Week 30, Day 1: I took a Daddy Boot Camp class at Northside hospital. There were about fifteen soon-to-be fathers (rookies) and one new father (vet) that came to back to the class to share his experiences with us. Here is a video (after a 30 second commercial) from the class I took when it was featured on the Today's Show.

It was interesting to take a class for just dads after going through a couple of parenting classes. It was an interactive discussion about concerns and challenges that dad's face. I think many expectant fathers are intimated by the fact that their wives seem to know so much. I know a lot less about children than Vivian. She has so much more experience as a babysitter and elementary school teacher. Even though I read a lot of books and I'm spending a lot of time trying to prepare, I fear that I will be clueless about everything.

Week 23, Day 1: We spent a lot of time the past few weeks looking for child care.  We searched for a few places on the Internet and really liked Primrose (http://www.primroseschools.com).  It's only about three miles from our house and very close to Vivian's school.  We met with the owner and he gave us a tour of the school.  It's exactly what we were looking for.  The school was clean, organized, safe, and felt very comfortable.  The next place we looked was a little cheaper than Primrose.  I think we both had a bad feeling from the moment we entered the building.  The school was completely open and the infant room was not quiet at all.  Everything about this place made us feel even more comfortable about Primrose.  The next day we left a deposit and put Emily on the waiting list at Primrose.  It takes a couple of months to get a spot, but we are really early, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Week 12, Day 1:  We decided to move the office into the guest room and the guest room into the bonus room.  The room where the office is now is going to be converted into the nursery.  I painted the bonus room today to make it more hospitable for guests.  It's also more spacious and comfortable than the current guest room.  

I usually make buying decisions based on price.  Even if the more expensive item is better, I can usually convince myself that the cheaper product works just as well.  I got the environmentally friendly paint from Home Depot, which is about twice the price of regular paint.  I didn't want Vivian to be exposed to all the chemicals in regular paint.  I wasn't really expecting it to make that much of a difference, but it did!  While I was painting I could hardly notice the smell of paint.  It was kind of strong for about an hour after I painted, but a few hours later the smell went away completely.  

Week 9, Day 1:  The ultrasound below shows the baby at 8 weeks and 5 days.  

The doctor showed us a 3D picture of the baby, and if you look close enough, you can see a face on the bottom-right picture!

You can't tell from the picture above, but we can see the hands and feet dancing and swimming when we watch the baby in motion.  The baby looks happy and playful.  The heartbeat was measured at 169 beats per minute.

Week 7, Day 1:  The baby has made it seven weeks and two days!  Vivian has been keeping a blog to document the pregnancy.  As the father, I don't experience all the bodily changes that the mother has to go through.  The physical role of the father in pregnancy is just to help get it started.  Then it's the mother's job to deal with everything else.  I have no morning sickness or nausea.  Nonetheless, I want to keep a blog to record all the things that I'm going to experience.  I made it my responsibility to do everything I can do help Vivian.  We always share responsibilities around the house, but for the nine months of pregnancy I will do almost all of them.  I'm going to run up and down the stairs as much as I can to bring food, cups of water, crackers, vitamins, empty the garbage, clean the floor, make the bed, and hopefully get work up enough calories to balance the over eating I experience with Vivian's strange eating habits.  Her recent cravings are Chinese rice soup, chips and guacamole, and tomatoes, waffle fries.  I'm just going to sleep, as I likely have a lot of work to do tomorrow.