This past Sunday Kyllan suddenly grabbed my hand and thrust it upon her stomach. As soon as I opened my mouth to ask her what in the world was going on, she gave me her “be quiet” look. A few moments later I felt my daughter move for the very first time. That brief second was one of the most amazing moments of my life.
Also, here is a picture of Kyllan at 22 weeks.
We are going to have a baby… That doesn’t even sound right. It seems like just yesterday that the two of us were in graduate school and trying to figure out if I was going to introduce Kyllan as my girlfriend before heading of to a holiday party. I am sill getting use to this whole college professor thing. I’ve had years of formal education. Years of research experience. I’ve even taught before. But when the kids get ready to leave at the end of class, I start to leave with them, before remembering that I was the one that just gave the lecture and that I have to stay behind to shut off the lights and lock the door. Now, with zero experience or education, I have a few short months to prepare to be a dad 24/7. It’s a little scary. It would be a lot scary without Kyllan. The first time we heard the baby’s heart beat, I fought hard not to tear up in front of the doctor. (I’m a man’s man. I can’t be tearing up in front of no doctor!) Kyllan was just chillin’. She’s had months to adjust mentally as her body adjust physically. Me? I feel like an all new thesis defense is quickly approaching and the baby is the committee chair. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited. I just have no idea how to prepare for this and what comes afterward. Especially with a girl. (Is there a set of criteria for picking out a good doll?)
I’ve actually come a long way these past few years. Somewhere there is a picture of me holding our nephew, then 1, with my arms completely outstretched and as far away from me as possible. I had no idea what to do with him. Now, he is one of my favorite people in the whole world. (I still have no idea what to do with him though, so we usually just do whatever he wants.) About a year ago Kyllan and I were asked to substitute one morning in the nursery at our church. We’ve been volunteering every other Sunday ever since. I didn’t know I was a kid person. I had avoided them all of my life, even when I was a kid. Now “baby holding Sunday” is one of the highlights of my week… but we get to give those kids back.
In the future, I will be following up each of Kyllan’s post about the pregnancy with my own. I can’t let this become a girly blog, especially since I am going to be out numbered in the house.
GIRL!!!!!
William and I are very excited about Baby Girl Cody. We just found out this morning and I worked all day, so I haven’t made any purchases yet, but I can’t wait to start shopping!
We would have been happy either way, but I really am thrilled that we having a girl. I guess I just feel that we will have a good time decorating, and shopping for her and I am already excited about tea parties, cute dresses, lip gloss, girl scout cookies, mani/pedis when she is old enough, and even one day being the “mother of the bride”! Yeah… I know I am a long way off from that, but those are the things that cross my mind with a girl.
I am still feeling pretty good. The only issue I am running into at this point is comfortable sleep positions. At this point in my pregnancy, the recommendation is to sleep on my side, specifically the left side to provide optimal blood flow to the uterus. I have been a stomach sleeper for years, so this is kinda difficult for me. During the night, my hips start hurting and I have to flip sides, then I fatigue that side and have to flip back over, then I am fighting congestion, then I have to go to the bathroom, then when I get kinda comfy, William wakes me b/c my snoring (a new routine since becoming pregnant) woke him up. Then my alarm goes off. Though this is a bit annoying, it has really just started and I still don’t really have trouble sleeping, just end up waking up during the night a few times, something that did not happen much before. I am one of those people that falls asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and can’t remember the last time I had trouble sleeping. I think I have some possible solutions. I will more than likely go ahead and buy a pregnancy pillow. I have heard mixed reviews, but I figured it is worth a try.
The Cody parents (soon to be Cody grandparents) will be in town this weekend, so that will be fun. We will likely go shopping together for Baby Girl.
The bump is growing as you can see from the picture below. According to BabyCenter.com, her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear our voices. With that in mind, William and I made a trip to Barnes and Noble this past weekend to buy our first book for the baby. We planned to only buy 1, but bought 3 books :-). I guess we will start reading to her this week. She has already been able to enjoy the beautiful singing I do in the car on my travels to and from work. 🙂
A few people asked about the weather this weekend in Dallas. Just so you know, the average temperature in Dallas this time of year is 57º. A few more pictures are here.
I spent the day with our nephew Tuesday. Considering that I have very little practical experience with children, spending the entire day with him is always interesting. I immediately realized that my detailed itinerary for the day was out the window when, as I was driving to the movie theater, he explained that watching movies in theaters was boring. I decided to just go with the flow and we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese. As usual, he showed no interest in the types of the games that I like. After several hours of feeding coins into machines to get tickets, we set out to find a Science kit. Yes, my nephew wanted a Science kit. I know what you are thinking, “as a scientist that must be so exciting to discover he has an interest in Science”. Yes, it is. Very much so. But, as I discovered last month when we spent hours and hours at the Science museum touching, interacting and participating with every exhibit we could, only for him to walk right pass the molecular genetics exhibit and the pathogenic bacteria exhibit, my field does not interest him. We later ended up at the Cody house where we played Guitar Hero for a while and did one of the science experiments from the kit. He says he had a great time and I always enjoy spending time with him. Since the last time the two of us spent the day together, during which he delivered a crushing blow to my childhood when we made a stop at a fancy toy store and he told me that the aisle with Star Wars collectibles “looks boring” and “I don’t want to go down there” (Seriously, how can a 12″ Lando Calrissian action figure not be cool?,) he has become a Star Wars fan. So, I figure it is only a matter of time before likes arcade games that do not distribute tickets and becomes interested in Microbiology. I just have to be patient.
Kyllan and I had a great Christmas. My parents flew down on Christmas eve and stayed with us until Monday. Kyllan’s sister and her family joined all of us for Christmas dinner. Later in the evening a friend from Jacksonville, who recently moved to Dallas, stopped by. We rarely get a chance to entertain, so it was nice to have so many people over at the house. Kyllan, as always, did an amazing job with the food. I’ve uploaded some photos from Christmas day to my flickr.
It’s been kind of a quite month. Kyllan and I have been getting ready for Christmas. It’s difficult buying gifts for Kyllan because she always finds them and/or shakes the boxes under the tree. I’ve been trying to do a little cooking.
Kyllan and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year. Kyllan did an amazing job with dinner and put together quite the feast for the two of us. In addition to all of the side dishes, this year Kyllan decided to cook a turkey and make carrot cake from scratch. Dinner was great and we enjoyed having a nice long weekend to ourselves.
I joined Kyllan in Dallas 1 year ago today. During the past year we only spent 3 days apart. That is a huge feat for us, considering we only spent 41 days together the previous year.
