And We Still Wait...

When you are waiting for your child to be born and the due date has passed, no news is bad news. I have no idea how Cara is hanging in there, but I have a feeling if my child does not make his appearance in the next day or so things aren't going to be pretty lol.

Patiently Waiting...

We are patiently waiting on the arrival of our second born. His official due date is today, but there has been no action as of yet. It is a strange feeling knowing he is coming, but not having any idea when that will be. I guess I'm realizing how much I really am not a surprise person. So I continue to do my best to go about each day as if it is another normal day, while anticipating a phone call to come home ASAP. Wish us luck!

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!!

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!

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.
  

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.

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.

Baby Shower Diaper Cakes

This might be a weird post coming from me, but I wanted to pass along some information to all the ladies planning baby showers. Everyone I know keeps telling me they are pregnant so I know there will be plenty of showers soon, and I think what I'm about to tell you about is something that would be very nice at a shower...

A friend of mine started making diaper cakes for friends a while back and has decided to start selling them. When she first told me about them I thought it was a little strange, but when I finally saw what she was talking about I was very impressed. I never thought I would say I was impressed by something made out of diapers, but that is what expecting a baby will do for you.

Here is an example of one of the diaper cakes.

If you want to see more of the diaper cakes go to http://www.curiouscakeshoppe.com. If you decide to order one tell her you know me and maybe she will give you a discount... Actually you may be better off not telling her you know me. She might charge you with a "Will" tax, haha...

Babymoon, San Fran Style

A few months ago we decided we would make one last "big" trip out of town before Cara reached the point in the pregnancy where she could no longer travel. Since we went to Playa del Carmen back in January for a wedding and our previous trip before that was Cabo, Cara decided she wanted no part of another vacation on the beach (to my disappointment). The only places I wanted to go were all beaches, so I let her decide where she wanted to go. When she said she wanted to go to San Francisco I wasn't very excited, but I went along with it. We set out for San Francisco last week for a 3 day weekend in the Bay. I thought I would only have an okay time, but boy was I wrong!!

We had such a great time. We did everything there was to do in San Francisco. We walked the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked through Chinatown and Little Italy. We even walked up the "crookedest" street in San Francisco. It was a pretty amazing time and I can't wait to go back for a longer amount of time so we can explore more.

Here are a few pictures from our time there...

Cara and I at Ghiradelli Square

Cara and I at Lombard St., the "crookedest" street in SF

Cara and I at the Golden Gate Bridge

Cara and Fabio from Top Chef

This last picture has a funny story. As we got out of the shuttle at the airport Cara said to me, "Hey... Isn't that the guy from Top Chef??" I had no idea who she was talking about so I kept gathering my bags and getting out my boarding passes so I could go through security. As we walked towards the security checkpoint, sure enough Fabio came walking up the stairs. Cara slowly walked over towards him and shyly asked him if he was from Top Chef and if she could take a picture with him. She was completely starstruck so I got out my camera and took the picture as I tried not to laugh. Sadly, I think it made her trip. ;-)

Next Stop: 30 Weeks

We had the 27-week appointment yesterday. Everything went well and the doctor scheduled us to come back at 30 weeks so we could get back to going on the right week. I must admit that the office visits have become much more pleasant for me. The first appointment consisted of me having the privilege of sitting and waiting with Cara in the waiting room for an hour without a single "manly" magazine in sight. Since then I have learned to bring my own entertainment and it has helped that the visits have become increasingly quicker. At this point, if there is no sonogram scheduled the visit goes as follows.

1. Get Cara's weight.
2. Get Cara's urine.
3. Get baby's heart rate.
4. Ask doctor questions.
5. Schedule next appointment.

I pretty much just sit there during that time and read the very detailed medical posters on the wall in the office and try to make Cara laugh. We start going every two weeks after the next visit so things should pick up. We are starting the home stretch at this point so it should get more and more exciting.

As a side note, I have another story about my child striking me. We have pretty much started a nightly game where I try to talk and sing to get the baby moving. The baby seems to move a lot when it hears my voice so it is pretty fun. Well, the other night the baby was responding to my voice, but it was not enough movement for my liking so I decided to amuse myself by trying to push on Cara's belly to make the baby move more. I still wasn't getting the response I wanted, so I decided to try patting Cara's belly where the baby was resting. I made two rhythmic taps and let my hand rest on the belly. Immediately the baby made the biggest hit/kick that knocked my hand away and scared the crap out of me. I literally pulled my hand away and almost jumped out the bed. It was another few minutes before I was able to calmly put my hand back on the belly. Of course, Cara laughed throughout all of this.

The baby is already playing pranks...definitely my kid...

Another Baby Update

I was told by someone that we have been bad bloggers since there have not been many baby updates lately. I went to the blog admin page to see when the last post was and it was almost three weeks ago!! That is just unacceptable, so here is a quick rundown on the latest baby events.

• We are slowly coming up to the 27th week, which means that I will soon have the privilege of sitting around the gynecologist's waiting room every two weeks instead of four. I'm all for going to the appointments with Mrs. Wallace, but that waiting room is a terror. It's not man friendly at all!!
• Our house has been for sale for about three weeks now. We've had quite a few showings so far. Hopefully it will sell soon, so we can make our move to the Keller/North Fort Worth area and actually get going on a nursery. That is very important because I can already tell that Mommy is fighting the urge to start building her nest. :-)
• I am now able to feel the baby moving around pretty frequently. We've found that the baby likes to hear my voice. Whenever I sing and am acting silly Cara says she feels the baby moving around a lot. I did the announcements at church a couple weeks ago and Cara said the baby moved the entire time I spoke.

That is pretty much it. I will try to be better about posting and keeping this blog up to date. Now I will leave you with the latest sonogram picture. Let me know if you recognize that noggin from anywhere. Haha...

My Baby Has Already Hit Me ;-)

Last night, at approximately 5 minutes past midnight I was the victim of an assault by my unborn child...and I enjoyed every second of it....

Cara has been telling me for a couple weeks that she could feel the baby moving around in her belly. I believed her, but I just didn't get as excited as she did because, well... the baby isn't inside me so I don't feel a thing. But last night Cara was convinced that if I pressed my hand against her belly for a long enough period of time I would feel some movement. So I obliged, partially to please her, but mainly so I could tell her "I told you so" when I didn't feel anything. Boy was I surprised when I felt something inside her belly hit/kick my hand. I was so shocked that I pulled my hand away and began to step backwards as I let out some excited laughter.

I'm still in a bit of shock that I can actually feel the baby moving around, but I will always remember that my first interaction with my child was when he tried to hit me from inside the womb. It's nice to see that the baby already has Papi's Braveheart spirit. :-)

A Little Pregnancy/Baby Humor

Comic on xkcd.com

Tell me this isn't how you pictured me with a kid when you heard our wonderful news...