Peace Out!

Here are some pictures from Heidi's latest ultrasound. Dylan is giving us the peace sign.

I just hope he doesn't come out with dreadlocks and smoking a joint.

You're going to push 6lbs through where?

Heidi just called me after leaving her weekly Dr's visit. Dylan is estimated to be 6 lbs and 10 ounces! Thats a huge baby, and he's only getting bigger! I can't even think about how Heidi is going to get him out of there. Its amazing that anyone is able to do it.

On Thursday she'll meet with her other Doc who will hopefully be able to give us a little better understanding on when he will be coming, or if there is a possibility of inducing early or if a C-section is looking more like the way its going to happen. With Heidi's gestational diabetes its definitely a possibility.

I have a pretty important business trip to California June 2nd through 5th so we are kind of worried that he's going to want to come while I'm gone. I know what you are thinking, how the heck can I leave when its this close (our due date is June 25th)? That's kind of why we are hoping that he'll be induced early. Obviously the health of the baby and Heidi is more important than anything, so we'll find out what the Dr. has to say on Thursday.

Top 10 Fears of Expectant Fathers

I found this top 10 list online somewhere. Some of them are pretty accurate, but it was helpful to find that a lot of them didn't worry me. I thought I'd just break it down for you here:

1. Will I be a good father?
Probably one of my biggest fears. When I think about how good of a father I'm going to be I immediately start thinking about how much I suck at sports. I think about whether I'm "man enough" myself to teach him how to be a good man. Am I going to be able to give him everything he needs... everything I didn't get growing up? Heck, I've still got a lot of growing up to do, so how good am I going to be at fathering him?

2. Can I financially support the family?
This was a concern. Things at work are actually going really great for me. We are able to manage our income so that Heidi can stay home and be there for Dylan, hopefully for the first 5 years. I still worry that he's going to be more money that we expect. Hopefully he won't have any really bad medical problems. But still, its going to be harder down the road if we decide to put him in private school. I'm convinced that this isn't going to be as big of a problem as it seems though. I really believe we've been blessed financially lately because we started tithing earlier this year. There's no way I'd stop now. I think God is going to take care of us financially.

3. Can I handle her emotional changes?
I already know the answer to this....no. Its been hard. Heidi gets crazy sometimes. Its hard not to take it personally like I'm doing something wrong or not doing enough. It doesn't make it easier that she doesn't communicate well when she needs help or when she's mad at me. Luckily this will all be over soon. I just feel so bad for her, shes going through so many changes in such a short period of time. Everything must be 100% more real to her.

4. Am I the real father?
If this baby comes out black Heidi's in big trouble!! Just kidding... I have to say this one is not even the slightest worry for me. If you are an expecting father and you are seriously worrying about this then you've got bigger problems dude.

5. What if I die too young?
This one makes sense. I've never been one to really worry about wearing my seatbelt, but since Heidi got pregnant its been more of a priority for me. And I can kiss my goal of jumping out of an airplane goodbye. I have more to live for now than ever. I have a baby who is depending on having a father around, and a wife that needs my support and help.

6. Will my wife and baby survive?
We have been so blessed to not really have any complications with the pregnancy so far, but its still a fear. My world would be over if anything happened to Heidi, but I'd be just as upset if I lost Dylan and I haven't even met him yet. I'm probably more afraid that he's going to come out with downs syndrome or something. Honestly, as horrible as this may sound I'd be devastated if something was wrong like that. There's no doubt I'd love him and deal with it, but it would be hard. I just want them both to be healthy.

7. Will she love the baby more than me?
She probably will, at times. She'll be the sole caregiver, being with him all day everyday. Before we knew we had a boy I really wanted a girl because I knew she'd be attached to me, you know daddy's little girl. But I'm pretty sure Dylan is going to be a Mama's boy. And thats great, it really is... but it makes me feel a little jealous.

8. How can I help during the pregnancy if I don't understand "women's" problems?
I try to help Heidi as much as I can, but I already get the feeling sometimes that she thinks theres no way I can understand what shes going through. I try not to get angry at her when she's in a bad mood, and I try to do things for her that I know she has a hard time doing now. Hopefully I'm being a good husband through all of this. I know its hard for her these last few weeks because I'm trying to focus on building my new career, while also trying to be there for her all the time. Its hard to juggle both... I'm not looking forward to throwing being a good father in there too. This pregnancy has been a lot easier then we thought it would be, but I probably never will fully understand what shes going through and what shes feeling.

9. Will I do a good job at the birth?
Will I be left out is more my fear. I don't want to be ignored. Its my baby and my day too. I don't think that will really happen, but I just don't know what to expect. Is she going to yell at me and hate me? Or is she going to be overly lovey and not want me to let go of her? Overall I think it will fine though...should be a wonderful day.

10. I don't even like children, so how can I cope with this?
I hate children. I really do. In fact when Heidi and I were dating I warned her that I wasn't sure if I ever wanted children. I just wanted her to know that I wasn't sure and that if its important to her that it just might not happen with me. But one day I just knew it was time. She never pressured me into it at all. We were only married like 8 months I think and I told her that I was ready to have a kid if she wanted to. She wasn't ready at that moment, but it was only a couple weeks later when she realized she was ready too. But to be honest, now that its only weeks away from becoming a major reality I'm a little scared that I'm not as ready as I thought I was.


I really am scared to be a dad. When I think of dad's I can't picture myself in that category. I really hope that changes quickly after he's born. Part of me knows its going to just fine though. I've been through quite a lot in my life and I've come out of all of it stronger and better.

Softcore porn and parenting videos

So Heidi got a DVD today on the basics of how to take care of a new baby. Its a pretty good video. Teaches how to hold the baby, how to change a diaper, and my favorite part...how to breast feed! If you ever need an excuse to watch soft core porn with your wife but you just can't get the nerve to ask her then I suggest the Very Best Baby videos. :)

Its fun learning this stuff. I had no idea about most of it. Did you know that its a good idea to flick the baby's lips with the nipple if he won't latch onto the breast when breast feeding? I can't wait!

And that baby talk voice that people use when talking to babies, thats actually helpful to the baby! I thought people were just idiots. In fact I had it all planned out to yell at people if they didn't talk to my son like a normal human being. But apparently babies really like the high pitched baby talk. It soothes them and makes them happy.

Heidi already knows this stuff. I guess women just know. I'm a little overwhelmed with everything you have to know. I'm so afraid that after the birth they are just going to hand us the baby and send us home without any help. How the heck are we supposed to know what to do?

The baby's room

For those of you who read my wife's blog you may have already seen these pictures, but here's Dylan's room. We've finally got it all setup. Well for the most part. It's all painted, the crib is built and the room is clean. We've still got some setting up to do and some things to buy, but I'm pretty sure the hard parts are over. Listen to me... I sound like I actually did a lot of work. Reality is that Heidi did most of it. I think she really did a great job with the painting. If you ever get the idea to paint stripes (especially two different colored stripes) then talk to my wife first. She's perfected a technique.

The room looks much better as a baby's room than it did as my office. Now that I've got the laptop my office has moved to the couch anyway, so Dylan can have it.

Notice I don't call it a nursery. I hate that word. Why can't we just call it the baby's room?

What happened to my wife?

Heidi has been pregnant for about 8 months now. It's hard to remember a time when she wasn't pregnant, but man I cannot wait until this is over. I just want my wife back!

She's turned into a crazy person. The other night we ate at the new Mimi's Cafe that opened near us. We got there and were told that the wait would be about 25 minutes. At the time that sounded OK to Heidi. We sat at the bar and had a couple of Cokes while she looked over the menu. About 30 minutes in she had not only memorized the menu, but she knew exactly what everyone in the room had to eat in front of them. She does this thing where she sizes up every plate that passes by her. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't cute, but its also getting very scary. A few times I was scared that she was going to steal one of the plates. I could just see the plan forming in her head. Maybe she'd trip the waitress and the food would land in Heidi's lap. Trust me, I wouldn't put it past her. We finally were seated after waiting about 30-40 minutes.

By this time Heidi is pretty hungry. When hunger hits a pregnant woman there is barely a waiting period. Once she utters the words "I am so hungry" you've got about 45 seconds to put food in front of her before she turns crazy on you. Unfortunately it takes Heidi about 20 minutes to decide what she wants to eat (even though she just spent 40 minutes memorizing the menu). She did this before the pregnancy but since then its been 10 times as worse. We finally order and Heidi asks for a cheeseburger, well done. The waitress (who's obviously not qualified to talk to pregnant women) tells Heidi that a well done burger will take about 20 minutes. I'm not really sure what happened after that but the police tell me the waitress has a pretty good chance of coming out of the coma.

OK just kidding. She ended up ordering a different sandwich and for a moment things seemed fine. Unfortunately 20 minutes later we still have no food. Keep in mind that its been about an hour and a half since Heidi said she was hungry (see 45 second rule above). I was starting to fear for the safety of the other restaurant patrons at this point. Luckily Heidi was able to flag the waitress down and we were able to get a muffin while we waited for the food. In the end only a few people were injured and we weren't even charged for the muffin.

It's an interesting thing eating out now. I kid around but Heidi is cute as hell when she gets hungry. And I'm loving all the attention we get now that she looks really pregnant. Everyone stares at her with big smiles and strangers will come and say "congratulations mommy!" Its like being married to a celebrity.

They forgot about me again

So the 2007 TIME 100 came out and once again they forgot to add me. Among the top "people who shape our world" are Brad Pitt, Kate Moss, Osama bin Laden, Tyra Banks... WTF? It's rediculous that Tyra Banks and Osama made the list, but President George W. Bush didn't!! Not that I read before, but I can assure you I will never become a TIME magazine subscriber.

Tonight the wifey and I are going to a Georgia Force game and if she's up to it a late night showing of Spidey3 (I can say Spidey because I'm going to be a dad). It will probably be the last late night we have before Dylan comes. I'm actually really looking forward to it. Lately I've had the "going out" bug. Which is weird because we didn't really stay out late before Heidi got pregnant. A wild night for us is going to a Habachi restaurant and getting a Heineken Light. But something about all this responsibility thats coming my way soon is making me want to get out and take advantage of the opportunities while we can.

Who wants to take bets that we'll be home before 11:00pm?