High Pressure Sales Tactics

Sunday nights over the past two weeks have gone from a relaxing evening watching Joan Rivers and Clint Black duke it out on Celebrity Apprentice to a 4 hour block of baby class. Think of it like a lecture in college but for an extended period of time. Honestly after fighting my way through the 8 hours of total teaching I wonder how in fact I made it through school in the first place. There must have been a time when my attention span was much greater and I was a better student.

Anyway, back to the class...baby express I think it was called and it involves all things baby delivery. Sure, sounds like a good idea and maybe it is but the kicker is that the ultimate result was much like a timeshare presentation.

Picture this...your staying at a resort and you want to get the free shuttle, dinner, maybe an extended happy hour for the week whatever it may be they want you to simply sit through their short 1 hour seminar about the resort. Next thing you know you really feel like you need to buy this thing and they make it hell to say no. Ultimately I suppose it's easy to win out because there is a monetary factor involved but in baby class that is not the case.

Day one consisted of roughly three and a half hours of relaxation techniques for the expectant mother. Great!! by all means let's get her relaxed have the baby...everybody wins. That's where they get you...as an expectant father it becomes apparent that you are the one that is responsible for said relaxation. Coaching, soothing, encouraging and MASSAGING!!!

Again, completely understandable come baby time and labor is in full swing. I for one am SO glad that i don't have to be in charge of that but in class I suddenly find myself rope-a-doped into giving massage after massage but we aren't really having the baby...just practicing?

Translation...my relaxing Sunday evening watching celebrity apprentice just turned into a group spa session for Carrie and all with the promise of a more comfortable birth. Now are you seeing the timeshare comparison??

In all honesty I'm making it sound worse than it was and I only tell the story because Carrie and I had fun with it and the comparison for most of the week. Glad we did it, glad it's over...the only funny thing is, I think I feel better about the child birth thing, but I'm pretty sure Carrie feels worse.

Baby Update

So once again I've been neglecting my expectant fatherly duties in recording and documenting all things pregnancy for a little while. Truth be told though it's pretty uneventful anymore and that might be a good thing.

Since the 3D ultrasound it's been a grind to the finish and we've still got a month and a half to go. Sure seems like the first few months flew by but now I think we're both just ready to meet the new baby and get going with things.

The baby room is pretty much completely setup at this point to which we owe a great deal of thanks to two baby showers for providing a multitude of wonderful gifts to help us prepare.

In addition we've gotten to purchasing some of the major things as well like a pack and play, one of those swing things and we did receive the ever important Jayhawk onesy. I do have to admit though that the excitement of my first trip to look at all the baby stuff has gradually worn off as there suddenly became a cost associated with said items.

Other than that not a whole lot of news. We took one last trip to Mexico pre-baby with Carrie's work which was fun but also very glad to be out of there right before the dreaded swine flu took hold.

After that Carrie took a trip to Quincy and I'll be doing the same at the end of this month so it's just been a busy time with doctor visits in between.

The only other thing really is that we've taken a couple of baby classes which deserve their own posting so that will come this week I promise. After that I guess we're getting down to the nitty gritty and I'll be in touch as things warrant some reference and certainly when we get down to time for the baby to come and going forward I think I'll use this as a sounding board beyond just pregnancy but to talk about all those other challenges that will certainly come along the way.

Oh and one last thing...struggling with boy names so if anyone has any good ideas feel free to sound off...we probably won't use the one you suggest but you never know :D

Looks Like a Real Person

28.5 Weeks at this point and entering the homestretch. Carrie is still in good spirits but we're both getting anxious. Time that once seemed to fly by is now standing still.

We did however visit the doctor this week and have some neat stuff to share. Technology is truly amazing and this week we had a 3D ultrasound done in which we got a chance to see up close and personal some images of the baby.

Not sure exactly how this all works but basically it's like looking top down through the stomach and at the baby. If it cooperates things look pretty incredible, if not a little blurry. For the most part the baby wasn't super cooperative but we did get a few great shots that I wanted to share.



Now it's funny because while they're doing the ultrasound the baby is moving and tossing and turning so you get to see all that going on and it's truly a real live person in there at this point which is somewhat shocking to me for some reason.

We saw hands opening and closing. Several times the hand seemed to wave at the "camera" or perhaps the baby is as non photogenic as I am and was attempting to block the view.

Another really crazy thing that happened was it's eyes opening. Apparently this isn't very common for them to catch this on the ultrasounds but it did in fact open it's eyes which again was very exciting but kind of strange as well because the images are pretty vivid.





We found a baby picture of me that Carrie thinks looks VERY similar to the baby in the above photos but we'll have to see when it arrives.

Another note worth mentioning from the visit is a possible answer to the ever popular question of "what are you having?"

We managed to again avoid temptation and not find out the sex but we did have two moments where we thought we might be getting hints from the ultrasound tech and the doc. The problem is they were opposites.

I swear during the ultrasound I heard the word "he" slip a few times while talking about the baby. Problem is after that with the doctor the word "she" slipped. Who knows? and honestly at this point I've given up...everyone seems to have one reason or another why it is what it is based on an old wives tale or something and I guess come the day of the birth we'll just have to prove half of those wrong.

Some Assembly Required

After much deliberation and two cribs being discontinued we left Baby's R Us last night with a crib in tow. I was very impressed with Carrie's selection for a variety of reason. First it is a very nice looking crib and I think it will go well with Carrie's style. More importantly from a man's perspective it looks relatively easy to put together and it was pretty reasonably priced..

Now when I say that it looks easy to put together that was just my opinion in eyeballing it. The true test will come when it actually happens. My doubts were raised though when the box was carted out and the words "Easiest Crib to Assemble" were on the side of the box." Why would you have to say that if it were true? It seems to me that anytime something is "easy" to assemble...it's not.

Fortunately I get to procrastinate a little while longer as the current bathroom remodel is taking precedent along with Kansas basketball season which has turned surprisingly successful over the last couple of months.

Full documention of the crib assembly will be available and if all else fails I guess I'll have to make Thomas get on a plane and fly to Denver. At the moment though confidence is high.

We Have Movement!!!

Well, I finally did it. I finally felt the baby move. Patience isn't exactly my forte and for a while now Carrie has claimed to be feeling the baby move. I however have never caught her or the baby at the right time to successfully feel any movement.

What am I feeling for? What will it feel like? All very confusing at times but never resulting in me feeling any movement which is strange because Carrie feels it so often.

Well the other night that all changed and my first reaction was...whoa...that's strange. At first I wasn't sure if it was Carrie hiccuping or breathing or what but she insisted it was the baby. Then the movement picked up a little and I was reminded of the Alien movies I watches as a child. Yes the the classic films where Sigourney Weaver battles the slimy aliens that pop out of peoples stomachs.

Fortunately I don't think Carrie is housing an alien and the experience of feeling the dancing baby breaking down was both very strange and at the same time exciting.

Now next week we go in for the extensive ultrasound and I guess that's when I'll get to see what this baby looks like and what I felt but for the moment I'm left with the simple fact that something is moving in there and it's a pretty amazing thing.

The Pink Baby Basket

So this story I meant to tell a long time ago but life seems to always get in the way. It happened over Thanksgiving and today I'm looking at this stroller assembled over Christmas and I am reminded of the simplicity of a recent gift. So here it goes...

We visited Kansas City for Thanksgiving and met my mom, grandparents, brother and his wife as well as my uncle and aunt at my grandparents house before heading to our destination. Now if you know my grandpa you will know that he is one of the better story tellers at least that I know. He also seems to have a knack for things that might just be important at some point in time. These two talents gelled together on that day and resulted in a pretty incredible gift in both Carrie's and my own opinion.

It started as we talked about how Carrie was feeling and the whole baby thing and gradually trickled into uncovering old photos of Lee and Mary Duvall in their younger days. Photos through the years trickled to those of their own children sprouting up from a box left in the living room. A particular picture pulled showed an infant child with long curly hair wearing what appeared to be a dresslike garment. The natural assumption, this must be grandma.

To the contrary however, we were quickly informed that the child in the photo was Lee Duvall. Clearly this photo was taken a few years prior to another famous photo of trick horseback riding in Waverly Kansas taken slightly later in life.

Now we get to hear another story from Grandpa and to my surprise this is a new one. Typically we all sit on the edge of our seats for one of the old standby's, crashing the Mexican wedding, camping with the convicts or the Duvalls on parade. Everyone of those are great and if you haven't heard them ask me and I'll do my best to explain or if you get a chance ask him, you'll get the real deal and you won't regret it.

Anyway, back to this story. As the story goes my great grandmother Lela Duvall had apparently always hoped for a girl with her first and only child. Accordingly preparations were made for a girl and to make a long story short this photo of a long curly haired grandpa as a baby was the result of what Lela had planned and prepared for, at least that's how my grandpa tells it.

Now on the surface that seems like a good funny story but here's where it got really neat for Carrie and I. My grandpa's baby basket was in the basement and in his story he explained how a portion of the basket was painted pink for a girl and when he was born rather than change it, it was left that way. He said he was going to pass it to the first great grandchild and as luck would have it, that's my baby!! So he awarded us with this idol of Duvall history and now the question again becomes, what if it's a boy.

Carrie and I have decided that despite my grandpa's blessing in painting it blue or another color if needed, we will honor the tradition boy or girl leaving the baby basket with the original pink trim. While clearly modern technology has left this a bit antiquated as far as practical use, we are very happy to have it, will be using it in some way and when the time comes passing it down the line.

Call me cheesy but I thought this was a pretty neat little story as well as a cool gift. It's gotten much longer than I originally anticipated due to some necessary background information and what I felt was an opportunity to get a good plug in for Grandpa Lee's story telling.


Thanks again grandpa

Update from the Doc

OK, where were we...oh yes Carrie's pregnant. Monday of this week Carrie made a quick trip to the doctor's office for some testing and a regular check up on the baby. First off we are happy to report everything looks great, but I did want to share a mildly humorous story from the visit.

As part of the regular checkup the heartbeat of the baby is checked for an listened to. The first time this happened it was very easy, put the instrument on the belly you hear two heartbeats. One is Carrie's one is the baby's.

On this particular instance there was a whole lot of interference going on with the monitor. After working a little to find the heartbeat the nurse started laughing a bit. Obviously this is at the very least reassuring but Carrie still wondered why she was laughing. When asked to explain she made the statement that this is the most active baby I've ever heard.

Apparently the baby was throwing a party in there because rather than hearing a clear heartbeat there was a whole lot more noise going on.

With this news I can only determine one of two things to be the case.

First it's possible the baby has taken after me when I have a few cocktails at a wedding and taken to the dance floor.

More likely though the answer is this...it is Kansas basketball season and Monday was a big road test against Baylor. Perhaps he/she was afraid of missing the action.

Next checkup is March 2nd...this will be a fairly extensive ultrasound. Should have some good action shots of the dancing machine. The big question is, to find out or not to find out the sex of the baby?