Sarah had probably one of her roughest nights as a pregnant woman last night.  Heartburn is one of those things they tell you about, but I assume pregnancy is different for everyone.  Last night Sarah woke up about 1am to a very unsettling acidic “experience”.  She tried a few different sleeping positions, but ultimately got up and went into the living room.

I came out a few seconds later to find her crying in a chair in our living room.  The baby class instructor told us just last week that many of the pregnant women in class would spend many nights in a recliner.  Well, we don’t have a recliner, so now what?

Sarah took a couple of Tums and ate some crackers and came back to bed.  We positioned no less than 6 pillows behind her and made our own recliner.  It must of worked, because she fell asleep.

Class meets every Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm at the hospital.  We were supposed to bring 2 pillows (1 for her and 1 for me) and a blanket.  Guess they want to show us how we got in this situation.  Sarah and I planned our arrival to get there about 5-10 minutes early.  We pulled into the parking lot and see another couple with pillows walking to the door.  Since neither of us really know where we are going, we hop out and follow them to the main entrance.  By the time we reach the front doors we’ve lost them…  We are greeted with another woman and her entourage on their way out.

The woman’s friend asks “Are you staying tonight?  Because they told us to go home!”  We answer “No.  We are just here for a class.”

As we walk down the hall, Sarah asks me if she looks like she is ready to deliver.

Sarah and I make it to class and discover there are 7 other pregnant women and 6 other partners.  The woman sitting next to me is alone.  As class starts we discover that we are not in the “normal” classroom and there isn’t enough room for the full-on breathing section and we don’t need our pillows or blankets.

What did I learn in baby school today?

• 10 centimeters is way bigger than it sounds!
• Breathing is harder than you think.
• Most new parents are as clueless as we are.
• We still don’t know anything…

At the visit we discovered that our baby isn’t quite as far along as we thought.  Only 6 1/2 weeks.  That puts the new date on April 10th.

Mark your calendars now…

Baby Burton is .6 cm long and has a heartbeat of 124 beats per minute.  Right on track.

]]> http://babyburton.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/kevin-nealon-super-dad/feed/ 0 mike http://babyburton.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/bouncing-baby-blueberry/ http://babyburton.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/bouncing-baby-blueberry/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:24:22 +0000 mike http://babyburton.wordpress.com/?p=27 ]]> If you have never read one of the What To Expect When You’re Expecting books, then you may not be familiar with how they compare your baby to various pieces of fruit. It makes sense, because most fruits have a fairly defined size, but week after week it gets a little weird and kind of makes me a little hungry. According the book, on week 7 Baby Burton is the size of a blueberry.

What other fruits can we look forward to?

• Week 8 we can expect a raspberry
• Week 9 we are looking at a green olive
• Week 10 is a prune
• Week 12 we have a plum
• Week 13 there is a peach sized baby

Yummie!

I remember a dream Karen, Sarah’s mother, told us she had while she was pregnant with Sarah. She dreamt that she had a little baby potato. The potato had little fuzzy hair, eyes and mouth. Kinda like Mr. Potato head I guess. She must have had the dream around week 19 or 20…

This is the true first Baby Burton Blog post.  I plan to “go back in time” and post everything that has happened the past week on (or close to) the day each occurred.

As you may have figured out, I am the proud Dad to be of Baby Burton!!! I learned this news about 1 week ago and it has consumed nearly all of my thoughts since.  I suppose I wanted to start this blog for several reasons:

1. I am just so excited and wanted to express it
2. A way to feel like I am contributing (Sarah, you deliver the baby and don’t worry about the blog, I have it under control.)
3. Something to look back on and say “ahhh” down the road

I don’t expect anyone to find this or the blog to gain any subscribers, but if you do, please leave a comment!

Ducky outfit with footies

We have just purchased our first Baby thing… a tiny little white onesy covered in duckies with footies. Did I spell onesy, duckies or footies right? I see a whole new vocabulary opening up for me.

After the fiasco at Babys-R-Us, we thought we would try again at a less scary shop, Carter’s. Carter’s is located in the outlet mall in Round Rock, so it isn’t too far away. The only time I have ever been in the store was to look for baby shower gifts or baby birthday gifts. The store mostly has clothes which is both good and bad when you are trying to buy something for a baby that is 6 months from being born.

The good:

• No big ticket items like car seats to scare you away
• Close to home

The bad:

• Most of the clothing fashioned for either a boy or a girl and it is much to early to know that.
• Smaller sized store with less selection

After much deliberation, we finally went the yellow ducky outfit with footies. It was on the girl’s side of the store, but I think yellow ducky footies can be manly…

1. Target - very close, but just not baby specific enough
2. Carter’s – a bit further, but they really only have clothes
3. Babies-R-Us – furthest away, Baby Mecca

We head for Babies-R-Us. Before long we are in the store walking up and down the isles. I really want to get something, but most things are gender specific (which we don’t know) or are big ticket items, such as strollers, cribs and car seats. As we make our way through the isles we discuss the various themes and make comments on different features some of the items have.

Then we get to the car seats…

If I know one fact about baby stuff it is car seats are the most important thing you buy. I know that the hospital wont let you leave you don’t have a car seat or don’t have it installed correctly.

There were about 2 dozen different seats to choose from. As I began examining them more closely, beads of sweat began to form on my forehead. There are so many different brands, types, sizes, prices. I don’t have any idea what I am doing. What if we get the wrong seat?!

Freakout!

I lost it. For me loosing it is hardly noticeable, but Sarah noticed. She quickly calmed me down and reassured me that we have plenty of time to find the right car seat for our baby. I cooled down a bit as we left the car seat isle to look at cute baby clothes. We left the store empty handed a few minutes later. I am still very surprised how those car seats affected me. If this is a sign of what is to come, I am in trouble.

Now we have to decide who gets the news first. This is a big deal! Luckily, both of our parents are very understanding about this and my mom had taken her name of the running some time back to avoid any hurt feelings. Now we know who we tell first, but how? We decide to invite Sarah’s parents, Joe and Karen, to lunch the next day. Sarah makes the call and we invite them to one of our favorite restaurants, The German Restaurant in Walburg. They have no idea of what is about to happen!

The next day, Sarah and Joe go for a run in the morning. Sarah has to keep the only thought on her mind to herself the whole time. We have to tell them at the same time. Later, Sarah and Karen go horseback riding. Sarah lets Karen do a lot more of the work with the horse than usual, but Karen doesn’t suspect anything, because she is always very wiling to get involved with the horse. So far, so good.

I go to Sarah’s parents house to pick up Joe, so we can all meet at the restaurant with only 2 cars. We meet the girls and sit down at our table. This is where Sarah gets sneaky. Just in case her parents might be curious, she orders a big ole’ German beer, a Urdinger Hefe-Weisen Dark. When the server brings the beers to the table Joe immediately raises his glass to toast my new company, Red Rook Design. We all take a quick drink, except Sarah. She says, “I can’t drink this!” Her mother thinks it is because Sarah doesnt like the taste of the dark beer, but within seconds Sarah states, “I’m going to have a baby!” Karen is floored. Joe just smiles. He tells us that he thought something was up when Sarah said she couldn’t drink the beer. Karen’s eyes grow bigger and bigger, then a few tears form, but she doesn’t cry. We toast again, but this time to Baby!