As you may or may not have heard, Laura and I will be having a child soon... Laura's due 1/20/2007. Everything is going really well so far.
I'm a bit "Johnny come lately" on the website here though. You know how it is, gotta get the important websites done for the garage, trip to Texas to get the Camaro, etc. :-) But anyway, I'm _finally_ getting to it.
Here's the executive summary of the stages of pregnancy. First, you start out looking like this:
(the goat is optional)
Then you end up looking like this:
If you aren't an executive, there's lots more pictures here.
While all this is going on, people are nicer to you than normal and give you gifts.
They even have showers, dedicated to your new baby. Carol Donley and Sheryl Buckley, with help from Colleen, Sandy, and Vicki put one together for us at Hiram College.
We have one scheduled for December 30th at our house as well. Of course, if showers are occurring, you're required by law to register for gifts somewhere. We choose Babies 'R Us, since it would appear that this will become our new favorite store for the next couple years. (If that direct link doesn't work, just go to http://www.babiesrus.com/ and search for "Andy" or registry # 32526074).
One of the things Laura asked everyone for was a copy of their favorite book as a child (or their child's favorite book) along with a note about it. Laura's poker group went above and beyond and even included a neat basket to keep all the books in order:
So far they're winning in the wrapping paper department by the way. Laura was quite enamored with the shimmering paper:
(I'm not really sure if that was the hormones talking though).
Meanwhile, Laura and I are taking the various "about to be new parents" classes. We've done a Lamaze class and a breastfeeding class now and I've also done a "Boot Camp for Dad's" class. You'll be happy to know that I can dress a fake baby faster than any of the other future dad's that showed up for the class. Yes, they had a competitive contest at a class for new parents. They didn't come right out and say it, but I know they were all thinking I was going to be the best new dad of the bunch.
We've also been getting some training from LeeAnn's family. Here's a picture of Laura and I holding Margo, hoping desperately that she keeps on sleeping.
Speaking of LeeAnn and family, they were able to come to a Doctor's visit with us.
On that last picture off to the right side, you'll see me looking blankly at an ultrasound picture. After I struggled for a while, Leah was kind enough to point out to me where the baby was.
Speaking of ultrasound pictures... Because of our "advanced age" we've been treated as a high risk pregnancy. As such, our baby is probably the most ultrasound-ed baby in existence... We've got a stack of these things that you wouldn't believe. Here's a sampling of them.
Finally, I'd like to note that this is not an ultrasound picture of our baby:
