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.