Note to Self: Ease up on the Rules...

Well, we're basically 5 1/2 weeks thru now (which mean we're in our 6th week actually.....it's all kind of confusing....). Anne hasn't really had many symptoms as of yet. No sickness yet, not overly tired (although, she's always nodding off at weird times....so I don't really know how I'll tell when this happens).

ME, on the other hand.... We were watching a movie the other night - probably about three days after we found out we were pregnant - and part of it was about a father dying and having to leave behind his wife and young daughter. I about lost it. We'd only known we were pregnant for 3 days and for some reason that hit home so much differently than it would have a week earlier. Can't even really explain it - it just brought out some new emotions. Ok, I need to go do something manly after telling that story.

So I gave Anne a massage the other night. I've been forcing her to eat more veggies. I told her to go to bead early last night to get her rest since she worked yesterday and is working today (she disregarded this order by the way). I'm pretty sure she is going to be really tired of me before long (except for the massages). I'm so nervous about everything going well that I may go a little overboard at times.

For example, a few days ago I sat down and did a lot of research on things you should and should not do when you're pregnant. Natually the list of "Don't Do's" got pretty long (for the record - I only put things on the list that I found on at least two differences sources). Yeah, this list didn't go over very well with my lovely wife. I think my timing could have been a bit better - and I think I should have explained it a bit better when I gave it to her. It really was just a list of things for us to further research, ask the doctor about, etc. She took it as a set of rules. Not good......

And I can see why she thought the list of rules was a bit over the top (examples - Don't drink tap water and Don't cross your legs). But I'm sticking bye the No Hair Dye rule Anne - no chemicals for my baby!

Anyway, we're feeling our way thru things. Apparently the baby is still only a little over a millimeter long, but the heart and eyes are starting to form and it may be possible to hear a heartbeat sometime next week. They say the chance of a miscarraige decreases significantly once you've heard a heartbeat, and then decreases significantly again after 12 weeks. Going to be a nervous couple of months!

Making a Baby

Anne and I decided late last year that we wanted to work on trying to get pregnant. I learned thru the process that there are an awful lot of things that have to go right in order to get pregnant. I don't think they went into quite this much detail in health class in high school - or at least I wasn't paying attention. Periods, cycles, ovulation, etc, etc, etc. I joked with a friend the other day that if I'd known that getting pregnant required this much precision - I would have been sowing more wild oats earlier in life (I'm kidding Mom)......

Anyway, regardless of the necessary precision, it didn't take us too long. We took a home pregnancy test on Wednesday Feb 17th. It was positive. Well.....I'm pretty sure it was positive. Some genious that works for EPT decided it's a good idea to put two windows on those tests. One has a hash mark that supposed to let you know it's working. The other window is where you get a plus or a minus. Now, I'm not going to tell these people how to run their business - they've been making home pregnancy tests longer than I have......But didn't they realize that a hash mark in one window can look a lot like a minus sign in the other window?

Now, they tell you which window is which, so you know that hash just means the test is working. But come on.....I'm already nervous......the last thing I need to see is ANY minus sign, regardless of which window they put it in. Anyway, there was a faint plus sign in the other window. Not wanting to get too excited, I was complaining about how one line of the plus sign was darker than the other (and natually the faint one was the up and down one that would turn a minus into a plus). So, between the faint plus sign, and the stupid negative has sign 1/2 inch away in the other window......I was just not liking this test.

So, into the car and off to Walgreens we went. (Not to get off target here - but I really wish they wouldn't put the home pregnancy tests and ovulation detection kits right next to the condoms, etc. This is a happy time for me - I don't want to feel like a guilty teenager buying condoms when I'm trying to get to find out if I have a baby coming).

At Walgreens, we see these very nice DIGITAL pregancy tests. Fantastic! Not plus, or minus, or dash, or equal sign, or slash. If you're pregant - it says PREGNANT. If your're not, it says NOT PREGNANT. Now we're talking.

A bit later - we're back at home......and we're looking at a test with a nice, clear, digital "PREGNANT"!

So, that was one week ago as I write this. We've since been to three doctors appointments, and everything looks very good. We are 5 weeks pregnant today and have estimated delivery date of October 27. HANG IN THERE ANNE.......ONLY 35 WEEKS TO GO!!!!

The Story Behind the Title

I decided to call this The Real Estate Baby. As most of you know - I've recently been working on a career change. I've gotten my Kansas license and am awaiting my Missouri license. Once I have it (which should be within the next 2-4 weeks), I'll be up and running and ready to help people buy and sell real estate. That's a bit of a plug. And to plug a bit further - if anyone knows anyone that needs to buy or sell in Kansas right now - I can help!

So, I thought The Real Estate Baby was appropriate. Two reasons. First, two very big changes in our life in a pretty short amount of time. Second, whether or not our baby gets to wear clean diapers....or whether we have to rinse out and reuse.....likely depends on how successful my new career is. They are kind of intertwined......

So, that's the general idea. A couple of more items:

1) As I type this, nobody other than my wife knows we are having a baby.
2) As I type this, nobody...including my wife....knows I'm starting a blog about it. She's at a class today and will find out when she gets home.

So, essentially I'm talking to nobody at this point. I just thought it might be nice to have a little reading material ready when I tell people about this.

If you've never read a blog before - you have to work your way up. New posts are always at the top.

Ok......now that we've gotten all of the formalities out of the way.....I'm free to start talking about the baby....which still sounds so strange.....it hasn't really all set in yet!

Introduction

Well, if you're reading this, you've heard our big news. We're having a baby!
I decided I wanted to kind of chronicle our journey along the way. I've never blogged before, but thought this may be the best way to share our experiences with our friends, family, and possibly a few complete strangers......

So - Welcome! Feel free to leave any questions, comments, etc.