oh wow, we really are having a baby" moments. I cleared out the office baby's room and painted it with some primer. Now it is officially a blank canvas, ready to be covered with pastel colors and little cute baby things.

The walls were a dark blue so I had to put two coats of primer to try to block it out. Right now it is just white, we will paint it after we find out the sex of the baby. Alison and I were talking about what colors we would like to paint, what kind of decorations to use, what color furniture to get etc. There are so many options to pick from, it will be a tough decision. We talked about the layout of the room and where we would put the crib, I think that we decided that it would go where my old desk used to sit. I have had this huge corner desk for a few years and it was starting to fall apart (after a bunch of moves), so it went to the dump today. Now there is plenty of room for the crib (that was the moment I had today). It felt good to start working on the baby's room.

Having a child is really exciting, every day it is becoming more and more "real". I can't wait to find out if we are going to be having a boy or a girl. It is really hard now to picture our baby since it goes back and forth from a little boy to a little girl. Either way, I know we will love our baby and that's what really matters.

Kindermusik Demo Class

There will be Kindermusik demo classes at most Babies R Us stores on Saturday. Since I have never actually seen a class, (even though I have worked for the company for well over a year now) we will probably go.

I have a feeling that our baby will get a few Kindermusik toys and probably go to some of the classes since I get a pretty good discount and from reading the response from parents, the classes seem to help their children a lot with learning to share, pay attention, communicate and socialize etc.

Babies need instruction manuals

This weekend Alison and I went out to see a movie with Jeff, Jenn, Anna, Audrey and Sue (Jenn's mom). We all went to a second run theater that served lunch during the movie. The movie was "Horton hears a Who". It was actually really good and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After the movie Alison and I decided that since we were down in Raleigh and pretty close to a Babies R Us it would be fun to stop in and take a look around at some stuff. I did get one thing out of the trip...babies require a lot of stuff.

Just walking up and down the isles at the store you see all these things. I am sure you don't really need them and you could raise a perfectly happy, healthy, normal baby without a nursery monitor / night vision camera but I still want one. :)

It is kind of overwhelming to think about all the things we will need. Car seats, strollers, pack and play, swings, bouncy seats, high chair, diaper bags, toys, dressers, changing tables, cribs, clothes etc etc... When we registered for our wedding we had someone go around with us and told us what people normally register for... hopefully we will have that this time around too... if not, we are in trouble.

Second ultrasound and our baby was doing jumping jacks.

We had our second ultrasound yesterday and it was pretty amazing again. The first time I was floored by seeing the little heart beating but this time it was like watching a gymnastics meet. The baby was rolling around moving his/her arms all over the place. It was crazy. I had read that the baby would be moving by this time, but I was not expecting that. The purpose of the ultrasound this time was to measure the skin on the back of the neck covering the spinal cord and also check for the nasal bone. Anything under 4mm is good and our baby was at 1.23. That along with a blood test determines if the baby will be susceptible to about 95% of known birth defects. The spinal cord and nasal bone accounts for about 85% and our doctor said it looked great. Our next ultrasound will be in 6 weeks and we will be able to determine the sex of the baby. Almost everyone seems to be sure it's a boy. The most important thing is that our baby will be healthy.

In two days we will be in our second trimester. This weekend is 4th of July and I think that we might start working on the baby's room a little bit. I have been ready to put up the wainscoting and paint since the pregnancy test read "Pregnant" but we decided it would be best to wait until we knew everything was ok with the baby. I attached one of the pictures from the ultrasound. I labeled some of the features so its easier to make out. (You can click on it to make it bigger)

Front loading washing machines are HEAVY

Growing up we moved around a lot. This gave me plenty of opportunities to move big, heavy, bulky objects. Yesterday I had the pleasure of moving a front loading washing machine up the stairs of our house.

Our washing machine has seen better days and we have been looking to find a better washer for when the baby comes since I am sure our laundry will double for adding one tiny person. After doing a bit of research we came to the conclusion that we wanted to get a front loading washer for not only their load capacity but the water and energy savings as well. We had looked at a few but they were all a bit on the pricey side so we figured we would wait until our existing washer died. I was at Lowes with my brother getting some pressure treated lumber for our deck railing (completely different story) when I saw a few open box washing machines and decided to take a look. I saw a Whirlpool Duet Sport HT washer marked down from $799 to $400. The drawer where you load the detergent was damaged, but had since been replaced and it was in working order. I spoke to the manager and got them to lower the price to $300. This was too good of a deal to pass up, so I bought it and they brought it out front for us and my brother and I said we would load it into his minivan and take it today.

Having moved washers and dryers before, I didn't think this was going to be a problem. Just pick it up and drop it in the back of the van... yea, not so much. When we first "tried" to pick it up, it felt like it was bolted to the ground. After an embarassing first attempt we were able to get it up into the van and back to our house and we got it up the stairs with the help of a hand truck. I have to thank my brother for helping with this since there was no way I would have been able to do it without him.

Now we have a new washer all set up ready for a multitude of soiled baby clothes and blankets and the old one is in the garage ready for Craigslist.

On the train...

I am currently on my way home from work (I posted this the next morning)... I go in every so often and take the train, kind of nice to not have to drive but I end up having to say until 7pm and don't get home until 8:30ish. I am really fortunate for the job I have. Working from home has been great. I save a lot of money on gas and I save the commute time as well. The higher the gas prices go the more I get paid (pretty much).

We have our bonus room setup as a multi purpose room in preparation for the baby. We have a desk, couch and TV in there now. It will work well as a play room in the future, but right now it's my office. We are going to turn the unused bedroom into the nursery and I am excited to do it. I will probably put up some wainscoting and crown molding and paint it all white and then paint the top of the wall a color to be determined. If we have a boy, it will probably be a pale green, blue or yellow. If it is a girl, we will probably pick from pale green, pink or yellow. I think after our appointment at the end of the month we will start working on it and get it all done except for the painting. I hope the baby likes it :)

First Ultrasound picture

I just wanted to add the first ultra sound picture we got at 7 weeks...

New Ladder ;)

Alison is probably going to make fun of me for putting this in, but I just got a new ladder... It's funny how things have changed. I used to be all excited about getting video games etc... now I get excited about getting a ladder (kinda sad, huh?). Well, I can add a few more things to my "soon-to-be-daddy-to-do-so-I-don't-go-crazy-list". One of those things is to trim one of the trees in the backyard that is getting a little too tall.

I never realized how much work it would take to keep up with landscaping. I completely understand why people hire a lawn service. I have been doing quite a bit better with it. It was a struggle at first, but it is finally coming around and I am pretty proud of it. I do not know the names of anything I am working on other than + . The purple flowers, tall tree, big bushes and the crazy vines.

I am really excited about being able to play with our kids in our back yard. One of the first things I pictured when I walked out onto the deck was Cody and our future kids playing. I guess it didn't hurt with the playground the previous owners had set up. Ever since I saw that pregnancy test come out positive I have seemed to have an abundance of energy and I just want to do all that I can to make everything as good as it possibly can be when we have our first child... I know that all the baby will need is our love (which they already have)... but I figure a decent looking lawn and a nice home won't hurt either. ;)

Our blog...

This is the first post on our Blog. Alison and I have been living in North Carolina for just over a year now. We have a lot going on and we figured it would be fun to have a medium for us to share everything. We bought a house in Apex in August 07 and we have been working on making it our home. Our dog Cody (yellow lab) loves having a back yard to run around and play.

The biggest news we have right now is that Alison and I are expecting... yup, Alison is pregnant. The baby is due in the middle of Janurary and we are really excited. I have gone into crazy expectant father mode trying to do things to the house that I am sure are not necessary, but it keeps me from going nuts.

We had our first ultra sound just a few weeks ago and were were able to see the little heart beating... they had a machine to make the visual heart beats into sounds... pretty incredible.

Alison will be at the end of the first trimester at the end of the month and we have our second appointment and we will post more about that as we get closer.