On naming this baby, and other miscellaneous events

So there have been a few things that have changed, been updated, or otherwise happened since we last spoke. First of all, we have a name: Emsley Bryn (Emmy, Emmie, Emi, Emme - it's being debated - for short). Emsley is of British origin, and means "Gift from God," which seems appropriate for our current situation. We had been debating between "Cora Bryn" and "Selah Bryn," and for the last four months debated on which one. So we decided that neither would do, and are going with Emmy. Things are starting to feel more real now.

Kami is now about 30 weeks pregnant where the baby, according to BabyCenter, is approximately the weight of a Chinese Cabbage, as if anyone has any idea how much that weighs. They may as well have said "Your baby weighs as much as a Leprechaun's Knapsack!" Or, "Your little wonder is approximately the weight of four Hinklewinks!" I'm pulling for a July 4th birthday, for obvious reasons, but if it's July 10th, that's the All-Star Game. I'm not sure why I'm jazzed up about that possibility, but I am. Basically, we're looking at Emmy coming along at any point from 6-10 weeks. Which is not long. Pardon while I go breathe into a paper bag.

Anyhow, Kami had that three-hour blood sugar test to see if she had the "Gestashul Di-beetus" (as I recently heard it named), and it came back normal, so no risk of...whatever that guy thought it was. Also, Kami will be heading to Waco/Dallas on Thursday for the weekend, so I'm off to Atlanta on Friday to hang out with my cousin. Once Kami gets back, we're pretty much tethered to Nashville until, I don't know, 2014. At our last doctor's appointment, Emmy's heart was ticking like an Avett Brothers song:

 



And Kami's blood pressure was absolutely perfect. The Good Doctor does want to see her just before she goes to Dallas, and then it's seeing that dude every two weeks until El Dia Grande. In other positive news, we paid him off. Dr. Smallwood officially received $2067.40 from us, so now we can actually take her home when she does decide to show up, instead of just visiting her in his office between 2:30 and 3:15pm on Thursdays, until he got his green.

Things are moving along quite quickly. This weekend is, depressingly, almost over; then it's our respective out-of-state trips next weekend; then it's Birthing Class weekend; then Lanie - the little girl that Kami takes care of - has her dance recital. Memorial Day Weekend we're planning a Babymoon, and then it's June. I was told by El Jefe at The Hermitage that pregnancy is like being on a speeding train, from which you cannot actually slow down, or disembark. I'm starting to see his point.

Housing update: There are some other factors at work, but it looks as though we're going to stay put in our apartment for the time being. After thinking about it, there just may be such a thing as Too Much Change, and to have a baby and buy a house at the same time seems like somewhat of a bad idea. At this point, we simply don't know what our expenses will be with Emmy, so we don't want to even deal with the possibility of getting $500'd and $1000'd to death while still figuring out how this whole Baby Thing works. I bet she's expensive. There's a chance my brother-in-law will move out, at which point we'll have the room for a nursery (and some extra storage space). So everything will be fine. It may make me a bad grandson, but at least I'll feel like a responsible husband/father.

Speaking of expensive, we got about 80% of our baby registry done on this fine day. So if you're so inclined, since my Daddy Registry List was met with thundering indifference, you can buy things at either Target or Babies R Us. There will be a registry at Giggle.com, as well, but we'll fix that tomorrow. Five hours of scanning things was quite enough, thank you very much.

I can't tell you how wonderful Kami is. If you'll allow me to get personal - something I do not enjoy doing - for a moment, I was not expecting my first emotional breakdown since finding out Kami was pregnant to begin with to come in the pacifier section at Target. She's the love and light of my life, and I cannot imagine doing anything without her. There's no way I could be with someone else for nine years - most everyone else camps out and sings Kum Ba Yah on my nerves well before nine years have passed.

Daddy Registry

I'll have Baby Shower info up here soon enough, because I'm man enough to admit that sending out shower invitations is just a way of saying, "Hey, if you want to buy us some things, not only would that be great, but here's a list, and would not only be appreciated, but encouraged."

But there are some things that I'd personally be interested in, such as:
This. This. Or this. Definitely this and this. This. This, for sure. Pretty much all of these.

This list will evolve.

I was the eskimo, and I was sold ice

So today was a big day, huh? After looking at 26 houses, we think we found the one (now we just have to read up on how this HUD thing works). We're going to go back tomorrow evening and see it again, just to make sure that we didn't miss a crawlspace full of monkeys, or a hidden closet full of clowns (mine and Kami's worst fears, respectively). Should everything work out, we'll place our bid on Tuesday, and then wait for the government to get back to us. Based on recent events, the government should get back to us around June 2041.

Then came the unexpected part. Back in January I got a wild hair up my tailpipe and bought a $200 Groupon to Mattress Firm for $50. Because, you see, the mattress we currently have is about eight years old - which is about 60 in Mattress Years. It was a great mattress. Except when we moved into the house on Lake Street in Cooperstown, the stairwell leading up to the bedrooms wouldn't allow for the size of said king mattress. Because the house on Lake Street was built in a time where people over 5'10" were hanged for sorcery. So in order to get our wonderful king-size Ikea mattress up the stairs to the bedroom, we had to get the straps you use to keep refrigerators on dollies and fold it like a dadgum taco.

This obviously had a less-than-ideal impact on the mattress' effectiveness.

(Side note/history lesson: Our bed doesn't have box springs, but instead uses the wooden slats. Old beds used ropes to keep the mattresses aloft, and you would have a Rope Key that you would use to tighten the ropes to keep it from sagging, much like our mattress does now. So when you went to bed, you were told to "Sleep Tight." Boom. Knowledge Bomb.)

Anyhow, over the past 13 weeks or so the mattress hasn't been treating Kami right. I sleep fine, but I could lay down on the floor, be asleep in five minutes, and only wake up when my kidneys fell asleep. We go to bed around 10pm - later for me, because it's been MLB Extra Innings' free preview week, and I've watched every Astros game I could after she goes to bed. I'm very tired. So Kami sleeps from 10pm, gets up and goes to the bathroom, goes back to bed, gets up and goes to the bathroom, and goes back to bed. Then, lately, she wakes up at 3am and can't get back to sleep until about five minutes before my alarm goes off at 5:15. This has made the days go by in a disagreeable manner.

So we've sort of been looking for a new mattress. I keep telling Kami that we could probably get one for about $400. She says a mattress that costs $400 is not a mattress worth sleeping on. So today we decided to go into Mattress Firm, after possibly resigning ourselves to spending our Groupon on a mattress topper, just to see if that might make things easier.

Those Mattress Firm dudes were so smooth. I walk in with my pregnant wife, and they were like sharks in the water, and I was bleeding. One salesman had Kami lie down on the mattresses while the other salesman chatted me up about my old-school Astros hat, and the impending move of the Astros to the American League. I had no chance.

The salesman asked what our price range was, and I said, "I have a baby coming, possibly in ten weeks. I'm not emotionally prepared to spend $2000 on a mattress." He guided me over to the Simmons Roosevelt mattress, king size. I looked at the price tag - almost $4000. He says, "Hey, I'll tell you what. This is the floor model, we need to get it moving. What if we take some off the top, and with your Groupon, and our 72-Hour Sale, that'll bring it down to $1600?" He suggests the $150 waterproof mattress protector and delivery tomorrow afternoon (just in case Kami's water breaks while she's asleep, and we don't have to do this again in three months), and what does that total come to? $1870.

Apparently I'm not emotionally prepared to spend $2000, but $1870? SIGN ME UP. The bed comes tomorrow between 2:30 and 5:30pm.

Song #97

So last night's song (#97) was "We Don't Gotta Work It Out" by Fitz & The Tantrums.



Ms. Thang was quite responsive, especially when the baritone sax kicked in, and the keyboard thing in the second bridge. It's also quite possible that she was eating (seeing as how it was a couple of hours after Kami had dinner), and was just tapping her foot while she ate.

Catching Up

My apologies for the latest lull - I went to San Antonio for a conference (shout-out to Dave & Hailey for the hospitality, great hanging out), and then off to Houston to see my parents.

Anyhow, for the last week, I've been trying to catch up from being gone for six days. So some updates:

*Glucose! The Friday before I left for San Antonio, we went for Kami's glucose test, to see if she is running the risk of being gestationally diabetic. It was the one-hour test, and she got the results while I was gone. What was Kami's test? 141. What's the cut-off so that you have to take the three-hour test? 140. So Kami had to take the three-hour test eight days ago. We're guessing that, since we haven't heard anything, everything's fine.

*Ms. Thang kicks like Pele, especially when I play her music. See, we're about 100 days (give or take) away from the Due Date - and that's provided she makes her due date. So we have started using my phone to play her our 100 favorite songs. So far (in no particular order):

-Trip Through Your Wires, U2. Result? She liked it just fine, but nothing crazy. Which breaks my heart just a little bit.
-Mirrorball, Elbow. Result? Absolutely nuts. Ms. Thang loves Elbow, which makes my heart sing. I sat my phone on Kami's belly, and that phone popped like popcorn - it was great.
-Haven't figured out tonight's selection just yet, but it'll be a good one.

*My appetite has totally changed. Usually, I'm down for french fries pretty much whenever. You can wake me up in the middle of the night and ask if I want to go to McDonald's. I would be pissed at you, but yeah, I would go. However, lately, I'm not interested in french fries whatsoever. What does it mean? Probably nothing, but it's weird, nonetheless.