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The dog days of pregnancy, like the dog
days of summer are now over. It's really hard to imagine
that in eight short weeks we could have a new baby. We
are still twelve weeks from the full 40-week due date,
but 36 weeks is fine. I think both Julie and I are happy
now because if something were to go wrong, chances of
survival go up each day. I know every first time parent
worries about every little thing. We worry about Julie
eating right, eating enough, exercising enough,
exercising too much, etc. I guess this shows how much it
really means. On Friday, we went to our latest doctor's
appointment. It's a sure sign of our first child because
I go to all of the appointments. In the second pregnancy,
I guess the expectant father is no longer required to go
to the appointments. I've noticed a few times that other
patients who don't have their husbands with them almost
always have another child with them. They always smile at
Julie and me like they know it's our first child. The
best thing about the appointments is that we get to hear
the heartbeat. I always look forward to that. I'm not
sure why any longer; early on it was our only contact
with the baby. Now he moves around so much, Julie talks
to him and pushes on him all day long. Hearing the
heartbeat is still very cool however, so Friday I was
looking forward to it. For those of you who haven't had a
baby or haven't had one recently, there is this wand type
instrument that is attached to a little radio like thing
with a speaker. The wand is some type of Doppler
listening device. The nurse rubs some goop on Julie's
stomach and then moves the wand around until she finds
the heartbeat. Then we listen to the heartbeat for a
couple of minutes. I just listen, I notice how much
stronger it sounds than the last time I heard it. Mostly,
I just listen. It's like your favorite music, you don't
want to analyze it, memorize it; you just want to
experience it. Sure, the nurse calculates the beats per
minute, listens for any bad sounds, etc. I just
experience it. So Friday, the nurse was trying to find
the baby's heartbeat. Usually, this takes about ten
seconds, but not Friday. Two, three minutes go by with
nothing but static. Of course, the baby is kicking and
moving. Julie and I watched as her stomach is moving in
and out. The nurse assures us, he wouldn't be kicking
without the heart beating. I don't think either Julie or
I was reassured much. Finally, after trying for five
minutes, she leaves the room. Julie and I just look at
each other and we look at her stomach, sure enough, the
baby is kicking up a storm still. The nurse arrives back
with a second listening machine. Within ten second she
finds the heartbeat. For the next two minutes it was the
coolest sound that either of us ever heard. The few
minutes of not knowing was hard. I think both Julie and I
realized how much having a baby really means. He is
already a part of our life in ways we did expect to get
to until he arrives. I realized how much I'm looking
forward to seeing him. The Name Game
Well, we've talked about every name on the list
hundreds of times. We've added new names, subtracted old
names, everywhere we go we look at every
boy name we see and think, "Is this it?" We've
now reduced the list to zero names. Yes, we are sick of
every one of them. I'm actually surprised how fast you
tire of a name. When we first made the list of names, I
thought for certain that the name would either be
Nicholas or Ethan. Now I'm pretty sure that both are off
the list for good. My personal favorites were Sean and
Spencer, and Julie doesn't care for either with our last
name. Of course, Julie likes both Benjamin and Mathew,
neither of which I really like. I thought for a while, in
fact I was certain, it was going to be Kyle. So now we
are faced with the prospect of the first baby with no
name. OK, I know that Geri and Steve also left the
hospital without naming Nathan. :-)
D.
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