Dad's First Post

So, apparently I've fallen behind on my posting responsibilities, because a couple of my other friends who are expecting soon have already made multiple posts. Unfortunately, that means I get to type a lot this time, so I hope you enjoy reading.

It still seems like I've got a while before she gets here, but when I actually start to look at the calendar, the days are going by quickly. Within the past month, I've really been getting to feel Adalyn move around and give me high-fives from the womb. She seems to be a pretty active baby, although I'm guessing every parent thinks that at first. I've been really excited lately about her arrival and wish I could just snap my fingers and be at April so I didn't have to wait anymore (also so I could skip all the work that still needs to be done to get ready). I haven't really hit a nervous stage yet, but the more questions I contemplate at night before falling asleep (sometimes after 2 hours), I start realizing there's so much more I need to learn. The good part about that it is it's helping me prepare for the lack of sleep involved in the first couple months (hopefully) with a newborn. My guess is that most of you who read this were thinking that my hope was for a little boy who I could play every sport with and turn into a world-class athlete. As fun as that might be, I can't wait until some punk tries to take my daughter out and I get to pull the scene from "Bad Boys 2" (if you don't mind some colorful language, search for the scene on YouTube, i will update the post with a link if I can find an edited version). It's so much funnier than I remembered. I can think of a couple of my friends who would make the perfect Will Smith character.

For the last 2.5 weeks, I've been prepping the house for the renovations Jesi described in the previous posts. I now understand why most people choose to hire others to do it for them. My mindset is that if you're going to update anything, you might as well make sure you do it right (i.e. perfect) so that you don't wind up having to do it again next year. Because I did it myself, that meant pulling out EVERY old staple used on the old carpet pad, touching up every baseboard and wall where the paint wasn't quite right, drawing precise room sketches for a carpet installer who never even looks at the space before buying carpet, etc., etc., etc. If I just hire someone to do it, I won't know about all the imperfections and just have to deal with the imperfections I can find. Luckily, repetitive and mundane tasks are a strength of mine, so I didn't mind spending almost every night doing something to make it perfect...it's also better than laying in bed awake thinking about everything else. The snowball has yet to stop accumulating. As a reward to myself for doing all this work, I'm thinking about buying a new big screen for upstairs, but of course that means I'm going to need a new surround sound system. We'd also like to convert our Altima to leather interior, and we might as well replace the cracked windshield at the same time. Any donations are welcomed. Also, if you have any suggestions of what to do to make a house more baby friendly, let me know so I can get started on doing it.

The other topic that has surfaced lately and should leave you with a laugh is this: where will Ryan be during the actual delivery??? As some or most of you know, I've been known to pass out around medical procedures, emergencies, issues, etc. My bet is that even if they put the sheet up and I can't really see anything, I'll still pass out. If I stay in the room, maybe I make it through everything without anything happening....or.....right in the middle of everything I collapse to the floor and cause the doctors to be distracted. If I stay out of the room, I will miss one of the most special times in my life, but I could miss it anyway even if I'm in the room and pass out. Maybe I can set up a poll on here and let the readers decide...

I'll be honest, I'd like to know that someone is reading this, so I can have some motivation to post some more. Feel free to leave a comment.