Happy Birthday to the Father to Be!

A little note for the expectant father on his birthday:

October 27, 2008

To my wonderful husband on his 30th birthday:

Kevin,

Happy, happy birthday! I can’t believe that you were only 22 when I met you and now we get to celebrate your 30th birthday together. You have become a more wonderful man and husband every day since I have been with you so I can’t wait to see what a new decade will bring.

You are the best person I know and I am so blessed to have you in my life. You are funny, smart, and kind. Every day I spend with you makes me love you more. I am counting on us getting to spend at least the next hundred lifetimes together because it is already clear to me that just one won’t be nearly enough.

I can’t wait to see you as a father. Finn is so lucky – he not only inherits your fabulous genes but gets to grow up with a great man like you as his role model. There is no one I could feel better or surer about having as my partner as we go into becoming parents.

I hope you have an amazing birthday. I love you endlessly and always will.

Austin

More pregnant pics

Who is this giant pregnant lady?

What can I say, I am eight months pregnant as of next Monday. Crazy.

Per Emily's request, here are more photos of me in all my glory.

33 weeks and change

Time is continuing to swim along quickly. We are done painting the nursery (Yay! Thanks Kevin!). It looks very nice.

The furniture is all put in and it's mainly decorated. I will post pictures once we have the last few items in place (a glider, curtains). I think it's going to look great and it's so nice to have it all nearly done.

Next week I have another round of baby doctor appointments, including another ultrasound. I am excited to see Finn and to hear where he is, size wise.

Stay tuned...

Only eight more weeks!

I had an absolutely lovely time at my shower. It was so nice to see some of my very favorite people, especially those I hadn't seen in ages.

Plus we got lovely, love gifts for Finn, which I really appreciated.

Here are some photos:



Kevin and I are now trying to get anything that falls under the "must have before the baby arrives" banner. Painting on the nursery is still continuing, and I have faith that soon it will be done and we can put everything away.

I am now 32 weeks. The rest of the pregnancy both seems too long (I am not feeling well and am looking forward to not having my giant belly) and way too short (I can't believe that in only eight weeks I will have an actual baby!)

Off to my baby shower!

Tomorrow I leave to fly up to DC for my baby shower on Saturday.

I am very excited to see everyone and to celebrate the coming of Finn.

Thank you in advance to everyone who is coming, especially people who are coming into town just for the shower. I feel very loved.

29 weeks

We got to have another ultrasound on Wednesday and this time even got to see Finn in 3-D. Very cool.

Here is the picture from it:

He is doing well and is already three pounds.

It is hard for me to imagine both him and I being 11 weeks bigger than we are right now, but it is so nice to hear that everything is going well with him.

27 weeks pregnant

I am now in my third trimester. It seems some days like December 3rd will never get here, but I am sure it will come before I know it.

We are slowly trying to get things ready and I am very much looking forward to my shower in DC at the end of the month.

I am still feeling okay, but I am starting to get more tired and achey and big!

Baby boy Lewis has a name

We've officially picked out the baby's name.

On (or around) December 3rd, we look forward to meeting

Finnegan Gray Lewis

Baby decorating

We've picked our nursery bedding!

We are going to use Nojo's Day at the Zoo, which looks like this:


I am excited to order it and to be able to start organizing and painting the nursery.

We have also finally registered, for those of you who are dying to start buying us many, many baby gifts. We are registered at Babies R Us. So fun.

It's been a long time...

So the bad news is that I haven't written anything in more than a month... The good news is that there is more than a month's worth of occurances to write about.

So let me start with "Hooray! It's a boy!". I honestly would have been happy either way as long as the kid was healthy, but deep down (or perhaps not quite as deep as I think) I wanted a boy. Unfortunately, I was on a business trip during that ultrasound, but was also reassured to know that he is doing well and is about 15% bigger than expected.

Athletics, academics, girls, emotions, problem solving, what it takes to be a good man, I have experiences and insights in these areas to share, and that means it is easier to envision what I will spend time doing with him. Down the road I do look forward to becoming a strong father for a girl as well, but it is nice to start with the kind of young mind that I know. Also, let's face it, I still like a lot of the things little boys like to do and it'll be nice to have an excuse to do them as an adult.

On the homefront, the second trimester is MUCH happier for Austin... she has a glow, has a lot of energy, and our time together is wonderful. The searches to start outfitting our house with baby gear have begun in earnest. We have reduced our list to about 80 things that we need and are searching Craigslist and Ebay in earnest to get what we can. Right now we are shooting for anything that is 50% less than the best we can do for an equivalent new item and Austin has had some success.

Austin is feeling movement of the baby now, and I may be able to feel it externally too, though I am not really sure. Breathing, stomach rumblings, and baby movements all feel the same to me right now. Everything at our Dr. visits has been positive, and nothing really scary has happened on our end, so we are very pleased and excited about the way things are going. We are debating between a green safari theme or a blue ocean theme for the room, so feel free to weigh in with your opinions in the comments section.

The coming week is our trip to the Dominican Republic and the longest vacation that I have taken since I started my career. It will be great to see my whole side of the family and great for the both of us to get a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves. I can't wait!

I will try to get back into writing more often now.

-Kevin

20 week ultrasound photos

Here's the darling boy in all his 20 week glory.

It's a boy!

I went to the specialist yesterday and got to see the baby on the ultrasound for close to twenty minutes. It was great! And...we're having a boy!

Kevin and I are very excited.

He is looking healthy and big already. I got to watch him move all around and it was lovely to see.

The second trimester is a miracle

After all my complaining about my pregnancy misery, I am offically feeling 100% better.

I can eat - and boy, do I. I am hungry all the time now and everything looks good (although meat and vegetables and I are still having our difficulties - this baby is consuming a lot of cheese).

And I am actually able to leave the house and do things like run errands and go to the gym.

It is a happy time.

An approximation of me, now that I'm in my second trimester.

Maternity clothes transition

I am officially starting to wear maternity clothes.

I can still (barely) get my formerly too big pants buttoned, but it's being increasingly less comfortable.

I have ordered a couple of items off of the Internet and yesterday Kevin and I did our first maternity clothes shop. I am trying to get multi-purpose items that I can wear for a while, we will see how that works.

I am much more comfortable with the change to maternity bottoms. Such is the exciting life of a pregnant girl!

15 weeks

Despite my best intentions, I have been remiss at posting pictures of my gradually expanding self. But here is me at 15 weeks:

I feel like I am definitely starting to show now.

We also went to the doctor (yet again) today. We were able to hear the heartbeat, which was great. Everything looked good and we will go back to both the main doctor and the specialist in another four weeks (at which point we will hopefully find out the sex).

Long Absences and Nesting cont.

Finally, the moment you have all been waiting for... kitchen pics:

Okay, In looking at the blog I noticed that it has been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted... Sorry about that. I tend to be a man of single focus and as of late, that focus has been turned to work and home repairs rather than blogging.

There is both good and bad in that because while I have been away from posting for a while there is a bit more to catch up on. So... baby wise, we had our 13 week check up. It was a bit of a scary time considering that most of the advice that we had gotten was that we shouldn't even tell anyone until that point because the risks were much greater beforehand. Fortunately, there was nothing to worry about as they said that everything that they can see with the ultrasound looked perfect. The baby is right on schedule with growth and development, the heart rate looks good, and the spinal cord seems to be developing appropriately. I wish you could see the video as the fuzzy pictures don't do it justice. You could see the little arms and legs, the skeleton was clear, and it looked like it was having minature hiccups. In the week and a half since Austin is feeling a bit better, so there is hope that her sickness won't be the 8 1/2 month kind.

Home improvement wise, we have taken several steps forward. The tile floor is in, and I think it looks great! I spent virtually the entire day yesterday watching and talking with our Romanian installer, Ray. The guy really knew his stuff and worked the entired day straight with no lunch break from about 8 to 8 to get it finished. I will hire him again in a heartbeat.

I stained the quarter round for installation when he seal the floor on Wednesday, and the Lewis's officially have their first permanent kitchen floor. The improvement is dramatic. Dramatic enough that I decided to replace our flourescent lighting with new track lighting to compliment it, and am having a really hard time avoiding the "self install granite slab countertop" websites even though everyone I talk to (including Ray) says it's a bad idea.

Also, in the intervening time since my last post, you have missed my trip to my grandmother's memorial service in California. She recently passed away at the age of 8

9 and my family got together to celebrate her life. It was both a sad and happy time, and a great reminder of what a wonderful family that I have and just how important family is.

Oh, and back to the baby... Austin's sister sent us a Massive amount of clothing from both their boy and girl from the ages of 1 to 3. I think it is going to make a tremendous difference for the baby. If I have my way... this baby will be in nothing but hand-me-downs. :-)

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath. My visits to the aquatic center now total 2.... not quite the 10 that I had planned on.

More visit details - A.

I am offically in my second trimester, but am still waiting for the whole more energy/feeling better thing. Here are some pictures (rather blurry) from the twelve week ultrasound:

It was very nice to hear that the baby is looking "perfect." I go back to my normal OB on the 12th.

Due Dads

For Kevin: to watch instantly on Netflix.Due Dads:Providing helpful tips with a big dose of humor, this informative program is jam-packed with valuable advice for fathers-to-be. Chapters on each trimester offer suggestions to ensure the comfort of your pregnant partner, including meal-making, cleaning and foot massage instructions. Perhaps most importantly, a discussion of the inevitable stresses of pregnancy presents coping strategies for men navigating this life-altering period.

The male version of nesting...

I think that this weekend was a great example of how pregnancy begins to revert us to our "primal" instincts. For the first time in the pregnancy, Austin is feeling some of the emotional effects of all of the hormones coursing through her veins... There were a lot of tears shed during movies and yes, even commercials, this weekend. The need for cuddles has also increased markedly. :-)

I meanwhile, continue to have a stronger urge to build, improve, clean, and repair our house than I have ever felt before. The project during the week was having two dead pine trees cut down in our yard, then distributing the mulch over the weed bed bordering our driveway... very satisfying as they had been concerning me during the recent high winds we have had here in Georgia.

The weekend project was stripping the two layers of linoleum floor from our kitchen so that we can lay porcelin tile. The top layer came up easy in about a half hour. The second layer took about 4 hours of pouring boiling water on it waiting 15 minutes while watching TV, then pulling it up one section at a time. Finally, the felt backing for the second layer took about 8 hours between Friday night and Saturday of serious sweat with a razor scraper, boiling water, and Krudkutter (my new favorite cleanser/degreaser/paste remover). Seems like it would be a total pain... but it felt good.

Now, the rest of the flooring is in Home Depot's hands and I am Jonesing for my next project. Will it be sodding the backyard? Putting a patio in the backyard? Self-installing granite or granite tile countertops? Replacing our ever-leaking windows? Who can say... but I am anxious to do it while I have all of this father-to-be superenergy.

New Baby - New Products

There is a new world of BABY to explore.
G diapers The flushable disposable diaper.

http://www.gdiapers.com/

or the Bumbo Baby Sitter
The Bumbo Baby Sitter is a revolutionary new concept with world wide patent rights, uniquely designed according to the baby's posture. It is certainly a different take on high chairs and boosters. The baby seat will allow baby to independently sit upright from as young as 3 months up to an age of approximately 14 months. The baby Bumbo seat provides a snug and cozy environment for the baby. (Picture from The Image is Found.)

We will check out more, Austin, when you come to visit. Love,L.

12 week visit

So the doctor was uneventful. I did get a prescription for Zofran so we shall see how that works out. I also got my referral to a peri-natal specialist. We are going to see them on the 27th for an in-depth ultrasound to see how everything is going with the baby. Hopefully they will see only good things.

Absentee fathers and big days

So I see that it has been a week since I posted and I have left my sick and pregnant wife to carry the load for all of our readers... I would say that the reason was that work was just too busy and distracting this week, but that sounds a little ominous for our unborn LP.

Needless to say, I am very excited about our 3 month visit to the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully this time we will get to see something more exciting than a flickering grain of rice. Since this is the most dangerous section of the pregnancy, the anxiousness and excitement is tempered with a bit of fear, but I am certain that the experience will be amazing.

11 weeks, look at us go

I’m eleven weeks pregnant tomorrow. What’s going on with LP? He’s about the size of a fig and almost fully formed. The baby is already moving – kicking, stretching, and opening and closing its hands.

How do I feel? More of the same. Sick, sick, sick. And really tired, but from reading the above I can see why. Baby and I are very busy.

Happy Mother To Be Day !

Happy Birthday Austin! Love, L.

I know we all wish Austin the Happiest of Birthdays ! xoxoxoxo

click on the speaker to turn on the song.

The Reality of Distraction

A long trip to Charleston has left me slightly less long-winded than usual. So today, rather than the hard-core existentialism that you have come to expect, I thought I would just mention our current favorite family/pregnancy related show.

It's called "Jon and Kate Plus 8", and is on TLC. I'd tell you the time, but as a TIVO watcher who's wife does the taping, time is no longer a concept I recognize when it comes to television. :-)
Anyhow, it concerns the life of a family with 8 children: 2 twins and 6 sextuplets. It started shortly after the 6 were born, and in three seasons, has followed their lives for the past three years. It is oddly fascinating and quite a treat if you enjoy a little more reality in your "reality tv" than the standard fare.

In any case, it is a great way to spend your leisure time until "Ice Road Truckers" comes back.

Here is a link for more info on the show.

Come on...give us some comments...

So we were hoping this blog would serve as something of a dialogue and that we would be innundated with advice and thoughts from our family and friends. But right now, it's seeming a little monologue-ish.

Since many of you have children, we would love to hear your thoughts on what we're going though. Don't know how to leave a comment? Under the entry, there's a line that says "0 comments." Just click on that box and a comment form opens.

Or send us an email and we will post your message in the blog.

We would love to hear from you guys!

My Newest Baby Related Obsession...

Before I get started let me first respond to Austin's previous blog by stating that I think that she definately has the worse situation regarding when it comes to pregnancy. I would never in a million years trade places and teach kindergardeners while constantly feeling while I was going to throw up... so bring on the housework.
(I would have put this as a response within her blog like she does with mine, but only she seems to have that power).

Back to the title of this blog, my newest baby related obsession is... getting in shape. At least I think that it is baby related, could be spring related, or getting beaten by my little sis in a 3 mile jog while visiting her related, or her just finishing a half marathon while I spend most of my days in front of a computer related.

However... I have been thinking lately that some of the things I remember most about my father were going running with him at the local high-school track, the camping trips and hikes that we used to take, and just the general feeling that he was almost invincible in his strength, tirelessness, and health.

Meanwhile, the current computer time at my job, the many distractions around the house, and just the general feeling of inertia at the end of the day have led to a long time without working out. Overall, my sluggishness is at about an 8 on 10 point scale.

So, last night I decided that it is time to get back in shape and headed to the local lap pool. The 1800 yard workout was a stark reminder of just how far I have fallen from the triathlon days. The workout was cut short by a feeling of nausea that I can only assume rivals what Austin has been feeling, and the painful headache and numbingly tired brain led to me walking into the womens locker room to the surprise of a (thankfully fully clothed) woman.

Still it felt good to finally break some of the stagnant blood loose from my veins. I have signed up for a card good for 10 visits and have vowed to use them all up in the next few weeks.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Poor Kevin

It's true, I am one sick puppy. I am very tired and dizzy, but mostly I am sick to my stomach pretty much twenty four hours a day. It is wearing me down although I know it's a small price to pay.

In addition to feeling bad for myself, I feel bad for poor Kevin. I am less than no help around the house. Basically I work and then come home and sleep. On the weekends I mix it up with a lot of laying on the couch.

The end result is a dirty house and laundry that is climbing up the sky. Plus endless errands that I just cannot get it together to run. In conclusion, poor Kevin.

Hopefully this will stop soon.

Better Pregnancy Living Through Chemicals

Today's post concerns the trials of morning sickness (a misnomer as it appears to last all day) and a call for any ideas on foods or drugs that are beneficial and safe for the baby. Austin has been bearing up well to the constant feeling of nausea, but occasionally, during particularly bad bouts, I can see the panic in her eyes and know that she is feeling like she can't possibly endure this misery for one more day. I have only felt that way a couple times in my life and can't imangine going through it for two months straight.

So... in order to ease this misery, we have been trying a myriad of recommendations...
Saltines, ginger snaps, ginger ale, Emetrol, Sea Bands, Vitamin B-6 supplements, and lately Metaclopramide. So far, none of them seem to have any effect, and Metaclopramide seems to add the symptom of increased dizziness. Phenergan is next on the doctor's list, but Austin took that after her last surgery and while she enjoyed it thoroughly, and appeared pretty normal if a little sleepy on it. She doesn't remember most of the days where she was taking it... which is a little concerning.

Mike, a great friend, a NASA scientist, and probably the best dad I know that it roughly my age who has the added benefit of having an obstetrical nurse as a wife recommended Zofran and to a lesser extent Regulin with the caveat that they haven't been tested quite as throughly with pregnancy as the others, so these are next on our list.

It is, however, disconcerting to see Austin only able to eat a fraction of every meal and with dark circles under her eyes, so if you know of any remedies that worked for you that I haven't mentioned, please post in the comments.