Touch You Last

Operation Crib Assembly takes place tomorrow. Actually, we've got a number of tasks that will fill up our Saturday, but putting a crib together is the biggest one because it's the most difficult, frustrating bit of assembly you'll ever perform in your entire life . Allegedly. For the record, I am not remotely worried about this task, but I've had at least four people warn and/or taunt me about it. "Oh boy. That's gonna take forever. " "You're going to hate it and hate everyone around you by the time you're done." "I hope you've got beer in the fridge." Now I'm not claiming to be the handiest guy in the world, but how hard can this shit be? Does it involve welding? Do I have to assemble hydraulics? What is this secret complicating factor that I'm not aware of it? I'm not going to beat any world records putting this thing together, but if it has instructions and none of the parts are missing, I can probably figure ...

Tonight we went to The Montfort Hospital for a birth centre information session. Of the ten or so couples there, we were the least far along in pregnancy. And of the expectant mothers there, Sarah was far and away the best looking. That's not just personally prejudice talking. Not to hate on a bunch of pregnant ladies, but there were a lot of shovel-faced people in that room. But I digress. The session was great, very practical, and delivered by one of the staff nurses. Info on when to head to the hospital, what to expect when you're there, procedures with a physician versus a midwife, forms to fill out, visiting hours for relatives, the closest place for coffee and sammiches , all the good stuff. The hospital is big on breast-feeding, and big supporters of midwifery--neither of which are a guarantee at other hospitals, so we think it's fantastic. Getting back to ugly people, though, we saw some pretty unattractive dudes, too. There was a Powerpoint presentation in the se...

Most of the time, Sarah hasn't really been crazy hormonal during this pregnancy. There have only been about three days where she's been wacky, and I'll tell you about one of them. It was early on, three months in, and as soon as I walked in the door from work she said, "I have to warn you, I'm feeling really emotional right now." She was also extremely hungry. It was first trimester, and hunger often turned to nausea really quickly . So we threw together the quickest meal we do—bean burritos—and we dug in. We were talking about something . I honestly can't remember the topic, but I do remember that it wasn't especially contentious or frought with emotion, but that it had Sarah in tears thirty seconds in. Usually when she's upset, I'll console her, tell her it's okay, but this was just so... odd... I had to sit back and watch. Because she was really upset, but she was also really hungry . Which resulted in her crying and eating a...

I think I mentioned that Sarah spent the majority of the first trimester nauseated. Lots of different things set her off. She had to eat right after waking up, to the point where she kept a bag of almonds in her bedside drawer. Sweet things turned her stomach, ditto anything acidic, and coffee quickly became a no-no. So, her morning coffee was replaced by water. Later in the summer after the nausea went away for good, she caught a cold. Morning tea came into regular rotation, and even after she kicked her cold, tea was still in demand. Which became my duty. I set the coffee machine, I get up first. So every morning when she was sick she would say, "Can you put the kettle on?" Getting the kettle on and making tea adds about fourteen seconds to my morning routine, so in theory it shouldn't be a problem. Except that it is. Because unless I'm specifically asked, I can almost never remember to do it. I think it's because I've established a routine and followed it ...

So, Sarah’s pregnant. The reason I say this so cavalierly is not because I’m ambivalent or frightened, but because there are approximately three people I can think of to whom this would be remotely new information. And all the rest of you are thinking, “What the hell took you so wrong to write about it?” Good question. Here is a list of reason why I haven’t mentioned this before, ranked by lameness (starting with not at all lame and ending with highly, highly lame ) We wanted to wait until the kid was far enough along that we felt comfortable telling people about it We wanted to make sure that we’d told all the people close to us in a personal way. I didn’t want to put up a post about it and then go, “Oh shit, we forgot to tell my mom!” (Not that we forgot to tell my mom. Also, not that my mom knows about my blog.) I needed a good picture to post, which involved a vigorous approval process. That went a little something like this: “No. And not that one. Oh, I hate that! Please delete t...