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"It goes so fast."

As June 20th quickly approaches and Shannon feels more and more tired out, we're starting to wonder what those first few weeks with the baby will be like. Here's some advice we got from my old college roommate, Holly...

And one other thing...the first few weeks (or months) are really tough, mostly because you're just so tired. But for some reason when you even attempt to share just a little bit of your extreme exhaustion with a friend or someone, they say something very non-helpful like "Oh, just enjoy this time, it goes so fast." Well, it lasts way longer than you'd like, and if it lasted much longer the human race would never perpetuate itself. I'm sure people are well meaning when they try to gloss over it, but it made me feel like I was doing it wrong...you never know, your baby may be a good sleeper and you'll be the kind of parents that I secretly hope have rebellious teenagers to make up for it.

Holly's baby girl, Maggie, is 16 1/2 months old. I suppose those first few weeks start to look a little rosier in hindsight—like 20 years later. Here's something our friend (and very new dad) Jon has to say...

...you want to help them out and get them to stop crying, but after nursing, changing the diaper, burping, massaging the belly, or churning legs to try to push out a poopie, you are still sometimes left walking the floor bouncing an eternally crying baby. During the "fourth trimester," baby still wishes it was back in the womb a lot of the time. Wants to be held all the time and close to Momma. Can't blame 'em—it's gotta be quite the transition.

For my part, hearing stories like these make me feel a lot less nervous about caring for our newborn!

It’s A Monkey!

Ok. So we have a lot of “Regulars” at the Acoustic Café. The restaurant happens to be right across the street from the bus station, which means that we get a lot of people stopping in for a cup of coffee while they wait for their bus. It also happens that a lot of the people who ride the busses in Eau Claire are people with…let’s say Special Needs. One of my favorite regulars is named Jean. Jean takes the bus to work a few days a week, and she always, always stops in for a cup of coffee before she catches the bus. Personally, I think Jean comes in the café more for the employees than she does for the coffee…I have the following conversation with Jean on average about 3 times a week:

Jean: Hi Shannon!
Me: Hi Jean! How are you today?
Jean: I’m going to work. Will you be here Thursday? I’ll be in on Thursday, but I don’t know about Friday, so if I don’t see you have a nice weekend.
Me: Yep, I’ll be here Thursday. So I’ll see you then, ok?
Jean: Ok. But if I don’t see you on Thursday, have a nice weekend. I’m not sure yet if I’ll be here Friday, so if I don’t see you I wanted to wish you a nice weekend. Where’s your husband? (Mike stops to see me every morning on his way to work)
Me: He’s on his way to work, he should be stopping in to see me soon.
Jean: Oh. Well tell him that if I don’t see him he should have a nice weekend.
Me: Ok, I’ll tell him. I’ll see you on Thursday, Jean.
Jean: Ok. I’ll see you on Thursday.

Jean and I have some form of this conversation every time she comes in. This is the basic format, though lately she’s been more and more concerned about me and the baby and whether or not I’m feeling ok and who’s going to bake while I’m gone, etc. etc. Today, our conversation ended like this:

Jean: How’s that baby feeling?
Me: The baby’s feeling great, Jean, thanks for asking.
Jean: When will the baby be born?
Me: It’s due June 20th, but what day it actually arrives will be a surprise.
Jean: Oh. I hope it’s a girl or a boy.

blink.
blink blink.

Me: Me too, Jean. Me too.

What a Baby Sees...

I just read about a new method of altering pictures called "TinyEyes." It shows the progression of a baby's vision improvement through the first few weeks of life...

Created by a group of visual development researchers, Tiny Eyes not only shows what the world looks like from a newborn's point of view, it also allows you to transform your own photos into babyview using the Tiny Eyes Engine.

Crazy! I guess I have about eight weeks after the baby is born to get some better-looking clothes so Baby Paulus doesn't think I'm a total dork.

No Thanks

Check out the "The Empathy Belly..."

The Empathy Belly Pregnancy Simulator lets you know what it feels like to be pregnant! It is a multi-component, weighted "garment" that will—through medically accurate simulation—enable men, women, teenage girls and boys to experience over 20 symptoms and effects of pregnancy, including:

•  Weight gain of 30 pounds (13.6 kg.)

•  Fetal kicking and stroking movements

•  Shallow breathing and shortness of breath

•  Increased blood pressure, pulse and body temperature

•  Bladder pressure and frequency of urination

•  Low backaches; shift in center of gravity; waddling

•  Fatigue, irritability, and much, much more!

That's a great picture.

Medication

Last night in Lamaze Class—or as I like to say, La-maaaaze Class (no idea why)—we learned about all the different pain-relieving drugs we’ll have at our disposal during labor. I hope it doesn’t come to drugs (the heavy ones, at least), but I know it’s pretty common. Anyway, between talks of pain medication and a handout they gave me about being supportive during moments of “extreme emotional despair,” I’m starting to get a wee bit anxious/worried/freaked-out about how much this is going to hurt Shannon. She was talking with my sister Sarah at a baby shower a few weeks ago, and apparently Sarah wanted to pack up and go home halfway through her second kid’s birth. I’ve heard that’s a common reaction. I guess the pain is not something you should dwell on, just deal with when it happens. Plus, there’s a pretty good payoff.

At any rate, I’m not the one who actually has to feel the pain, so I should probably shut up about it. I’ll just say this: Shannon’s got a pretty good pain threshold, and she can be pretty damned determined about important things (like, you know, creating life), so I know she has it in her. She's gonna do great.