The Last Trip

So this weekend we are off to lovely Atlanta for my good friend Sarah's wedding. I'm looking forward to the trip since I have not been there since we moved to Madison almost 2 years ago! I'm also looking forward to some warmer weather. Currently it's 5 degrees here and 35 degrees there. I'm betting that there is not 2 feet of snow on the ground there either. I think it has snowed nearly every other day since Thanksgiving this year. Winter is starting to get old. The one good thing is that since pregnancy is making me feel warmer than usual I will take the winter weather over the summer weather.

It was light out when I arrived at the office and when I left the office yesterday. I remember the weatherman saying that we are at about 10 hours of daylight now. I had a mini-celebration when I got in my car under natural light rather than the street lights in the parking lot. I'm really looking forward to the long days of summer!

This is our last flight until the baby comes! In fact, we have not flown anywhere since October. I was so uncomfortable flying during the early part of my pregnancy, I did not feel a strong desire to go anywhere. We stayed home for all of the holidays. I've been feeling relatively comfortable these days, so hopefully this trip will be pretty painless.

I promise I'll post some pictures when we get back.

AK Revealed!

My family has a long history of giving babies in-utero names. For some reason, it's usually something along the lines of Bosco, Bozoo or something equally made up. Maybe my Mom will comment with a list of the names they used. It is much nicer to have a name for the baby rather than just using "it".

Well, one night shortly after we announced that we were pregnant my family decided that Alexander or Alexandra Keith Lee would be an appropriate name for our baby. While Alex Lee has a nice ring to it, I was not sure I could go with the name. You see, Alexander Keith's IPA is my husband's favorite Nova Scotia beer. It is one of the only reasons he returned to the Shore after our first miserable visit together. The suggestion made both of us smile and laugh, so in honor of Matt's favorite Nova Scotia ale, we call our baby AK for now.

Why I Am In No Way Ready For This

We've heard almost exclusively from Rachel to this point. Time to man up this blog.

Rachel has painted a fairly rosy picture of how things are going thus far. I'm here to present the flip side of the proverbial coin. Life isn't all dragonflies and pretty pictures in the Lee house. There is some serious pre-baby angst in Lee Land. I get clammy hands almost every time I look at the nursery --- which, by the way, used to be my OFFICE. That's right, what used to be a room of deep thought and musty law texts is now overrun with cartoon dragonflies, soft fabrics, and powdery oily aromas. Rachel even took down my framed Barry Goldwater For President campaign poster (but don't worry, my kids will be thoroughly indoctrinated in conservatism/Reaganism/truth by the time they hit school-age, with or without propaganda being hung in their room --- look forward to many posts on this topic down the line).

I'm presently going through something that I'm sure every parent-to-be has gone through: the thought of being responsible for another life --- and for the next 18 years --- is simply terrifying. I haven't the slightest clue what needs to be done between now and the Birth, let alone everything that comes after that. I feel totally unprepared to address the needs and wants of a baby, a toddler, a pre-teen, a teenager. When they get to college, you send them money and buy them beer when you come into town. That is literally the extent of what I know about parenting.

Case in point. We went to the grocery store yesterday. I went to the toiletries aisle to get some shampoo. A pleasant thirty-something woman was in the aisle with her two blonde children: a boy, 5ish, and a girl, obviously 2 given the events that unfolded. Each kid had one of those midget shopping carts and appeared to be pushing actual groceries --- these are of course nothing but trip hazards and, given that they are pushed by people too young to gauge speed and anticipate moving roadblocks, are occasionally weapons.

So I'm trying to navigate past the trip hazards down the aisle to the shampoo, and the little girl is clutching a red object and screaming ever louder at her mother, insisting that she be allowed to take the red object home. Her mother calmly and rationally asked her to put it back. This was met with tears and a series of high-pitched shrieks. Her mother attempted bribery, threats, niceties, everything. In the end, the 2-year-old had the last word, taking off running down the aisle away from her mother, around me, past her brother's trip hazard, and around the corner, out of sight, the red object finally hers forever. Her mother just stared at the aisle, its population diminished by one. It appeared as if, for just a split second, she contemplated how serene her future would be if she just didn't chase after her daughter. When common sense and unconditional love finally evaporated that fantasy, she took off in the general direction of the little girl's screams, sweetly giving me the following aside: "If that's not birth control I don't know what is." Little did she know that she was a few months too late.

And you know what the red object was that this little girl wanted? It was a stick of Old Spice deodorant. For men. She didn't even know what it was! A product that she will never use or need.

Now, does this sound like a situation that, when its my kid wanting the deodorant, I am going to handle well? I work in an field where compromise depends on appealing to a person's rationality. I don't have a chance against such unabashed unilateralism.

I suppose I could just try to copy my parents. They raised two ostensibly normal, hygenic, intelligent and driven children, neither of whom have done prison time or been excommunicated. So whatever they did obviously worked. Then again, people of vastly greater intelligence than me have done everything they could to do right by their kids and in the end it turned their kids were still totally screwed up (see, e.g., the Hilton's, the Kennedy's, the Spears's).

But I think my panic over my impending fatherhood is misplaced by focusing on long-term concerns. I have plenty to panic about right here and now: diapers, feedings, diapers, burping, naptime, diapers, 2:00 a.m. human alarm clocks, diapers, and, of course, SpongeBob SquarePants. I think our readers are really going to enjoy hearing about my response to these demands. See, my life has been pretty comfortable up to now in large part because I have been able to complete projects largely on my own schedule. This is totally impossible with an infant: when it fills its diaper, you have to change the diaper NOW. Not at the commercial break or after you cut the grass or as soon as you get home from work. Now.

Fortunately, I plan to impose a very strict alcohol regimen to ease the transition into this new phase of life, and will be taking a lot of advice from my experienced and sage advisors:

So anyway, this is the longest post in the world, I know, but its my debut on the blogosphere, and I wanted to make it count. Plus this is Matt Lee we're talking about, and I don't know what the word "concise" means.

I hope you enjoy reading about Matt and Rachel's adventures in Pregnancy and Parenthood. I know we will enjoy sharing them with you.

All the best,

Matt Lee

30 Weeks Pregnant

We have been trying to take pictures of me monthly during the pregnancy. The last pictures were at Christmas, so it's time for new pregnancy pictures. Here is one of me and one of Matt 30 weeks pregnant.

Interesting Post

So I'm very much a blog stalker of a number of sites. I thought this, http://mightygirl.com/2008/01/23/12-travel-tips-for-flying-with-a-baby/, post was particularly informative and hit right at something I've been thinking about a lot recently. As most of you already know, Matt and I love to travel, and we spend a lot of time doing it. We already have three trips planned with AK (more on that later), and the baby is not even born yet. Sometimes I find myself wondering if I'm crazy to plan these trips now without even knowing what it will be like to have a baby. What if our child is like Matt and I were? According to our parents we were both fussy and extremely high maintenance. If that ends up being the case, I'll have to get good at apologizing to all the people lucky enough to sit next to us on planes. It's comforting to know that our parents were not limited by having children and neither are other people out there. We will just give it a go and get a little better each time.

Until Next Time,

Rachel

Dragonflys

So, Matt and I chose a dragonfly theme for the nursery. I've always been a fan of dragonflies, but Matt took a little convincing that dragonflies would be suitable for the nursery. We did some research into the symbolism of dragonflies. They get a really bad rap in European culture and have meanings like 'sinister' and 'ear cutter.' Thankfully there are much nicer meanings in Asian and Native American history. In Native American cultures they symbolize swiftness, activity, pure water, and renewal. In Japanese culture they symbolize courage, strength, and happiness. Since lots of people think we are Asian, I can live with the Japanese meanings. Thinking about a courageous, strong, and happy baby makes me smile.

I purchased a valance to match the baby bedding. Hopefully, I'll get them up within the next few days. The massive amount of green walls is wearing on me a bit. I've also been instructed to not purchase any more dragonfly paraphernalia. I can live with that since there is not much left at JC Penny's that matches the set. I have a feeling more dragonflies might appear someday.

The only other big project left for the nursery is the closet. It's pretty small and over the stairs. We are thinking about having a closet system installed. I did Matt's closet myself, but I think this one might need an expert. The tricky space combined with my growing belly wouldn't be a good home improvement combination.

This morning as I was lying in bed listening to the alarm, I noticed a new baby sensation, hiccups. I've found myself waiting to feel the baby start moving around before getting out of bed, and this morning it was hiccups instead of little kicks. They felt like little bumps occurring rhythmically, but you can't feel them from the outside.

Off to get my haircut!

Big and Pregnant

Here's a picture of us from Christmas. We had a great holiday home in Madison. Matt's sister Maggie was here for about two weeks, and his aunt, uncle, and cousins came up from Florida dna Georgia for the Christmas weekend. All in all things were fairly laid back and we were able to spend lots of time together. It was great to be able to hear lots of stories about Matt growing up :)

Jumping on the Bandwagon

So here we are, 29 weeks pregnant with our first child, and after spending many hours being entertained by friends blogs, we have decided to start our own. Well, really I decided to start the blog and mentioned it to Matt. He seems pretty excited at this point.


Things have been going great with the pregnancy. At this point, I'm just big and pregnant. I've been feeling the baby since week 15, and Matt felt the baby for the first time right after Thanksgiving at Week 21. Of course it happened right after all the family returned home after the holiday. Even though I've been feeling the baby for quite a while, things were inconsistent for a long time. The placenta is right in front. Apparently that makes it more difficult for me and others to feel the baby move. The past couple weeks, Matt has been able to feel the baby quite consistently. I love the questions and comments that he comes up with when feeling the baby, and I really love feeling the baby move. It always makes me smile. Anyway, enough about that.


The nursery is coming along nicely. Right after the holidays, I had a major need to get the nursery done right then. I think I purchased 75% of the stuff in there on New Year's Day. The curtains arrived yesterday, so I'm sure we will put them up this week. Here are some pictures of the current status:

I feel like we need some decorations on the walls. There is too much green right now. Barry Goldwater is getting moved to Matt's office. Although, I think Matt would be perfectly happy with some nice republican art for the baby's room.