Week 30 - Baby Shower 1

The excitement continues to build.   Recently the first of two baby showers were held.  When your going through the stores that you are registering at its almost, ok well it is like, when you were creating your registry when you were getting married.  Except that you have that third person to think about and that you hope that you are picking up things that he/she will like.

The diaper cake is the norm of a baby shower.  Now as a guy I don't really understand why these are an almost necessity at baby showers but hey free diapers can't complain.

The great thing about the showers is that you are getting all of this stuff for free.  Clothes, diapers, burp rags, baby monitors, diaper bags, and in our case a very special quilt made by my grandmother.





Now the story behind this handmade quilt I don't remember at all.   But my wife nearly cried when she heard it from my grandma.  Apparently back in the day (which was a Wednesday by the way(there's my Dane Cook reference for the day)), my father, grandma, and myself went to a fabric store.  Now what the story I really want to know is why did my dad and me think it was a good idea to go to a fabric store in the first place.  But my cousin was expecting and we all thought it was going to be a boy.  So my grandma was looking for blue colored fabric to make the quilt with and so my dad and I were trying to help her find some fabric, again why we were doing this is the real story.  As it turns out my cousin had a girl and so the blue fabric was a bust that she bought.  But all these years she kept the blue fabric and as it turns out she used it to create the quilt that she created for our little boy.   I have no recollection of this story but its always nice when you receive something that has meaning behind it and you can always tell your kid what it is and where it came from.  The little ones nursery has more meaning behind it as will be discussed in a later post.

Great Grandma's Quilt

More of the quilt (some of the fabric I helped pick out

Diaper dude messenger bag

Now being the nerdy father that I am, we couldn't go without registering for something that was for me.  Granted, I will be taking care of our little one a lot by myself so we really needed two diaper bags.  I found a couple company's that created diaper bags for dads.  Now I am really not for the one-purpose bags.  But like I said... when I saw this, I had to have it. Diaperdude.com makes these bags that aren't to girly or fru-fru so that you don't lose your man-card.  Now I have heard different stories about these types of bags if they are really necessary.  Since all you really need is one and any man should be able to take the girly diaper bag with them anywhere.  So we will see how much I like this bag.  I am sure that there will be some sort of review coming as soon as we start using it.

The dad checklist (note the last item... don't forget the baby

As a side note there is another company DadGear that also makes diaper bags for guys.

Now we can only hope that some of the stuff that we didn't get at this shower we get at the second one!

Week 30 - The Nursery

I had big plans for this room... before it was going to be a nursery.  This child has already invaded my space before he even steps (or is carried) into our house.  What is now going to be the nursery was going to and was my ongoing project called "my office," or "my man-cave."

When we originally bought our house what was the office had a burnt orange color on the walls.  Didn't work to well for my Kansas Jayhawks and C0lorado Rockies gear, but I am a guy and didn't really care.  Now that you mention that even those two teams colors don't go well together.   My wife hated the color... and as for me, i uh lived with it and it grew on me.   Needless to say we didn't want that color for the nursery.   I was actually kind of sad to see that color go when we did start repainting over it.  But this is one of those things that as a father you accept as your job.  But its a job that I enjoy doing because I know that someday when our little one finally sleeps through the night he will appreciate exactly what daddy has done for him... yeah at the age of 3 months he is going to appreciate it HAHA!  But even if he won't know the difference between sleeping in our room or his own room its still gratifying knowing that we are providing him a nice room to sleep in.

(picture of the nursery)

Now the paint color has changed.  We hope that this is paint job, he will be able to grow up with and maybe we won't have to change it.  But you learn lots of little tricks when you have to add another color boarder like we did.  And even though my wife was not able to help out much with the painting, I wouldn't have been able to do it with out her since she was helping me with making sure that it all looked good.  It's all about the wifes idea and then we execute it no matter how difficult it is right guys?

Now we had an old dresser and bookshelf that we had sitting around and decided to just paint it the coordinating blue which I think turned out great and saved us some cash.

(Pictures of the bookshelf and dresser)

The changing table we got a deal on.  Bought it off criagslist for about 30 bucks and it was originally a golden pine color.  We were wanting to stain it the same color as our crib but, I'll take the fall for this one, I didn't get started on it soon enough to get it stained before the baby shower and so I just painted it.  If there is one thing I can advise... for baby items check craigslist.  You'll never know what you will find but sometimes you can come across a bargain.

(Picture of changing table)

We got our crib for a very good price as it was on sale and with a free mattress. But something that makes this have alittle bit more meaning... my wonderful wife made the crib sheet and the bumper.  Partially because we were unable to find sheets in just baseball that we liked, but it gives us a story to tell that she made them just for him.  Just like the accent fabric on the curtain. That was in my old room when I was in high school.

(picture of the crib and curtains)

And finally we added alittle bit with vinyl stick on stickers.  We found this personalized home plate which was very nice and also just some baseballs to go on the boarder.  They come off clean so if we do have paint again we won't have to leave them on.

(Picture of the vinyl stick-ons)

Week 29 - More Reality Checks

There have been many times throughout our pregnancy that reality has set in and smacked me in the face and said "Yo Dude your having a baby!"  Every mother and father go through it.  A mother goes through it probably more then a father.  She has to deal with the constant shifting, kicking, and heartburn coming from our little one.  As a father what reality checks do we have.  Sure we can see our growing wife but is that enough of a check?

When I felt the baby kick for the first time I knew this was real.  The first sonogram, I'm not going to lie, I didn't see shit!  But when I felt that little bugger kick for the first time that's when I thought to myself that this is really happening.  Now the little guy doesn't even like me to put my hand on my wifes belly... he will kick it away.  Not to mention he doesn't like it when the doctor puts the Doppler on her stomach to check the heart beat, he kicked that one day too, and the second sonogram we got!  Apparently this kid wants his own little space and doesn't want it invaded! Alot like his father!

Then we have the more superficial reality checks, basically when those checks aren't coming from something the little kid is doing.  I was watching the second episode of "Parenthood" on NBC and within the first five minutes I realized that, there is a chance I could be dealing with some of the issues that these families go through.   At that time we didn't know if our little one was a he or a she.  So I was watching all of these families and thinking that any one of these problems could be my own!  Between one of the sons having aspergers another going through puberty you wonder what your going to have to go through as this child grows.

Then the other day, I was listening to the radio and something almost brought me to tears.   And now that we know are having a son this makes it hit even more.  George Strait has his song called "The Breath You Take." Needless to say if you look at the first couple of lyrics to the song it really makes you think about being a father.

"He looks up from second base, dad's up in the stands
He saw the hit, the run, the slide, there ain't no bigger fan
In the parking lot after the game
He said, "dad, I thought you had a plane to catch?"
He smiled and said, "Yeah, son, I did"

I'm not saying this is a dad's song just because it mentions the word dad.  But since this talks about being able to watch a son play baseball and just knowing that your son is so happy that you were able to come and watch his game despite having a flight to catch.  This shows the true sacrifice that a father takes to his family and to see them happy.   What makes this more real is that I know I am going to be that father.  The one where it doesn't matter what is going on I am going to drop everything just be able to see him play a game or anything that he enjoys doing.   And to be honest I couldn't help but shed a tear when I heard this song for the first time.  It hit so close to home.

There will be many more reality checks to come I'm sure.

28 Weeks - The worry

So we've hit the 28th week.  Meaning we are into the 3rd trimester.  Now you start to worry about things.  How am I going to get my wife to the hospital? What happens if something is wrong with the baby? What if something bad happens during the labor?  But this is when you and even your wife start to think about some of this stuff.  What if something happens to us while we are trying to get to the hospital?  And one that you ask yourself everyday, how are we going to be able to afford this child?

This is all natural.  Trust me worry if you haven't been worried yet is all natural.  I've hit that point, especially when you talk about the financial aspect of it all.  I start thinking about all of the little expenses that you have with a child.  The diapers, the diapers wipes, formula, and food.  When you are have been trying to save up some money and then now you throw this into the mix its hard. Really hard.  We've already talked that we can throw any sort of vacation out the window for the next couple years.  But there are a few things that you can do to help ease this.  If you strapped for money make the initial investment in cloth diapers.  Now many people don't think this is such a hot idea.  But If you think about it... if you spend $400 now on the diapers you need for the 3 years he/she will be in diapers... vs... spending $1200 for the three years that the kid will be wearing disposable diapers.  Look at the cost savings.  Yes cloth diapers are alot of work and probably more then you are willing to do but the cost savings make up for that amount of work.  You can take it one step further and even make your own wipes.  That helps so you don't have to buy wipes all the time.  Now yes there are times that you are going to want disposable everything, like when you travel or when the child is in daycare.

Daycare is another expense that you have to look at.  I can't even imagine how we would be able to afford this child if we had to have him in daycare for 5 days a week.

I'll just say this... as a father our biggest worry is about paying for the child.  It's tough, real tough.   And I didn't even scratch the surface about it all, the nurnsery, the medical bills, all the other baby items you will need.   Makes me sick to even think about it!