Doctor Doctor....Give Me The News

The news from our doctor visit today.......Emily is 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced. Apparently that is good news. Basically it means she is progressing, but nothing is too eminent. The doctor again told us that she sees a 7 - 8 pound baby in our future and that everything looks great.

On the home front, we have started to pack a suitcase, the baby's room is finished and ready for it's full time resident to come stay. Now we just have to be patient and wait for Baby A to decide it is time to come on out and see the world.

If the moon was made of spare ribs, would you eat it?

These links are in honor of the Reds wrapping up the season with a chance to take the Cubs out of the playoffs.

First the fake Harry Caray. I laughed so hard at this skit, I was crying. The person who works next to me thought something bad had happened to me.

And the real deal. I don't think Harry knows what to think of all these ladies around him wanting that pizza.

The First Day Of Fall......Turn the A/C UP!!!!

So today was the first full day of Fall. The current temperature in Cincinnati.......96 degrees! This is one of the hottest days of the year. Usually at this point, we are getting wood for our fire pit and looking forward to hot apple cider and pumpkin pie. Emily and I even tried to help Fall along yesterday with a Chili Cook Off for the Bengals' game. Not only did that not help the Fall temperatures, it also did not help the Bengals.

For those wondering, Emily's White Turkey Chili easily defeated my Red Meat Crock Pot Chili. Yes, both of my "teams" lost yesterday. At least the Bengals kept it close. The Chili Cook Off was a blowout.

Ahhhh...Fun at The Doctor's Office

Yesterday, Emily and I had our 100Th visit to the doctor's office since we found out Emily was pregnant. Of course, I'm exaggerating, but we have gone there quite a bit since getting the good news. Most of the visits are pretty quick. When we first get there Emily gives a urine sample, they weigh her and take her blood pressure. Then we go to the little examination room and wait. This takes the longest amount of time. Finally, one of the doctors comes in, they put some goopy stuff on Emily's stomach and listen for the baby's heartbeat. After that, they are basically finished. Sometimes they will tell us cool stuff (heart rate, baby's approximate weight, maybe a new due date), but most of the time, they say, "OK everything looks good, see you in two weeks".

Well, yesterday we found out two cool things (I won't tell you how because Emily would kill me). First, the baby's head is in the correct position for birth (down). We were happy to hear that, since breach birth's aren't much fun. Second the baby is going to be under 10 pounds when born. That might have been the best news. A 10 pound baby just seems HUGE! If I remember correctly, the Anderson family has a few 10 pounders in our history so we had a chance.

We now are going to see the doctor every week. I used to get real nervous every time we walked in to that building. I have to say, I feel a lot less worried now that I have been there this many times. I know Emily is very comfortable with the doctors and likes how the staff treats her. Everything seems to moving along nicely.

I have one link to pass on to everyone, courtesy of my cousin Francie. If you are a dad or are going to be a dad, this guy may be our gold standard.

I Don't Know Nothin' About Birthin' No Baby!

We are about 4 weeks (if everything happens when the doctors say it will) away from going from expectant parents to actual parents. While 4 weeks seems like a long time, I am here to tell you, it's not. I remember when we were 20 weeks away and that seemed like a short time. 4 weeks is like a sneeze.

I found an interesting "Top Ten" list on a website called "Paternity Angel". (Why I was on a website called Paternity Angel, will be a topic for future discussion.) The list was the Top Ten Fears that expectant dads deal with during the pregnancy. Here is the list:

1. Will I be a good father?
2. Can I Financially Support The Family?
3. Can I Handle her Emotional Needs?
4. Am I Really The Father?
5. What If I Die Too Young?
6. Will My Wife & Baby Survive?
7. Will She Love The Baby More Than Me?
8. How Can I Help During The Pregnancy If I don’t understand “Women’s” Problems?
9. Will I Do A Good Job At The Birth?
10. But I Don’t Even Like Children, So How Can I Cope With This?

I would say that fears 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9 are all valid. At some point during the last 8 months I have worried about one or all of those things. I like the way they word #8, "women's problems". It just sounds funny. I guess they mean problems with painting her toes or which bow to put in her hair?

Fortunately, I didn't really think twice about #4. I've seen our mailman, not much to worry about there! :)

Now #5, that is something, as those who know me real well know, I think about all the time anyway. I think I have made sure things will be OK, if something like that were to happen, at least financially OK for Emily and the baby. Not a fun thing to think about for too long. Speaking of not fun things......

#6 is the scariest thing on the list. What I find works best with scary things (as you saw above) is to not even devote much time to thinking about them. Yes, there is a chance something could happen, but the doctors and nurses are all there for that very reason.

#7, Emily has enough love for everyone in our house, not a big concern for me.

#10......how can you not like kids? I consider myself a kid and I'm 31. I like me, so that fear is non-existent as well. Now not liking teenagers, that is a different story.

I have a few more fears that the good people at Paternity Angel left off the list, but I'll save those for a future blog entry.

My Beard is back....and there's gonna be some trouble?

Every Labor Day I let let my beard grow in and keep it until my birthday, the following year. I've noticed two things about this year's version of my face blanket. First, instead of being it's usual reddish color, there are now a few white/grey areas coming in. So, yes, I am not just bald, my facial hair is turning grey on me. The second thing I noticed, after watching this hilarious video, was that this beard could cause a future battle royal. So the beard may only be making a cameo appearance this year.

That video reminds me of the greatest band name I have ever heard....Oedipus and the Mama's Boys. Pure gold!

The new Fall Season

First off, the game last night was absolutely crazy and great! The last 5 minutes I think I had 3 or 4 heart attacks and a stroke. Just a wild wild game. I'm glad the Bengals pulled it out and got the win, but wow I can't take many more like that this year.

Tonight marks the beginning of the new Fall T.V. season, starting with one of Emily's favorite shows, "The Biggest Loser". I can't tell you how much Emily loves this series. For those who have never seen it, here is what happens. A group of overweight people get selected to participate in what is essentially a boot camp for losing weight. They break into two teams and every week the teams try to lose as much weight as possible. The team that loses the least amount of weight, has to vote someone off. There are a lot of sad moments and tears as well as some very happy moments......and tears. (Emily loves these emotional episodes) At the end, the person who lost the most percentage of weight is The Biggest Loser. It is pretty amazing when they show the final episode and you see a person who has lost 100 + pounds on stage looking pretty good. The show is quite addictive and for those looking to shed a few pounds, it really helps motivate you to work out or at the very least not eat dessert while it is on.

Besides "The Biggest Loser" we are looking forward to "Lost", "Heroes", "Project Runway", "How I Met Your Mother","The Office", "My Name is Earl" and "Notes From the Underbelly". Any shows out there that we should watch and are not on our list?

Finally, for those CSI fans, I give you Mr. David Caruso. YEEEEEAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! (For those non-CSI fans, this is still worth the watch, just for the over acting)

Game Time

Get ready for the game time night by clicking below.

WHO DEY !!!!!

Are you ready for some football?

If you are not ready, maybe my friend Terry Tate can help get you motivated. Here comes the PAIN TRAIN....WOOO WOOOOO!!!!

We had a dream....a weird dream

"To dream that you are giving birth to a non-human creature, signifies your overwhelming (and unfounded) fear in the health of your baby. You are overly concerned that your baby may have birth defects. This type of dream is common in expectant mothers in their second trimester."

I don't know how common it is for couples to have the same dream, I'm assuming it is not very common at all. The last few weeks Emily and I have had almost the exact same dream two times. In both dreams, Emily is giving birth to a cat. Yes, a kitty cat. We both found this odd and I decided to try and figure out what this dream meant. Apparently Emily and I are both worried about the health of our unborn child. Neither of us agree with that explanation, but the subconscious is a fickle mistress, my friends. The article continued to say this type of dream is very common for first time parents. I'm just glad this dream means something normal, and not that we should go out and buy some more kitty liter. I think Precious will be able to deal with a human, but another cat in the house would mean BIG trouble.