So we told my family

One of the joys of being pregnant is actually getting to tell people about it. At least as long as it's a positive thing, which it definitely is for us. So today we finally broke the news to my family.

We started with my mother, who is quite baby crazy. She has nine grand kids already, so this will be her tenth. She was very excited and even said she is going to get started on a baby quilt, which my wife and I both love. We then went through the litany of brothers and sisters that I have and told them and they were all very thrilled.

The way we told them was very obvious, but still fun. We were both on speaker phone and asked them to guess why we were calling. Pretty much everyone got it right, except my oldest sister wasn't thinking that, but her kids were.

It's pretty fun to be able to share this joy with everyone now. Keeping that bottled up is perhaps the hardest secret I've had to keep.

Babies Я Us

Lordy lordy has it been a while. Things are still going strong, and the morning sickness is still strong. We're at 12 weeks, so we're about to enter the second trimester, so hopefully those will subside shortly.

So, a big contributor to first child anxiety, Babies Я Us. Now I have been a pretty calm cucumber so far. I know I'll be a good father and my wife will be a great mother. We as a team can handle this. Going into Babies Я Us and doing a registry yesterday, it kind of planted some doubts in my head.

First, my wife is really on top of things. She definitely has things covered. I, on the other hand, haven't a clue like I thought I did. So we walk in and it's a pretty good sized store. They call it a super store for a reason. So right at the entrance is the registry uh, registration desk. So there's a good sized crowd there, but we only wait a few minutes and get to sit down.

After we sit down, we start with the paper work. There's a waiting list 5 deep, and now 6 deep for the scanner guns they use to register. As we are filling out paper work, they have a "code Adam". That's Babies Я Us talk for a lost child. The poor little girl was on the verge of tears and that brought my wife to the same verge. After a couple of minutes they girl's father shows up and gives ID and picks up his daughter.

So, after we finally complete the process we walk around for a bit looking at things we will need to check out. My wife is so on top of things, she pretty much knows like 80% of what to register for and figures we will complete that online. Phew, that will save us some time. I'm then informed we will be here for a while, and it's only the first trip of three or four.

So after about 30 minutes our name is called and we get a gun. We head right over to the car seats as that's something we feel we need to see in person. Let me say, there are a trillion options. Thankfully my dear wife has narrowed them down already based on safety reviews and whatnot, so we really only need to look at three. So we check those out, playing with them and trying to figure them out and we move on to cribs.

Now cribs are something I've never thought to be worthy of spending much on, but after looking at all these, the low end ones seems pretty unsafe and unstable to me. I don't think we'll be blowing our savings on one, but the solid wood ones seem like the way to go. So after looking at cribs for a bit, and a few other things, the wife is feeling hungry and nauseous, so we give the gun back and go grab some food at TGI Friday's.

Now, with constant morning sickness, the wife has some unusual demands. At least unusual for a man that will never have to be pregnant. So we order a small amount of food, but the highlight is the wife saying to the waitress, "Could you please not mention food to me?" Now, as she explained it's because thinking about food you don't want makes you more nauseous. The waitress was cool and nice about all that.

So we complete the refueling and head back. We do more investigation of cribs, look at the car seats with some help from the employees, look at play pens (by that I mean, pack 'n' plays), look at bassinets, look at the diaper disposal units, and my wife proceeds to educate me on all kinds of other things I had no clue about. Like what's a Bumbo? It's one of the many mysteries to me until I see it in action. I can't even recall half the things I learned that I had no idea about. It feels like I'm in over my head.

So, that was my day. My head is spinning still. I need to recenter myself so I'm not so freaked out.

Hormones are bad news

Now, I don't want it to sound like my part of this pregnancy is even comparable to my wife's, so remember that as I complain a bit.

Hormones and constant morning sickness do not make a pleasant person. It also is a recipe for drastic changes in mood. It's not too pleasant, mostly for her, but I get some collateral damage as well.

So we're at about the 7th week now. Our fist OB appointment is for this Wednesday where we should know more details. My wife is getting constant nausea, but hasn't thrown up yet. I don't know if that's good or bad, as I'm thinking that vomiting may alleviate some of the nausea. Or it could just be a peak of discomfort and go right back to the nausea she's been having.

So far we've found quite a few useful tools for dealing with the nausea.

• Ginger of all types. She's been eating lots of Ginger Chews and that has helped in a quick response, short term. Also ginger root pills.
  
• Tea has helped quite a bit. She's been drinking Peppermint tea, Ginger Tea, and the Yogi tea for would be mothers
• Lemon sniffing. Sniffing a fresh lemon helps quite a bit. It's another quick fix for sudden nausea.
• Lots of bread types of products. Whole grain toast, whole grain bagels, saltines are all very helpful.
  
• Taking Unisom and B6 vitamins. Unisom is a class A drug, as is B6 so no worries there. Taking a half pill twice a day has helped quite a bit with nausea as well as sleep.
• Massage has helped quite a bit. Anything from hands and feet, to legs, back, and shoulders. Stay away from the front, chances are she's tender/sore and won't like that.
• Sour candy works pretty well. She's mostly been using green apple Jolly Ranchers. They last a while and work fairly well.
• Eating 6-8 times a day in small doses. It's important to keep up nutrition, but not all at once. Having something in the stomach keeps it under control.
• Lemon flavored seltzer water has done pretty good. Some other bubbly drinks include real ginger ale and root beer.
  

We still have plenty of things to try out, and as we find some I'll post them here.

Positive!

So we've got official scientific opinion now, we're pregnant! It's scary and awesome all at once. I really can't wait for that day, which is projected to be near the end of July. It's really hard to put emotions to words right now. It's an awesome mix of emotions that are stirring up.

All quiet on the southern front

So it's been a few days since we had implantation bleeding, or what we think is implantation bleeding. That means in a few days we'll be able to get an accurate reading on a pregnancy test. I'm really quite excited as this means we'll be well on our way.

I really feel that this is it. I think we've been successful in our efforts, and now it's a matter of cultivating that baby into a healthy being.

On another note, there is more news on early detection of autism. Autism is one of the scariest things about having a child for me. Early detection leads to early treatment and a more effective treatment. This is promising, but really finding what causes it has to be a priority.

I've read theories on vaccinations, which has been disproved, on TV, more research needed, pesticides, and about a million other things. What I believe is that it is more of a combination. For instance, hormones or pesticides or some chemical in our food weakens the mind and makes it susceptible to damage done by TV. Not to say that's my exact theory, but it has to be a combination, otherwise it would be easier to figure out.

Potential positive

Another piece of good news, the wife thinks she is positive. She's getting implantation bleeding, or what she thinks is implantation bleeding. I'm super excited and over joyed at the prospect.

Election night

The wife and I sent out and voted Obama today. It's exciting this year, and it is hard for me to tell if I'm really inspired by Obama, or if I'm more inspired by the prospect that this will affect my child.

Obama is a positive leader. He thinks long term, and does not seem to do things on the short term. He is a big thinking, and a thoughtful thinker. We haven't had leadership like this since I've been alive, and I'm really excited at the potential that lies in the future.

This shows that anyone, if they are gifted enough and driven enough can become president. The final frontier is now a woman in the white house, and I hope to live to see that day.

The other thing that has inspired me is watching video of Obama taking his two daughters to the voting. He teaches them the importance of their voice, and that's something I can't wait to teach my children.