The Wallace Twins

So everybody keeps saying how much baby boy looks like me so I decided it was time for a side-by-side comparison. I found some old baby pictures that Cara had scanned for our wedding slideshow and was able to match one up with a picture of our little baby boy. What do you think???

4 Years!!

Wow, it is hard to believe that on this date 4 years ago I married my best friend. So much has changed in that time. We've had ups... We've had downs... But no matter what, we've always had love. There isn't another person in the world that I would rather have by my side to walk the journey of life.

Cara,

Thank you for always being there for me. I never thought the girl who eavesdropped on my Cosmo quiz back in high school (yes, I knew you were listening) would one day become not only my wife, but the mother of my son. You mean the world to me and I proudly stand beside you.

Love,
Will

Then

Now

Papi Time

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted. I have actually been fairly busy...

For those who don't know, I spent the entire month of November at home with our soon. Originally, the plan was for me to take leave from work, but as soon as we got the new house that plan was taken out back and beaten to death while our bills watched and laughed. The new plan was for me to still be at home, but with the added joy of telecommuting for work so I could still get a paycheck because as we all know I need to eat... I need to eat a lot. Though I would have preferred to have just been on leave, I am glad I did it and I recommend all new dads take some time with just you and the baby alone. Even if it is just for a day, it will cause you to see things in an entirely different way and you will begin to understand just why your partner looks so defeated at 3am after trying to get the kid to go back to sleep for an hour.

I for one have a new found respect for stay-at-home parents. I used to think it would be a breeze being home with kids without having to report to a boss, but I found out very quickly that while I was home 3.0 was my boss, and I think he knew he could do as he pleased while Papi was home. He even decided to join in on some of my conference calls, which made for some very funny "What was that?" conversations after he finished one lengthy baby babble tirade. (Never did I ever think a baby making noises in the highest pitches possible would make me laugh just about every time, but it does...)

I have now returned to work, but decided I enjoyed the time so much that I am now telecommuting one day a week for the near future. I figure it is just another way to bond with the little guy and it doesn't hurt to have the extra practice when Mama wants to go have some fun and leave the baby at home. I mean, who really wants to be the guy calling his wife every few minutes with questions on what to do when the baby does this or that? I'd much rather just know what to do, which is what I learned "on-the-job" the past month and I loved every minute of it.

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend before Liam and I went to St Thomas, we met Marcie, Kevin, and Kylee at the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound. Here are my favorite photos from the day. Enjoy!

Trip to St Thomas

Liam and I traveled to St Thomas and stayed with Grammy (Will's mom) and Aunt Terry in the Ritz Carlton. What a fantastic time we had! Liam took two flights there and three flights on the way home and was such a trooper both ways. I got so many compliments about what a good baby he is. After each flight I'd have several people tell me how worried they were when they saw us seated near them, then how pleasantly surprised they were by him! During our trip Liam got into the ocean and the swimming pool, took walks with Grammy, went on a ferry to St John, and went on a sunset cruise! Here are some great Liam pictures from our trip:



Also, because St Thomas is such a beautiful place, here are some photos I took from our sunset cruise and of the awesome scenery:



And finally I wanted to share my first ever attempts at water coloring. I took two classes with the resident artist and it was so much fun!

My first painting:


Inspiration for my second painting:


Second painting:


All in all we had a great trip, though it was hard to be away from Papi all week!

3 months

Well, another month has flown by! Liam continues to grow and change everyday. He continues to smile and talk to us a lot and is such a happy boy! This month he learned to pout by sticking his bottom lip out, though he is usually pretty shortly smiling again after. Here is a video of Papi playing with him, where he goes from pout to smile over and over. It is so funny! The video is taken from my cell phone so it isn't the best quality.



He has finally learned to suck his fingers this month and does so often. He still sleeps well at night (thankfully!) and had some great first adventures this month. His first Pumpkin Patch, first time in the ocean and a swimming pool, and his first time on an airplane! He is becoming more interactive with his toys and is now bringing them to his mouth to figure them out.

Here are a few photos from the past month...

I almost packed Liam in a box with all the confusion from our move, ha!



Playing with Uncle Josh:





Reunion of our birthing class:





We finally got to meet beautiful Emrie Griffith! :)





I'll also add blog entries for our trip to the Pumpkin Patch and our trip to St. Thomas!

Video from Charm Me Photography

I just wanted to share the video of some of our photos from Charm Me Photography! Thank you Carleen! Enjoy!!

2 month Doctor appointment

I am late on this blog post, but wanted to post it anyways. Liam is such a growing boy! At two months he weighed in at 11 pounds, 14 ounces. He's right at average for his weight and head circumference, but is well on the tall side of percentages. We're going to have a tall little man. :) He continues to spit up a lot and gets the hiccups several times a day, so the doctor gave us some medicine for reflux. It has definitely helped some. The doctor also gave us something for his scalp, as his head has been peeling like crazy. It's already looking better!

The hardest part of this visit was that Liam had to get three shots. He was such a trooper though! He cried when the shots were given, but was easily soothed right after. He even slept all the way home. :) The only other thing to note from the appointment is that the doctor commented on how good Liam's eye contact is! :) We're so glad to have such a happy, healthy, little man.

The Wallaces Come Home

That's right... The Wallaces are back in the good old hometown!! It is so exciting to be living near family and friends again. I can't wait to get out and about and start visiting everybody. In the meantime, here is a quick peak at the new house.

Two Months!

Liam turned two months old yesterday. As I sat feeding Liam tonight before bedtime, I thought about how quickly the moments pass. Liam is outgrowing clothes and changing everyday. His smiles are adorable and come often. He continues to sleep and eat well and really doesn't cry often! This month has been a busy one, as we sold our house in early September, had to search for one we wanted to buy and have been packing up for our move, which was moved back to this week. I'll save all of that for another post though.

Here's a fun story from this month. One day, after looking at houses all day, and I was EXHAUSTED, I asked Will to pull Daddy duty through the night with Liam. Of course, this was the night Liam chose to sleep his first 7 and 1/2 hours straight. :) He does love his Papi! Since then, he continues to sleep well, usually sleeping about 5-6 hours, waking up to eat, then back down about 3 hours. Now, if only Mama could learn to go to bed earlier!!

Other events from this month were Liam's first TCU soccer game, Liam's first REAL smiles (which are beautiful!!), and a trip to the State Fair of Texas. Liam loves playing on his floor mat and now swats at the toys that hang over him. His favorite is the horse and he even reached up and grabbed on to it! I know....proud Mama. LOL

Now for some favorite pictures from this month:

Sweet smile! This photo was taken by our friend Brandon Krausse at the State Fair:



Bathtime:





Playing on the floor mat:





Ballin', Liam holding the gift money we used to go to the State Fair:



We are so blessed to have such a happy, healthy boy!! We love you Liam! His two month doctor appointment is on Tuesday. I'm anxious to see how much my boy has grown!! Though we're not so anxious about the shots. I'll update with a post!

Liam's First TCU Soccer Game

Liam and I went to the TCU/Tech soccer game last week with Uncle Josh! They ended up losing in overtime 4-3, but it was a great game. It brought me back to my days as a TCU soccer player. I was reminded of my first collegiate game. It was against Tech in Lubbock and we also went into overtime. I scored the winning goal off of a corner kick. :)

Here is a picture with Liam at the game!

Liam's brother Deuce

Deuce is such a great big brother. I'm a proud Mama to see it. This was something that I was so worried about. How would Deuce react to a baby in the house? Would he become territorial? Would he feel left out? Would we worry about him hurting our precious baby? These thoughts filled my mind before Liam was born. Deuce, however, has taken everything in stride. He definitely wants to be involved, so we do our best to include him. He loves getting close to Liam to smell him and lick his little hands and feet. Sometimes he brings Liam his dog toys...we can tell he can't wait for Liam to be big enough to really play with him.

He's also protective of Liam. Sometimes when Liam cries, Deuce cries also. He looks at us with his big eyes as if to say, "help him!" If Liam is down for a nap and wakes up crying, Deuce inevitably always runs to check on him first.

This morning, one of the cutest things happened. Sometimes after breastfeeding several times during the night, I am really hungry early in the morning. So I will eat breakfast after an early morning feeding. This morning around 6:30am after feeding Liam and putting him back down, I went to the kitchen to eat some breakfast. Deuce followed me in there (as he sleeps at the head of Liam's crib...so cute). So, I went ahead and fed Deuce as well. Liam was quiet, but not yet asleep and we could hear his little noises from the kitchen. At every noise I paused, stopped chewing lifting one ear to listen more closely to Liam. Deuce, also at every little noise, stopped chewing and lifted one ear to hear Liam. When we'd decide he was okay and just fidgeting, we'd both begin chewing again. And we were right on cue every time!! It was seriously the most adorable thing! I love how much Deuce already looks out for Liam and know they will be the best of pals! :)

Tips for the New Dad

We’ve had Liam home now for over a month and I just thought I would share some insight on what I have seen and learned.

• Babies poop...a lot. And they don't just poop, it comes out like the oil geysers they show in cartoons. You will learn to use a diaper as a nice poop shield.

• People really love new babies. Everyone will want to see the baby, hold the baby, and talk to the baby. Then they will want to talk to the mom. You have officially become the side attraction to the main events.

• Give up any thoughts for a night of peaceful sleep. Sleeping like you did before is no longer an option. Your baby will sleep in stretches through the night and wake up to eat. When he wakes up, he will cry until you wake up too. If you are like me, you will sleep through the initial crying and wake up to see your wife breastfeeding in bed next to you.

And finally...

• You will love your mate in an entirely new way. You will see your mate loving and caring for your child and it will show you an entirely new side of her. I have seen Cara stay up all night taking care of Liam when she herself has only had a few hours of sleep. She does it during the week so I can get the sleep I need to go to work. She doesn't have to do it, but she refuses to let me get up in the middle of the night and I love her for it. She is 100% mom inside and out and I am loving being able to witness it all.
  

One Month

Wow, my baby boy is officially one month old. How is it that the whole last week of my pregnancy seemed to last longer than the whole first month when Liam arrived?? Will and I have been so blessed with the birth of Liam. He is such a good baby! After years of my parents telling me to just wait until I have a baby just like ME, I was a bit terrified! But instead, Liam started out sleeping 4 hour stretches with a cry that is cute enough to make Will and I laugh most of the time. When he does cry, he is easily calmed with a little love. He is pretty laid back and glad to be held by all of our family and friends. I’m pretty sure that he will suck his thumbs/fingers as soon as he can consistently figure out how to get his hands to his mouth and keep them there. He loves looking around taking things in and is already starting to lift his head when he’s on his tummy. I simply can’t get enough of him! Though he was 7 pounds 11 ounces at birth, by his two week appointment he grew a whole inch and weighed in at 8 pounds 7 ounces! Though I’m not sure what he weighs now, I know he’s still a growing boy!! To celebrate Liam’s one month birthday I wanted to share a few of our favorite moments from this past month together!

Will and I began adjusting to Liam well before he was born. Throughout the pregnancy we prepared for his arrival. Since his birth we have really started getting to know him and getting to know how to care for him. Since this is new to us, it’s been an exciting adventure. :) Liam is actually the first newborn baby Will has EVER held! Prior to this, Will’s policy has always been not to hold a baby until they can hold up their own head. He has since learned babies aren’t quite as breakable as he once thought. Here is a picture of Liam’s favorite Papi hold, aka the football hold.





Changing Liam’s diapers was an adjustment for the two of us as well. Liam peed on himself (and us!) on multiple occasions before we mastered the technique for keeping him covered during changes. The even bigger adjustment for me was taking care of Liam’s ‘boy parts’! After his circumcision, I definitely tried to wipe him with a baby wipe (a definite no-no), followed by trying to put water on him. As Will started freaking out by both actions, I then went to try and blow on it because I felt so bad about messing up! Oops! Luckily Papi was there to give me a full tutorial. :) I’m sure one day Liam will be completely embarrassed to read this, but by then I’m sure he will be well accustomed to my tendency to over share! ;)

Giving Liam his first bath at home was also a sight to see! Will and I decided to give him the bath in the bathtub, our first mistake, as this made it hard to bend over to reach him in his tub which was sitting in the bathtub. This was the first time we really heard Liam CRY! He was not happy with us. At one point Will asked me to lift Liam up some so he could wash his back. However, instead of simply lifting his head up while he was still sitting in his tub, I lifted him all the way up and had his feet dangling. Poor Liam, lol. After this, Will rinsed him off with cool water, because to make the water warm in the bathtub he had to turn it all the way up. Let’s just say Will and I hassled each other for our mistakes and poor Liam was just trying to survive his first home bath! He sure did sleep well after that first bath! Since then we have MUCH improved our technique and now give him his baths in his tub by the kitchen sink. :) Here are a few pictures from his first bath at home.





Overall, we are simply enjoying Liam and enjoying being parents to such a sweet boy! It is so much fun to watch him grow and change. He is now starting to have more alert time during the day and continues to sleep good stretches at night. I will attempt to start doing better at keeping the blog updated!

Liam's birth announcements

Woohoo!! Liam’s birth announcements have been sent. They are super cute and each one is HANDMADE by my super friend, Kerri Berry. Who has claimed herself as the sister Will never had (approved of course first by Will’s mother), making her Liam’s auntie. :) Anyways, I just wanted to take a moment to give a HUGE thank you to Kerri for her awesome gift of making Liam’s announcements!

Captured Moments

Well, I recognize I have been slow to blog these days, but I am going to work hard to start keeping up. Though this is late, it’s something I wanted to share. We were fortunate enough to have photographer and friend, Carleen Sparkman, from Charm Me Photography, in the delivery room with us when Liam was born. She captured some very dear moments with her camera during Liam’s birth. I wanted to share several of our favorites on our blog.

Here are a few shots before Liam’s arrival. One of Will and I grasping hands (something we did A LOT of during labor) and the other during a break from pushing. I love this one because I think it captures the anticipation of the moment, as well as the connection between Will and me.





Will was worried about being present during the delivery because of his weak stomach for blood. I have to say though, I’m very proud of him. :) He was fantastic throughout Liam’s birth and even made the decision to cut the umbilical cord. Here is the picture captured by Carleen.



Next is my favorite photograph. This is the moment after Liam’s birth where Will and I are told we’ve had a baby boy. It was difficult to wait the full pregnancy not knowing the sex of our baby, but this moment was so worth it. Though it didn’t matter to me either way, my face shows complete happiness when I hear “It’s a BOY!” Also, the look on Will’s face is priceless. The first time I saw this photograph I cried.

Liam is surrounded by beautiful girls!

Liam already has great friends, though he may not know it just yet. LOL I just wanted to take a second to introduce the beautiful girls in Liam’s life.

First, his beautiful cousin, Kylee. She loves him so much already and gives him kisses whenever they are together. If we (hopefully) are able to move to Keller, Kylee will be helping Aunt Marcie take care of Liam while Mama and Papi are at work. Here are a few favorite photos of the two of them.




Next, I introduce our friends Ryan Nye and Jepsy Colon-Nye’s baby girl Alondra Dianne Nye. She was actually born the day after Liam, on July 27th! She was the same exact size and weight as Liam at birth! We were crazy enough to go and visit them the day we left the hospital. We drove straight from being released at Harris SW to Baylor Grapevine to meet her. We were afraid Baylor Grapevine might think we were stealing one of their babies, as we still had on our own hospital bands! They also live in Keller, so it’s likely there will be plenty of photos to come of Alondra and Liam together!



Next I introduce Brittain and Jenny Griffith’s baby, Emrie Jo Griffith. Kaz and I have been friends since we were about 14 years old or so. She is my dearest friend and I am so sad I haven’t had the opportunity to meet Emrie in person. Though I haven’t met her yet, I love her dearly already (and am planning a trip to Houston to meet her soon)!! She was born 3 weeks and 6 days after Liam on August 22. Here she is in her going home outfit. Such a cutie!!



Then of course, there is precious Hadley, daughter of our friends Harrison and Liz Merritt. Like Kylee, she is already taken with Baby Liam. She gets so excited anytime she gets to see him! Here is a picture of the first time they met.

3 Men and a Lady

The other day Cara said something pretty hilarious...

We were sitting in the living room catching up on shows recorded on the DVR. She was holding Liam while I had Deuce, the family dog, at my feet. Cara looked down at Liam, looked over at me, and then looked at the dog. Then she got this shocked look on her face. I was wondering what she doing, when she said, "I am surrounded by boys!" At that very moment, she finally realized she was living in a house full of men, outnumbered 3 to 1 counting the dog.

Sorry, babe. You are going to have to endure non-lowered toilet seats and dirty underwear until you get your girl to restore the home's rightful balance. Until then, enjoy the Wallace house. It's strong enough for a woman, but pH-balanced for men. :-)

Papi Goes Back to Reality

In the morning, I will be making my dreadful return to reality. After a nice week spent getting to know our new baby boy and spending quality time with his lovely (and very beautiful) mother, I have to return to work. I would much rather stay home with the two of them, but I know if we want to do normal things like eat and live under a roof I have to go. So tomorrow morning will be a very sad time. On the bright side, I will be taking leave from work for the month of November so I can be at home for a month when Cara goes back to work so that will be fun and very interesting. Let the November play date requests begin now!!

Introducing 3.0...

It's been an interesting few days and we are extremely happy to have our little Liam at home. We are having a lot of fun, but we wanted to take a few minutes to introduce him as the newest member of the Wallace family.


William Anthony Wallace III, a.k.a Liam, was born on July 26, 2009 in Fort Worth, TX . He weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Mama, Papi, and baby are all doing fine.

Now for all those, who want all the birth details, here goes...

Cara's water began leaking around 5:30pm Saturday night and completely broke as she sat in the passenger seat on the way to the hospital. We made it to the hospital around 7pm or so and Cara had not made it into active labor so they gave her until 11:30pm for her body to begin laboring further on its own. Though she was having contractions, they weren't strong enough or consistently close enough together. When they started her on a pitocin drip that really sped things up.

From that point, we did a lot of breathing to get through the contractions and it really worked until Cara got dilated to a 5. At that point she asked the nurse how long it would take for her to get dilated to a 10, and when the nurse told her it takes an hour per centimeter on average Cara decided to get the epidural. It took the anesthesiologist 25 minutes to make it to the room and by that time Cara was at a 7. By the time he had everything inserted and turned on the drip she was at a 9.

Pretty soon after, the on-call ob-gyn was in the room to check on Cara. She found that the baby was in a face up position, so they stopped the pitocin drip for a while and had Cara lay on her right side for a while to get the baby to rotate. Luckily he did and Cara was fully dilated and ready to push! They broke down the bed and had me flip the switch for the light to drop down from the ceiling. Cara started pushing and around 30 minutes later the baby was out!!

The baby had a bit of a hard time getting out and ended up having some amniotic fluid in his lungs. He had to spend most of the day he was born in NICU to have his breathing monitored because his respiration rate was very high. Later in the evening they finally released him from NICU so he could room-in with us.

It has been an amazing experience and we are the biased parents of an incredibly HANDSOME little boy.


These pictures are from our friend and photographer, Carleen of Charm Me Photography. She was in the delivery room with us and I know she got some great pictures in addition to these.

Coming Up On the End Of the Road...

We are now beginning the 40th week of the pregnancy, which means we are pretty much at the end of the road. The baby will hopefully come any day now. I am very anxious to meet this little person, so keep those fingers crossed that the baby will decide to make an appearance this week. I never thought I would be so eager to get the baby out of Cara's belly and into my arms. I am just really ready to start that physical bond with the baby instead of playing through Mama's belly. :-)

Also, I have a bit of advice to the men out there. Do your best to ensure that when you get your lady pregnant she will not have to carry a full-sized belly around in the middle of summer. I have no idea how Mrs. Wallace has carried around that belly in the 105-degree temperatures we've seen lately. It takes a strong person to do something like that...

A Father's Legacy

“Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine... And I just wanted to say I love him — so much.”

-Paris Katherine Jackson

Those were the first and only public words ever heard from Michael Jackson's only daughter. As she spoke them, I sat at my desk with tears filling my eyes. I got so emotional that I had to go outside and collect myself. This little girl just proclaimed to the world that she loved her father and wanted them all to know how she saw him. To her, he wasn't the King of Pop, the greatest performer of all time, or even Michael Jackson... To her, he was simply Daddy.

I know much has been disclosed in the past few days about Michael Jackson not being the children's biological father, but it doesn't matter. Those kids know him as their father and he cared for them as if he had made them himself. Any man can make a baby, but not every man is a father. Michael Jackson was a father and he would be proud father today had he heard his daughter speak.

We have our own child that will be here in a few weeks, and boy or girl I hope to leave the kind of legacy with this child that Michael Jackson left with his daughter. I want my child to be able to look at me and see a man that only wants the best for his child and will be behind them 100% in whatever it is they choose to do. I think the best gift a man can give to his child is to be a true father and I want nothing more than to give that gift to my child.

36 week appointment

Monday we had our 36 week appointment with the doctor. We're down to weekly visits now; it's hard to believe we are so close to meeting our precious baby! Though we didn't have a 4D sonogram scheduled, Baby was posing for a picture. :) Here it is...



Things continue to go well with the pregnancy, though it seems I'm supposed to be taking it a little easier than I have been, as my blood pressure is slowly rising. So, hopefully with a little rest I can keep it under control! I really hope to work as long as I can so I can take off as much time as possible after Baby arrives. From the sonogram they guess that Baby is already about 6 pounds, 10 ounces. The prediction at birth is 8 pounds, 10 ounces. Baby has tons of hair and looks quite a bit like Papi already! :) Still not sure if Baby is a boy or girl! My doctor says my cervix is beginning to thin and I'm dilated to about a one. Nothing too exciting yet, just trucking along at this point!!

Happy Father's Day!

So, today on Will’s first semi-official Father’s Day, he attended a Breastfeeding class with me. Can you imagine his excitement as we learned about proper latch-on, different breastfeeding holds, and troubleshooting normal difficulties? He is already such a dedicated father, not to mention his ongoing dedication as a husband. Though I know I drive him nuts with my pregnancy idiosyncrasies, he is so incredibly patient. I can’t wait to see him hold our baby in his arms! I’m so grateful for him! And also especially grateful for his father, who helped to shape him into the man he is today.

And on that same note, I can’t go further without also paying tribute to my own father, who helped shape me into the person I am. My dad and I spent a lot of time together when I was growing up, due to the many number of hours spent to and from soccer practices and games. I’m not sure I remember a single game my Dad wasn’t at, including in college. Though I often joke that my Dad is a man who knows how to say the same thing 100 different ways, most of the time every word is full of wisdom.

So hat’s off to the dad’s in my life. :) Happy Father’s Day!

Deuce Turns 3!

I’ve found myself lately feeling guilty that I don’t give poor Deuce enough attention. I find more guilt when I think about how much our lives are about to change with the addition of a new baby. I wonder how Deuce will react to this little one that will become a part of our family. I wonder if he even knows things are about to drastically change… Either way, today is Deuce’s 3rd birthday. I still remember the day I brought him home and how much love I have for the little guy. Though I know these feelings will pale when compared to the love for this little baby I’m carrying, Deuce will forever hold a special place in my heart.

So, in honor of Deuce on his birthday, here are a few of my favorite pictures of him.

A Male Childbirth Experience???

Our Preparing for Childbirth class has provided all kinds of new information and tonight a new experience. I never in my life thought I would ever have my legs in stirrups, but that came true tonight.

First, I need to give a little background information. For each class meeting, the last man to walk through the door was designated as "Demo Dad" for that class. Now the Demo Dad could have to wear a sympathy belly or be used in any demonstration for the class that night. Well, in our class the same guy has been the last guy through the door EVERY night. It's not his fault, he has to work until right before the class starts. So tonight we were going on a tour of the Labor & Delivery floor at Baylor Grapevine so our teacher could explain all the different machines and workings in the labor rooms. Of course, all-time Demo Dad was the last guy through the door and proclaimed that he would not be Demo Dad tonight seeing as last class he had helped demonstrate an epidural. In a moment of weakness, I felt sorry for the guy and volunteered to be Demo Dad. It turned out to be quite a mistake.

The class was at Baylor Grapevine and the teacher was explaining what would happen when it was time for Mom to begin pushing. She lowered the hidden light from the ceiling and took the lower part of the bed apart to expose the stirrups. She then asked me to remove my shoes and asked me to come sit on the bed. (You can guess where this is going...) I sat in the bed and she asked normal Demo Dad to join me to be my birth coach. So he grabbed my hand while the teacher had me lift my legs with my hands (as I would have to if I had an epidural) and place them in the stirrups. Then she sat on a stool between my legs as she had me simulate pushing during a contraction and resting in between. I think Cara took a picture with her phone, but I am really hoping it did not come out well. I'm sure it was one crazy site.

So yes, I have now had my legs in stirrups AND have now given birth to my very own imaginary man child. You can now commence the laughter...

An Eye Opener...

So Cara and I are in our second week of our Preparing for Childbirth class and last night was the class I was dreading. Last night was the class where we would watch a video of a natural childbirth and this wasn't the same video they showed you in health class when you were in high school. This video had nothing blurred and showed everything...and I mean EVERYTHING!!

The first part of the video they showed women in the early stages of labor, but I didn't pay too much attention as I was preparing myself for the big event I knew was coming. Sure enough, about halfway through they cut to a lady who was in her last few minutes of pushing. My eye opened pretty wide when I saw a baby's head appear.

Now, I am one of the weakest people in this world when it comes to medical procedures. I can barely watch Grey's Anatomy without feeling my body getting weak. I hate getting shots or having blood drawn. I even gag and panic when getting a tooth cavity filled. So I am very much a lightweight, but I tell you, I could not turn my head away from the screen. It was AWESOME to see this person appear out of something so tiny. It made me that much more excited for our upcoming birth experience. I am even now psyched about cutting the cord, which is something I was feeling a little uneasy about. It truly was an eye-opening video. :-)

Sidenote: I had to wear a sympathy belly in class last night for about 30 minutes. I now feel sorry for every woman who has to carry that baby around day after day. After a few minutes I was having trouble breathing and feeling the pressure on my stomach. Now I see why pregnant ladies go to the restroom so much. So much pressure!!

An Engineer and a Baby

Everything is still going well. We had a nice tour of the labor and delivery wing of the hospital and we have started the birthing classes. I'm a little nervous about this birthing class. I don't do too well with medical type stuff and the teacher is planning on pausing all videos of birth at "key" moments so we can all see what is happening. I'm not too excited about that, but it's necessary to be prepared.

At this point, the anticipation is starting to build and I've started to think what it is going to be like once we are actually at the hospital waiting for the baby. I know there will be some down time, well for me anyway, and I was wondering how I was going to help pass the time. I'm hoping the labor doesn't take too long because our conversations might evolve into something like this...










What can I say? I'm an engineer, haha!

My Fine Art

I keep looking at this picture and decided it had to be posted. I took this while we were in San Francisco for our "Babymoon" a few weeks ago. Cara had no idea I was taking it. It just makes me smile for so many different reasons.