First bath hair fuzzies

Big day today. We went on out first walk in the stroller and first bath at home!

Welcome to the world baby Matilda!

Born Saturday December 15th at 9:37 pm. 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long. She is beautiful and perfect. Labor was long and arduous for me, but it was worth every second of pain. Now the real fun begins!

Matt's First ever Blog Post - T-1 day til we go public!

I’ve purposefully never blogged before.  I’d like to start my first venture into doing so with that disclaimer intended for certain friends, since as a passionate person I tend to be extremely vocal in my likes and dislikes.    Yes is funny that now I blog, enjoy the laugh.  This was just the first actual reason I had to blog.  This is the modern diary, a thing to be left behind and enjoyed by later generations, see how primitive and strange they seemed.  I suppose plenty of people keep modern diaries, but I surely don’t know any of them and it seems a strange alien thing for people to do.  So yeah, I’m blogging.  I don’t intend to suggest anyone read it but who knows.

I can’t say I really know my parents, or for that matter, anyone in my generation’s very well.  Sure, they’re around and I know what sorts of music they listen to, what percentage of them have some funny or sometimes sad biases, and various other trivia.  In the case of my own parents I do have quite a collection of fun facts about them.  What I don’t have is any idea what they were actually like when I was of the toddling and later ages.   Lately I have conceived an idea of what that untold story is like, every time I see my friend’s children being surrounded by the unusual and distinct circumstances they are put into when they come to visit us at our house.  I just keep thinking how mommy and daddy’s life goes on completely outside of their consciousness. 

                In an effort to let my own children have the opportunity, I intend to make a series of reality-TV style videos of me talking to future kid (i.e. when they’re at some imaginary adult-ish age) in the level of honesty and vocabulary that an adult can handle.  I intend it to include the dumb things I do at the same time, but also what’s going on in my life, how parenting is, etcetera.   I am fully aware this could be cancelled after I watch a few of these videos, but it sounds fun and I’m committed.   I would LOVE to have had just a brief conversation with my dad when he was at the age I am now, a time he must have been an entirely different person mentally and physically.  I feel that would be part of the complete experience of being his son.  So maybe it’ll be cool in a decade or two, I have no idea.  Cloud storage and HD webcams make keeping something like this around effortless.

                Tomorrow (6/18) is the day we finally “go public” with the whole baby thing.  I didn’t do super well with waiting 12 weeks, so most of my friends have known since as few as 5.  I’m excited, and it took a long time to happen!     I will keep trying this “blogging” thing as we go.  Tomorrow is the beginning of a new era!

Hormonal craziness

I just got choked up at Target looking at cheesy Father's Day cards. What the? Aaah, what's happening to me?! Those hormones are definitely going strong! Pretty sure the stroll through the children's section didn't help anything either. Everything is so tiny and adorable, I wanted to buy one of everything!!! I managed to get out of there before that happened, thankfully.

Oh, and I heard my first old wives tale last weekend. I was getting a facial from a nice older Russian lady who said her daughter ate pineapple to induce labor. Well, at least it's not something gross, and what pregnant lady doesn't want to eat a bunch of fruit!

Here we go!

Matt and I created this blog thinking that we'd like to have a place to share and keep memories as we start a family together, and so here we go! Today I am 8 weeks and 3 days along, and we're both so excited!!!

We've been trying since we got married last July, and since we weren't having any luck we went to Seattle Reproductive Medicine. Thankfully neither of us have any major problem, though I was surprised to find out I'm a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis! Fortunately Matt is not, so we're in the clear there. Anyways, we were very lucky and got pregnant on our first try with a round of Clomid and IUI. I'm so thankful we didn't have to go through IVF, and I really feel for the couples that do.

I went in for my last follow up appointment at the fertility clinic on the 15th and surprise, got my first ultrasound!

The doctor said that everything looked great and that she could see the heartbeat. I could only see the slightest flicker, and while I was certainly comforted to know everything was a-ok, I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed. I think it's easy to get this idea of how it's supposed to go from TV and the movies where people see their first ultrasound and are breaking down in tears. I really wanted that to be me, but it just wasn't...

I went in today for my first appointment at Evergreen Women's Health Center and got my second ultrasound, just over a week after the first.

Wow, look at the difference! I just can't believe the development in just a week. This time I could definitely see the heartbeat, and there was a little tiny hand waving at me :) Ok, this time I choked up and now I get it! My expectations were pretty low on what I'd be able to see. I thought it would just be a little larger blob, but I was just blown away! You can even kind of make out the facial profile. The nurse also said that a heartbeat at this stage means the risk of miscarriage goes way down to around 5%, so that's great news!

The next ultrasound is in a month, and then we'll be able to hear the heartbeat too. I can't wait! I have a feeling this is gonna be a wild ride :)

Hello world!