I'm Going to Be A Dad!

Birth Annoucement

2008-01-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

It is with no small amount of pride and pleasure that I announce the birth of our first born son, Trenton Alexander. Born at 1:33 PM after approximately 6 hours of labor and only one shot of pain medicine. 20.5”, 7 lbs 4.5 oz.

Mom is doing well and breastfeeding as best as a new mom can. She’s up, about, and feeling better than she has in a few months.

Hopefully we’ll have a photo online as soon as possible and get that out to everyone! In the mean time, I’m back to the hospital to visit my son!

Tomorrow... Tomorrow... I'll love ya tomorrow...

2008-01-21T14:53:00.001-08:00

Well gang, it's been a long time in coming. Tomorrow we go in and we try to induce this little thing out of Kendra. It's been a heck of a 38+ weeks, and it's only going to get better. Let's recap the crazy:

There was screaming, shouting, sweating, and nearly passing out
About a month later, she took the first pregnancy test
Then we went and bought more
Then she took more pregnancy tests
More screaming, shouting, sweating, and nearly passing out (this time, not sex)
A couple weeks of trying not to tell the world in case of miscarriage
Sod that WE'RE PREGNANT!!!
Lots of seminars at Babies R Us
Lots of freebies from Babies R Us
Lots of time agonizing over gift registries
OH GOD WE NEED NAMES!
Hey let's go with Aubrey Katherine for a girl, Trenton Alexander for a boy
There's been like a hundred Aubrey's born in the last month - we need a new name
OH GOD WE NEED A NEW GIRL NAME!!!!
Kaitlynn Selene!
Baby baby baby baby... grow and grow the baby... baby baby baby baby... BABY!
My sister gets pissy with us
People on internet threaten to kill self, wife, and child among many other things because of sister
Nesting Instinct kicks in/Christmas
Baby showers :)
Oh god we're going to be parents
We're going to rock :)
Present

So yeah... that catches us up. I'm off on an FMLA paternity leave for about three weeks, and on top of that will be telecommuting/working part time for around a month-month and a half. Time to get used to being a dad, to help Kendra get used to being a mom, and generally just go "woah"

Oh yeah - the 25th is our four-year wedding anniversary. Crazy times man, crazy times.

That's about it. I'll do a few more updates before starting the new dad blog (I like organization :P). It's going to be a wild ride, that's for sure

Counting down

2007-12-25T17:39:00.000-08:00

It's almost the end of the year, and the little one is almost here. Life is becoming increasingly both more complex as well as much more simplistic. From this point on, it is no longer about me. Well, it's actually been that way for a while. But let me break it down.

I sat back last night, looking at the gifts from the families and saw all the stuff I got and started thinking about Christmas for my parents. They didn't get much - just what they got each other. The kids get the lion's share of the loot.

This morning I did something I won't do for many years to come. I slept in until nearly 9:00 am on Christmas Morning.

Starting in well less than a month, my life will only be about my child. No more piles of gifts with my name on them. 90% of my free time will be devoted to this little thing.

And I couldn't be happier. To teach, inspire, and guide this new child will be the greatest thing I've ever done.

So, here it comes ready or not. T-minus however long the little one has left in there until the biggest change my life has ever had.

Cha-Ching

2007-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

OK yeah... I think the thing I like the most about kendra being pregnant is the spending of money on the kid.

I'll be honest - I hate shopping for myself. It drives me nuts. I agonize and debate over most purchases for days or weeks unless it's something I really want then yeah I snap it up. But more times than not I'll look at it, paw the box in the store. Carry it around for a few isles.

And then drop it somewhere else for a minimum wage monkey to put up.

Not so for the kid. I can drop so much cash on this little thing that it scares me in ways that it shouldn't. I fear I'll spoil it, but it's easier for me to justify buying something for someone I love than it is for myself. We've bought sooooooooooo much baby crap it's funny.

Oh, and speaking of baby crap:

Here's a bunch of the stuff we've got in the nursery now

And here's a the latest ultrasounds!

anyway folks - thats it for now!

To know?

2007-09-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

So, monday is the BIG ultrasound - we now need to decide if we find out the gender now or let it be a surprise. I'm torn - do I want to know now & get used to calling the baby by his/her name, or do I want that elation of "It's an X!" in the middle of all the screaming, pooping (yes, women tend to BM during delivery), bleeding, crying, and chaos?

And despite my description, that's actually kind of a good thing

I don't know... I guess in the end it kinda goes to my opinion of checking now for major birth defects (down syndrome, etc): it won't change my desire to have the child. I won't love it any more or any less than I possibly could.

But... to know. To call the child by the name. To have (secreted away so family doesn't know) the first outfit our child will wear. Although, calling out to the heavens on the day of my childs birth the new found knowledge of "Lord and Lady I now have a (insert gender) And I declare their name to be (Trenton Alexander/Katelyn Celine) (Insert Last Name)!" will be pretty exciting.

I do know that boy or girl, I cannot WAIT. I wish it was February.

What Kind of Dad Will He Be?

2007-07-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

For the record, I don't buy it. But parents.com had a quiz asking what kind of father a guy will be. So here's what they say about me:

He's a Hands-On Dad! This dad is very involved in the nitty-gritty of parenting. He loves being around kids, and it shows. He doesn't consider it a chore to bathe a kid, host a play date, or help with homework. While his involvement with the kids is heart-warming, there are some difficulties you might run into with this type of dad. For instance, if you don't agree on how a parenting situation should be handled, it could get a bit sticky. Clarify your approaches to parenting early on by exploring parenting what-ifs (What if our child refuses to eat dinner? What if our child throws a tantrum in the store?), role-playing, and discussing parenting articles or books together. A hands-on dad might also tend to be a worrier. Reassure him that while his protectiveness is understandable, the children need space to grow and learn. It's important to keep the kids safe, but at the same time a scraped knee is nothing to panic about. This quiz is for entertainment and/or educational purposes only. All content here, including advice from doctors and other health professionals, should be considered as opinion only. Always seek the direct advice of your own doctor in connection with any questions or issues you may have regarding your own health or the health of others.

Picture That

2007-06-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

171 ways to say "I Love You"

2007-06-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

We had our second ultrasound. First off, it seems that Kendra was, thankfully, wrong on her dates. It looks like we conceived on Mother's Day, and the official due date is now Feb. 1st, 2008.

We got all sorts of new pics, which will be up in a day or so. But the coolest part, the part I wish we'd recorded, was we got to hear the heart beat. It's going at 171 beats per minute, and it's so great to know our baby is living.

That's it for now. More latter :D

100 Proof (babyproof, that is)

2007-06-19T19:20:00.001-07:00

Yeah I'm really digging this baby thing. Here's a brief update because I just can't focus that much on a lot that's go.

We're worried that either A) Kendra may have gotten her dates off by about a month or B) The pregnancy may not be viable. If B proves to be the case, then yeah I'm going to be sad as all hell because my life has changed so much because of this. BUT I know that we can do it again, which is more than I knew two months ago. Which, as of this date, is about where we're at (we're at 7 weeks, 3 days right now).
We've nicknamed the baby "Baby Bean." This way, we have a name to refer to it as but we're not really wasting one of our names that we're trying to pick out or we're not stuck with a name we don't like,
Names are hard. Boys names not so much, but girls names are a killer. We're trying to avoid family member names we dislike (which rules out a lot) and people we can think of with the same name that we hate. And we don't like a lot of people. Odds are if it's a girl we're going to either name her something based around a Greek deity or representative thereof or after a lesbian couple we're tight friends with. I think this is why I don't write books or short stories - I get hung up on the names.
I love Babies "R" Us. For starters, the gift registry there is AWESOME. You can set it up so people can search for the registry by the grandparents. So, they may not know Kendra's new last name, but they know her mom. They have a book of essentials for new parents to make the registry a lot simpler too. Also, they give you this sweet gift pack of a lot of samples and essentials. We've got a small bottle, a baby plug (aka pacifier), breast milk bags, and coupons.
More I love Babies "R" Us - They have lots of great classes. We went to the babyproofing seminar tonight. I asked lots of questions, and we got MORE free stuff - they give stuff out there like mad.
Going back to registry's though, we're fans of Wish Fish in this household. You can see the full and generally updated "I want that" list at http://www.wishfish.com/wishlist/view.aspx?id=2507. Remember - you don't need to buy our love, but it doesn't hurt to try. In all honesty, this list is more a guideline than a hard and fast rule set. As an example, if we have a car seat on there it doesn't need to be THAT car seat - but it should have the same general specifications (5 point harness, separate base for the car, work for up to 50lbs, etc.).
Tomorrow we're going to try and get another ultrasound to see if the baby is growing. We have another scheduled for next week too, but we kinda can't wait that long, yanno?
If all goes well tomorrow I plan to do more cleaning to get the place ready for baby and start a babyproofing plan. I also am going to research some ways to do a cloth diaper without pins (because I'm cool like that) as well as start hunting down free baby samples.
I'm also going to try and clean out my old footlocker to have as the baby chest - a place for us to start stashing baby stuff until about midway into the second trimester. This way if the worst does happen, we don't have it in plain view.

OK, that's about it for now. Sporadic updates to follow!

The Most Sophisticated Piece of Technology You'll Ever Pee On (back dated)

2007-05-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm Brian. If you're reading this you're probably friends, family, curious, or something even less. You may even be my kid, I dunno. But I'm here to talk about the biggest change in my life ever.

You see, on Today's date, Kendra (my wife of three and a half wonderful years) had her first four positive pregnancy tests.

Yeah, OK, I went a little crazy. She messaged me at work because the digital camera wasn't working. I knew that she'd only use that because she'd want to share something online ASAP. And the only thing I could think of was pregnancy test. I took off work early (I had to come in latter that night anyway) and looked at it. The line was faint, but looked like it was there.

A trip to walmart & $50 latter (in my defense, only $30 of that was tests) we had 13 more tests. A few hours & a lot of whining from Kendra that she had to pee latter, she took another cheap line test. Another pregnancy line.

So, we decided to go for something a little more expensive - the Digital Clear Blue Easy. Before I go on with this story, a word from my favorite product:

However many minutes later, I went into the bathroom. Kendra was in the hall. I looked down.

These CBE tests are the coolest fucking thing ever. All the other tests you're going "Is that a line? Is it a shadow? Is it a smudge?"

Not with this. I looked down at the little LCD panel and saw the word.

"Pregnant."

I started to scream. Kendra shouted "You've got to be kidding me!" I shouted back "NO WAY! Look for yourself!"

She kinda left her mind after that. I called both my mom & dad on the landline phone and her mom on the cellphone. I told both of them at the same time.

"Kendra has something in her uterus."

My parents where kinda spazzy & excited. Her mom was somewhat happy but not screaming like mine. Kendra tried to talk to her mom but it came out very incoherent.

I really did restrain myself that day. I don't think I told more than 50 people. 60 at the worst.

The best was telling our friends Aubrey & Kathy. They where grocery shopping in the middle of Kroger when I told them. Aubrey started screaming at people "My friend is going to have a baby!"

oh man. Yeah. It's been crazy. We need a blood test to confirm this one now.

The best & crazy part is we didn't think this could happen. I've used that line so much. "I didn't think this could happen." How many times has a guy said that? Tonnes. How often has it been a good thing? Rarely. See, Kendra's been told since she was about 16-17 that natural conception is HIGHLY unlikely. But it happened and I don't think I could be happier.