Tuesday, September 30, 2008

He's ready to go cruisin' now


We spent some time today installing the baby seat into Shelly's Range Rover. I sure wish those directions were only in one language. Between English, Spanish, Italian, and some other unidentified language I can hardly follow them.

Tomorrow is the day we get the car seat inspected by the nurses and the car dealership. I'm glad too because I'm just not sure that thing is in there right. For one thing, there are parts left over and there's an odd black strappy belt thing that looks like it could serve a useful purpose. But for now, it's pretty much just stuffed underneath the seat.

Regardless, and as usual, Daphne volunteered to try it out.


She seemed very comfortable there and didn't even move. As you can see, she actually started falling asleep in it.


Mike
Kansas City, MO

Friday, September 19, 2008

Daphne's Halloween Costume


Here's a sneak peek of Daphne's Halloween costume taken yesterday afternoon. She's a bumble bee this year. Shelly had the tough choice of picking out a cheerleader outfit or a bee. It pretty much came down to the bee outfit fit her better. She only weighs 12 pounds but is a little thick in the middle.

Speaking of Daph, she had a little street fight last night. Shelly and I were walking her in our neighborhood when a big neighbor dog came out and bum rushed her on the sidewalk. I was pretty pleased with our reaction though. I ran over and pushed the big dog off of her then Shelly spanked his little rear, all right there in front of the owners and friends they were sitting outside with. Then we pelted the owners with comments about keeping their dogs on a leash. Oh, and Shelly handed them the vet bill this morning.

Shelly took her to the vet this morning. She has two puncture wounds on each side of her body and lost some blood last night. She was lucky not to have had a punctured lung. She has a small drainage tube in right now and is in some pain so she is being very quiet which is often unusual as many of you know.

She's been nicked before a few times so I'm sure she'll be fine in a few days. Maybe we'll re-look her costume and make her a gangster.

Mike
Fort Leavenworth, KS

False alarm on the new pictures

So, the 3D picture and video opportunity didn't quite work out last night like we expected. We were able to get a few glimpses of him but nothing as clear as we had the last time. But the intent was to help train the new ultrasound technicians on new equipment and hopefully they got something out of it. But hey, it was free and we were able to notice he had filled out some and had those same cute lips. The next regular ultrasound is October 8th so we'll check him out then.

Heading out to Shelly's hometown of WaKeeney, Kansas this afternoon for a baby shower tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend.

Mike
Fort Leavenworth, KS

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

No more training, it's all up to us now


If you're receiving positive vibes right now that I may be a little smarter tonight it's because I am. Yep, we just finished our last baby class this evening at the hospital. After 3 sessions totally 11 hours of topics such as poop, pee, boobies, crying, diapers, circumcision, and epidurals we're on our own now. Just a stack of baby prep books by the bed for occasional review prior to going to the hospital in a few weeks. I enjoyed the classes and I think I was paying attention for the most part. There were only a few times went Shelly caught me checking sports scores on my phone.

Our 32 week doctor's appointment was last Friday. The baby weighed 4 lbs, 3 oz. His head was down at the time but he has been moving quite often in Shelly's belly. Either that, or Mexican food and fudge ice cream bars are causing weird protrusions on the surface of Shelly's stomach.

We also had the opportunity to take professional pregnancy photos the other day. This was one event I was a bit reluctant about doing. Something didn't seem right about us sitting in a studio with Shelly's shirt up exposing the soccer ball to a strange man. But it went well and we'll have the pictures back next week. Here are a few proofs:





Tomorrow we have a great opportunity to take another gander at the little tike. One of Shelly's friends told her about a new 3D/4D ultrasound place in Lenexa looking for pregnant volunteers to assist in training their new technicians. So...tomorrow night I'll be able to post more 3D pictures and video of him. And this whole package is completely free, a $175 value! Just couldn't pass it up. So we're pretty excited about that. The appt. is tomorrow at 3PM.

Well, time to do my nightly duty of rubbing Shelly's sciatic nerve before bed.

Mike
Kansas City, MO

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Mike Essary, Lactation Consultant


So I went to Breastfeeding Class with Shelly tonight. This was the first in a trilogy of baby classes we have over the next few weeks. I was a little leery about going as I'm sure any guy would be. For one thing, when Shelly called to schedule the class she asked the lady if husbands should attend. The lady said, "Well, if he feels comfortable". I wasn't sure how to take that as it didn't sound too reassuring. I would have felt better if she said, "Oh yes of course, we urge all husbands to attend and we cater to them as well!". But I decided to take my chances and go along.

Overall, it was a good class and very informative. My knowledge of breastfeeding increased by 100% primarily because I knew absolutely nothing about it prior to the class. Most other women had their husbands there so I wasn't the only dude.

I'd give the class an overall rating of PG-13 as there was quite a bit of partial nudity during the slide presentation. But we men remained focused on the task at hand and sat quietly taking notes, or at least pretending to take notes as to not seem like we're staring at the screen.

And how about that title...lactation consultant. I didn't know there was such a thing but it sure sounds official. And I'm sure it's indeed a crucial job. I wondered about being one myself and having a business card that said Michael Essary, Lactation Consultant. My phone number would be 531-8008. And for those who haven't picked up on it yet, get a calculator and put in those numbers. Now turn the calculator upside down. That's right, it says "BOOBIES", one of the best tricks there was back when I was in junior high.

Anyway, after 3 hours of discussions about breasts and milk I couldn't decide whether to stop at Hooters on the way home or just have some cereal. I chose the cereal, Cocoa Krispies in fact.

Enjoy this joke I ran across:
***********************
A woman and a baby come into the doctor's office. She was
told to go into a room and wait for the doctor. After arriving there, the
doctor examined the baby and asked the woman, "Is he breast fed or on the
bottle?" "Breast fed" she replied.

"Well, strip down to your waist," the doctor ordered. She did. He pressed,
kneaded and pinched both breasts for a while in a detailed examination.
Motioning to her to get dressed he said, "No wonder this baby is hungry. You
don't have any milk."

"Naturally," she said, "I'm his Aunt. But I'm glad I came in.
***********************

Mike
Kansas City, MO