From the bleachers:

So how does it feel, you may ask, this impending fatherhood of mine? My response: So far, it really doesn't. I think fatherhood during the first pregnancy is a strange thing. My body isn't changing, Christy's body hasn't noticeably changed yet, and life goes on as normal. (Except our alcohol bill has decreased slightly, and will not have the 5 day surge that it has had during the previous four months.)

Really, so far my involvement with this child has really only been five to ten minutes, and then BAM, for the next 40 weeks I am a spectator. (Hence the title of this first blog entry.) And yet s/he is there, lurking. Spike, that little ball of cells. Well, actually a small kidney-bean sized rascal with a spinal ridge, limb buds, eyespots and a tail, and possibly a beating heart by this point. Life. 46 chromosomes (or so we hope.) Additional sentence fragment. I can't really get my brain around it.

Actually there has been one large change: books. When an impending child is discovered, one must acquire books. Quite a ridiculous amount of books, more than can possibly be read in the 8 months or so left. It makes me wonder how people managed to have and raise normal, healthy children in the times before Mr. Gutenberg invented his movable type printing press. (Contrary to popular belief, the first book printed was not the Bible, but "What to Expect when You're Expecting," I am certain of it.) For those of you youngsters reading, 1st: Get off of the computer and do your homework like your parents asked! 2nd, if you are over the age of 8, you are behind in your "soon-to-be-parent" reading list, so get on it! It will take you approximately 34.3 years for you to get through it, and then, at 42.3 years of age, you will be past your most fertile years and can only sit in your empty house and reflect on the bitter irony of having all that parental (and prenatal) knowledge and yet never having met anyone, gotten married and had kids because you were too busy reading books about having kids.

I just noticed that "parental" and "prenatal" contain the same letters. I wonder if after Spike is born, we start taking parental vitamins?

That's the view from the bleachers for now...

How I told Rob

I spent a lot of the day trying to figure out how I could tell Rob that I was pregnant. I had thought about this for a few months and had been looking for a "Daddy" coffee mug everywhere. None to be found. In a desperate attempt, I went into Starbucks (our favorite...) and found their new "write-on" mugs that allow you to personalize the mug. I bought two and made them say "Daddy's Coffee" and "Mommy's Coffee" and gave him his with the pregnancy test that night:

He looked at the test and said, "you gave me a negative pregnancy test?" I said, "No! It's positive...see that line!!". We still can't believe it. Of course we went out to dinner to celebrate...but no margaritas for me!

The story thus far...

Yes, this is a pregnancy test and yes, it is POSITIVE. I still have it in case any of you need proof. I also took a second test a few days later (because WE needed proof). See the pink line above the "T" (that stands for Test)? That's Spike making his/her presence known!

On the morning of the 4th, before I took that pregnancy test, I absent-mindedly poured my orange juice into a bowl instead of a glass. I texted Rob to tell him of my misshap and he texted back "Pregnancy mush brain?" (That's what our friend Alex calls it). It was the day I was due for my period on month 4 of trying to conceive so I had planned on testing anyway (I couldn't wait any longer than that!). When the pink line emerged I screamed!

My "Before" picture at 4 weeks: