It's a Girl!

We recently had our "20 week ultrasound". We actually had it at 18 weeks, 6 days, as the wife was going back home for the weekend and wanted to find out the sex before she did so her, her mother and her sister were able to buy things for the newly identified child.

Getting into the room, we went through all the normal measurements that you do at an ultrasound, making sure that the baby is developing as it should. It's funny though, the ultrasound tech gets a kick out of taking her time and making sure she checks everything when all we really want to know is what the sex of our future child will be. She even saw quickly as she was doing other measurements and made sure to mention that she knew like "I know what you're having!" but didn't share with us right away.

After about 15 minutes of this she decided to let us in on the big secret. It's a girl! See here, there is an absence of a penis.

Woo hoo! We were very excited. As I mentioned before, everyone was saying we were having a boy, and the wife really wanted a girl so this was great news for us! I don't think I have ever seen a bigger smile on my wife's face... ever.

Here are the latest pictures.

We also received our results from the IPS testing and they were great. Better than we could have ever hoped for. Everything is comign up Milhouse!

Organization... The Hall Closet

I've heard about it many time, I have also seen it first hand but until you actually live it, it's hard to realize.

Kids take up a lot of space.

We aren't even close to having half the things (thank you again family and friends!) but already I am questioning where we are going to put everything.  The Nursery is in complete disarray right now. Everything we have received has just been placed in there with no order. It doesn't help that the closet in that room (which isn't that large, but definitely bigger than many I've seen) is currently housing our shoes. We don't have any other place to put them.

This made me realize that the main culprit for this problem resides in the hall closet. Our hall closet is very small and very inefficient. It is a basic closet with a a rail along the top and a shelf above that. At the bottom, there is also what looks like an old step which you can flip up to reaveal a hidden cubby of sorts. The door is not helpful at all as it is one of those white folding vinyl things. I hate it. You can't hang anything from it.

So I have decided to tackle that closet. Now, remember that we are only renting and as such are limited in the changes we can make. The landlord, when looking through the house initially, made sure to show us the versatility of that step at the bottom so I cannot take that out. I also won't want to as I believe if I did, I would need to repair the surrounding wall.

The first thing I will do is remove that stupid door. I will wrap it and put it in the shed in the back. If they decide they want to put it back on after, they can.

I will clean out everything that is in there, remove the shelf and the rail, measure it up and come up with a plan that will still allow us coat hanging space along with some shoe storage space.

It will be great! I will do a before and after post about it when I actually get started. The wife is away for the weekend in a few weeks, so I think that will be the weekend I do it.

Stay tuned!

What Type of Father Will I Be?

I often find myself trying to evaluate the type of father I will be.

I know that I won't actually be able to come to a conclusion however. I think you can probably only know that once you are actually doing it.

Even then, I will probably always want to be trying to better myself in the ways that I approach situations and deal with them. I also probably won't know how to deal with most things that arise.

I suppose I will be learning new thing all along at the same time as the baby. It's all new to me too.

The Solution to the clothing problem.

After the post in which I mentioned the generosity or others, There have been boxes of clothing all over our room. We have been trying to figure out how to deal with this.

We have a big wardrobe in our room, but the wife has decided that she no longer wants that. It's too big and clunky and takes up A LOT of room. So we have decided to get dressers instead. We looked around at a bunch of places that sell them and they all seemed to be very expensive. So we decided to take a look at IKEA and we knew that there were some there that we liked. We decided on the Hemnes line as it is solid wood and not that press board stuff they use for some of their stuff.

We have purchases this one:



We also plan on getting the 6-drawer version but until we get rid of the wardrobe, we don't have the room for all of that. The dresser is already sitting in the middle of the room.

Baby Doctor Appointment #2

We had our second appointment with the baby doctor yesterday. All seems to be going well. We opted to do the IPS testing at our last appointment. We got the first round of blood tests down and the nurse gave us the day in which they wanted us to come back for #2.

So the wife went back and did #2 on that date. We then got a call from the doctors office last Thursday while she was sleeping. She was not able to come to the phone so they said they would discuss at our next appointment (being yesterday, Tuesday). Of course this made me a bit weary. It put a little doubt in my mind that the testing went well.

Well at the appointment yesterday, we were informed that the nurse just put the wrong date for the second blood work and that it was too soon. So the wife will be going again today to have blood drawn.

It will apparently be 10 days until the results come in after that.

Yesterday we also booked our next ultrasound for week 19 in which we will be going to "hopefully" find out the sex. The wife wanted to go a week early because she is going home to visit her mother that weekend and wants to hopefully have news then.

I am a little concerned that we may not be able to see and if not if would wehave been able to the next week. I can't help but thinking that.

I hope the little one is cooperative that day.

Horror Stories

It's amazing that when people find out that you are expecting, they find it necessary to tell you all the horror stories they have every heard regarding issues people have had with pregnancy.

Why do we feel the need to instill even more fear and worry into this process. It's already scary enough!

Working two jobs

I recently, within the last month, started working a second job. I now work at IKEA part-time as a Recovery co-worker which basically is the person who works behind the people who work at the returns counter to decide what needs to be done with returned items or getting spare parts.

I realized one thing after this weekend. I am not as young as I once was. Don;t get me wrong, I am only 27 so I know I am not old but man, working 7 days a week is killing me.

Props to those who can do it on the regular.

Our first Purchase

So we did it. We finally purchased our first items for the baby.

After much discussion and review, we decided that we weren't going to be getting a full carriage/travel system as everyone has been telling us that they are too big/bulky/heavy and with our Kia Soul, we probably wouldn't have enough room for anything else in the trunk if we got that.

So we have purchased the Baby Trends Snap 'n Go. It's basically just the frame to a stroller which you put your baby seat on. It folds up nice and small.

We also got a few other items so that we added enough to get the free shipping. Those items were essentials like receiving blankets, towels and socks.

More to come.... much more.

Winter tires

Here we are in the middle of summer, in the midst of a heatwave (it's suppose to be 46 with the humidex today) and I have one thing on my mind. Winter tires.

We live in Ottawa, which can get hit very hard by winter weather sometimes but growing up in southern Ontario, winter weather driving was a concern maybe two days a year so we were easily able to get by using all-seasons. It seems that this thinking has been difficult for me to overcome.

That coupled with the fact that we have had new cars with brand new all-seasons since we have moved here 6 years ago, I thought we have been fine.

However, now I have someone else to take care of. Bad on me for my wife and I not being a good enough reason, but it can no longer be ignored.

I will now be on the lookout for new winter tires this year. And as an earlier post of mine alluded to, this will be a long process of comparative shopping.

Nursery II

An update on the nursery for you. The wife had a friend over last week who drew a tree on the wall as an option for us. It's very nice and the friend is very artistic which I would easily trust with this task. The wife really likes this idea but we will see how it goes. The wife also found this today which she likes.

Seems that we may have found a piece that will be included into the nursery somewhere. One of many pieces i'm sure.

More to come

The next ultrasound, a real look at the baby!

We chose to do the IPS testing mostly because it allowed us to have an extra ultrasound, and we are greedy... and i suppose piece of mind... maybe... we are yet to received the results.

Well we were actually able to get a real view of the baby. I was super fun. Here have a look.

We will see in a bit what the sex actually is. Everyone is saying boy because that seems to be what everyone we know is having these days but the wife is trying to be cool about it however she very much wants a girl.

Obviously we know that only thing that matters is a healthy baby so let's just hope for that.

Generosity of those around us

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of those around us.

As soon as we made it public that we were expecting, all of our friends and family were quick to offer anything they had that could help us.

Obviously our parents are the first to want to get us anything. From the crib to clothing to car seats, they were looking to get it all for us.

My sister, and two of the wife's best friends instantly cleaned out their closets and gave her all their maternity clothing. Boxes and boxes of it. I don;t even know where to put it all. There are boxes all over our bedroom. We need to find a solution for it.

The wife's old boss has offered us a nearly new crib. Her current manager is looking to give us her bumbo, swing, and a bunch of other items that I can't think of. She also gave here more maternity clothing to add to the pile.

My coworker has told me that if we are having a girl, she has a lot of clothing for them. And if it;s a boy, we have a lot of options also as the rest of our friends/family with children all have had boys.

I love the people that I surround myself with.

Doctor/Hospital issues/debate

As we are from out of town and have only been here for six years (wow, how time flies). It has never been a priority for us to find a family doctors as we have always just gone to the clinic for any ailments or check-ups and they have always been able to refer us if need be.

Well with the baby on the way, we don't have a family doctor to lean on for a recommendation to a OB/GYN. What actually happened was the wife got a few recommendations from friends, colleagues or random people that found out she was pregnant. We took those recommendations and did a search fro reviews online. We found one that we liked the looks of and when we went to the clinic to confirm we were pregnant after the initial blood work, we got the referral to Dr. Dante Pascali. We were told to wait a week and if we hadn't heard anything to call them to see the status. After two weeks passed, and about 6 calls that were not answered (busy i guess?) we finally got through to a rude receptionist who basically told us that they would get to us eventually and that it could take months.

As I'm sure you can imagine, the wife didn't take to lightly to that as all the books say that "the first trimester is critical to your baby's development" and that "it is essential to get care in that first trimester". After having read about 17 books already, she was starting to get angry/worried that she hadn't seen anyone yet.

After discussions between each other and a few people, we chose to go with SoundCare Medical Centre (http://www.soundcaremedical.com/) which is near South Keys. Not the ideal location for where we live but we knew them as they took care of our dear friends during their pregnancy. We requested the same nurse/doctor duo which our friends had as well. Nurse Nicole is super down to earth and a no BS kind of gal. I like her.

Dr. Rousseau, who is the second half of the duo, works as part of a team out of the General Hospital so that is where our birth is "scheduled" to take place.

The hospital of choice was also cause for great debate for me at the beginning of the pregnancy... I told you... comparative shopper. I wanted to know which hospital would be best for my wife and unborn child. I went on to their websites, talked to friends and went onto "mommy and me" websites... which was kind of weird in itself. I was trying to dig up dirt from any one of them that I could.

In the end, I was able to find good and bad for each of them. I would be comfortable using the birthing units at any one of them but I think the biggest thing that stood out to me was that not all hospitals had a NICU and that should there be complications, the baby would possibly need to be separated from the mother and brought to CHEO. Whereas the General is attached to CHEO so that was a plus for me.

Not that we had much choice after we decided to go with SoundCare but it's reassuring none-the-less.

Nursery I

I am calling this post Nursery I as I am sure that there will be a few posts about this as my wife's mood changes along the way.
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The talks of what to do for the nursery have begun. When we moved into our new place (a rental unit) we painted the entire place (with the landlord being nice enough to pay for the paint). For the middle room, which was slated to be the office knowing that it would quickly change to the baby room should that situation be presented, we just used whatever paint was left over. It was a light green and a light yellow, colours that are favourable for our unborn child's room.

I suppose I could not have been more wrong.

It is just not what the wife wants. So in the coming months there will be much deliberation on what the look will actually be. All I know is that I will have some painting to do.

In the meantime we are busy clearing out the space. It became our dumping ground when we moved in as the other two rooms were our guest room and bedroom.

The guestroom has now become the guestroom/office/library/wine cellar. It sounds like a lot but it actually works out quite well. Whereas our room has now been overrun by Mat clothing with our friends and family have graciously donated to us... more on that in another post.

The nursery is nearly clean but between the two of us with school and three jobs, there is very little time left to get things done and when we do have time, we often choose to spend time enjoying each others company instead. I think it's working out well.

Shopping, one of the first things I think of.

I am not the biggest fan of shopping. Although it is not very apparent to those around me. To my wife, she may think that I love it because it takes me FOREVER to buy anything. But the truth is, I love the chase. I love trying to find the best thing for me in the situation. Whether it availability, price, colour or size, anything can affect the decision and it's usually more than one of these at a time. As an example, when looking for something as simple as socks, I will look online for options then go to three different stores before deciding which to purchase.

This process/approach does not bode well for the amount of purchases that will need to be made for my child. We're not talking about a pair of socks here. Most of these purchases will affect my child's safety.

As soon as the news comes across, one of the first things I do is hit the web to take a look at anything from car seats, to cribs, to booster seats trying to find the safest, or most compact or most highly rated products out there. Price is playing a very small factor in this decision as I want to ensure this little guy or gal is the safest that can be! Although, if the product goes on sale....

A friend of ours knows how much of a comparative shopper I am (mostly because she hears my wife complaining about it all the time), so she sent me a link to a comparative shopping site for baby items. I loved it!

I'll update as we make decisions on items and share the thinking that went into it.

First view of the baby!

Not too long ago we got the first glimpse at the little monster growing inside my wife! It was amazing

Here is what we saw.

Not much there eh? The best part was that we saw a little heart beat. We couldn't hear it yet but saw the chart. It was wonderful.

It's so weird that it's there and growing.

The news is in!

As I was awoken at around 3:45am in early May 2011, with a little plastic stick being shown to me, I was confused and unsure what I was being shown. It was dark, my glasses were on the side table, I probably had pillow creases on my cheek from the pillow my head had gently been resting on only seconds earlier and with the various different test, with lines, colours words and happy faces, I really had no clue what to think. But with the ear-to-ear grin that came across my wife's face, I had a good idea.

The night before the wife decided to take a test. It came back positive but was very faint and we decided that it was inconclusive. She then quickly went to the store to get another test for conformation. She came back with a two-pack. Just to make sure.

I was told that she would wait until the morning for the "morning pee". I was then given the lesson on what this meant. Boy, I have a learned a lot lately. Well, she couldn't sleep or was woken up by the urge to pee at around 3:30 and thought what better time to do this then now. When the results came in, she couldn't contain her excitement and and needed to show me RIGHT AWAY!

I was happy to share in the excitement of the moment but, although it was more clear then the last test, it still wasn't exactly definitive. NOT TO WORRY! As mentioned, the previous evening she bought a two-pack so we had another shot at total confirmation.

She did the final test at some point along the day without me knowing, then decided to meet me after my work, before her class. She presented me with a card congratulating me on becoming a father and again with the same big grin on her face she showed me a picture of the latest test which she took a picture of on her cell phone.

This was was VERY definitive. Two big solid red lines.

As I ate that meal, I thought about how much my life was about to change... for the better.

To start it all off, a little history about this blog.

I started this blog about three years ago for a school project that was suppose to teach us to be more in tuned with the electronic world and talk about the advancements and future of the advertising world. In case you can't tell, I went to school for advertising.

Well as soon as that class was done, I wasn't that interested in continuing writing about that topic but thought that I may at some point come up with an idea or interest that I would like to share with whoever is interested.

A number of ideas ran through my head. Maybe a general comment tool for me to discuss my love for sports and my eternal frustration with my beloved Leafs. Then I thought it might be funny to post about the random things that my friends hate, trying to remember them as they come flying out of their mouths. As an example, one of my friends said "I hate when when bugs fly in your nose, then when you blow your nose, you have bugs in your boogers." Yeah. Classy.

When I got married, I thought to myself that it may be interesting if I made a sort of log of how thing were progressing and what tasks I was allowed to be involved with, which to my luck was mostly all of them because I don't have a crazy, controlling wife. But that thought passed me by rather quickly as I always thought of better things to do.

After all of those ideas, I was still left with a nearly empty blog and nothing really that interesting to say.
But alas, a few months ago, my lovely wife and I were blessed with the news that our budding family was about to add a new member in the form of a new baby.

And that my friends, is how this new blog has started.

Out with the old, I deleted all the old post I made in school over three years ago as they were irrelevant and uninteresting, and in with the new, in the form of new post relevant to my current situation, what I'm feeling, what progress is being made and maybe things that surprise me along the way. Who knows where this will go. Worst case scenario, I forget about it all together and never post again.

I also have to make it clear that I am not writing this for anyone in particular. I would say it's mostly a vehicle for me to express the things that I am feeling. I don't care if I am the only one ever to read it. It will allow me to come back and re-live the past from time to time and maybe laugh at myself.

As becoming a father and family man is all new to me, I thought the title of the page was still be-fitting to the situation since I don't have the slightest inclination what I am getting into.

Enjoy!