10,000 views of Noname!!

Wow, over 10,000 people have viewed the video of Jude (when we referred to him as noname) in Sherry's belly...

Hospital Food

I just had my second child.  My wife and first son are on my insurance through my work.  I am responsible for paying the bills and providing her medical and dental healthcare.  It is I who is paying the hospital their thousands of dollars in exchange for a healthy wife and kid at the end of our 48 hours there.  Not a bad trade at all, in fact I would pay good money to anyone that promised to return my family back to me in a healthy condition after undergoing such a traumatic event as child birth.

My only complaint is, would it really break the bank for you guys to offer me a meal, so that I can enjoy sitting next to my sweet wife, who just squeezed a watermelon out of her vagina, without going down to the cafeteria and eating alone?

It strikes me as ironic that being the one who is financially responsible for paying for all the doctors, nurses, bags of drugs, computer usage, comforting security protocols, and fancy craft-o-matic beds and I don't even get offered a meal, much less a free one?  I think it is out of principal that I am annoyed more then anything, because not having to eat the hospital food is not something you would ever complain about.

The typical hospital meal consists of  5 components:

• Elementary-school sized juice cup
• A roll glazed with a butter-esque substance
• Mystery meat du jour
• A vegetable medley, and
• "Dessert"

So for any of you father's-to-be out there, take my advice, splurge on bringing your own meals in, and skip the hospital food.  And by splurge, I mean, pick one of your friends that is coming to meet the new child and charge them a  baby visitation admission of one lunch or dinner (depending on the time).  That nice person will usually offer to bring you something also, which will result in a "two-fer".  One being the free, good meal and two being the overpriced, bad, hospital meal that your wife will inevitable leave unconsumed once you brag to her that Bradley is bringing her a Chicken Caesar Wrap with tomato bisque from The Loop. (THANKS BRAD!!)

Once real food is secured, you should offer your wife, considering that she did just birth your child, the first right of refusal on the juice cup, bread roll, and fruit suspended in gelatin, or whatever other concoction they are trying to pass off as a dessert that day.  The rest of the glorified TV dinner is fair game, but trust me you will feel dirty in the morning after eating it.  

Note: The fastest way to identify the mystery meat is to read the meal description, which can usually be found 4 or 5 menu levels deep in that crappy interactive webTV hanging in your recovery room.

Now, it is normal to feel a little guilty when the food service staff comes back in to pick up the food tray, and you have left most of it uneaten and The Loop bags used to bring in the real food lay exposed on the floor, reminding you of that time in high school when your mom came home unexpectedly early and you and your girlfriend managed to get composed enough to play cool, until she walks in and you follow her eyes as they catch the bundle of female underwear sitting on the floor.  Yeah, kinda like that.

So my final tip, is to let you guys in on the secret compartment designed specifically to avoid this type of situation.  Next to the door to you room is a closet that opens on both the inside and outside of the room.  This closet / pantry is your friend!  It is a pass-through for dirty linens and finished food trays so that non-essential personnel don't have to enter your room, allowing you to avoid aforementioned situation and to enjoy your Law and Order in peace.

Bon Appétit!

This was the "fancy" meal!

Time to make the doughnuts

Stupid Dunkin Doughnuts ad. When ever I get up before the sun I always say "Time to make the doughnuts" in my head... and it has been like 20 years since that ad has ever been on tv. That is some powerful advertising!

Anyways, I am showered, Sherry is blow drying, Lois and Noah are sleeping. And we are off to the hospital in 30 minutes, assuming 25 people or more did not come in with babies last night, otherwise we will have to wait.

We will post here with updates, so keep an eye out.

Last day as King

To my dear first son,

Your reign as supreme ruler of our lives is coming to an end.  You have been a benevolent ruler, and for that, your mom and I thank you.  Tomorrow, will begin a new era in your world, one that you will have to share with a much smaller co-ruler.

But you should know that you were the one that we were talking about when we would ask: How could we love another child as much as this one?  and How can another child be as wonderful as him?

You are our favorite first son, and always will be. 

                                              I love you,

                                                      Dad

Conditions are Favorable

We went to our weekly appointment this morning and there is a light at the end of the tunnel! I am currently 3 cm and we have scheduled an induction for Friday morning at 7:15. So if all goes according to plan, Noname will arrive on 10/12. But who knows...we are going to have spicy shrimp tonight- so maybe he will come earlier than that! We will keep you posted.

Today's the day????

According to our worldwide poll, 36% of our readers think that today is the day that Noname will be birthed. So here is the agenda for this highly anticipated day, but to be honest it feel just as anticipated as every other day this week:

• Lois comes into town to watch Noah
• Sherry and Ben visit the doctor for their weekly scheduled visit
• Ben heads off to work, Sherry heads off to her life of leisure
• Sherry and Noah go for their induction walk through the 'hood
• Sherry, Ben, John and Noushin go to the Florida Yacht Club for dinner (the last time we went with them to dinner at the Yacht Club and Sherry was 9 months pregnant you remember what happened... right? Spicy Shrimp Tempura here we come!)
• Come home and go to sleep wondering if it will be the last sleep we get for 36 hours

Noah eating breakfast

Last night, John and Noushin came over and brought Noah two very nice presents... a wind up musical guitar from Hawaii and Noah's new favorite thing, fake credit cards for his wallet. I have given him one of my old wallet's (sorry Shelley, but it is going to good use!) and he has one of my business cards and 3 credit cards in Your Name Here's name. Thanks guys!

This is my 1st mobile blog entry. I will be using this for real time updates once contractions begin.

Nesting Instinct

10-09-07_3
Originally uploaded by beebe4

Sherry has been keeping a very clean house lately, and is always folding and refolding Noname's new clothes and arranging and rearranging his box of diapers and wipes and linens. Last night she had me search through our constantly shrinking storage area in our garage for our Halloween "stuff", and while I was working / checking my fantasy football she made our Halloween nest.

It is a comforting feeling to have her in such a state, and although we are scared of the unknown and what having two boys relying 100% on us for their care is going to be like, I once again have the calming feeling that Sherry knows exactly what she is doing, if by nothing more then instincts ... but it is so much more than instincts that give me this feeling.

Sherry, thank you for this... all of it. I love you very much and am so excited about this addition to our family.

Muffin Heads

Sorry, I forgot my audience. (most of you just read the email that I set up 3 years ago, and have not moved into the 20th century with a RSS reader)

1) Go to http://mcdonaldbaby.blogspot.com
2) Use your mouse (that thing next to your keyboard (that's the one with the keys on it)) to select your vote
3) click vote to cast your vote
4) do not email me your vote

Also, my sister Sarah asked me (in her email telling me her guess) to mention the more important guess... when does Sherry think it will be.

The answer: 10/14/07 (updated... from Ben previously saying 10/10/07)

Polls

Since this has been the topic of conversation between Sherry and I a lot lately, I have added two polls for you guys to vote on. Feel free to indicate in the comments which guess is yours.

1) How much do you think Noname will weigh?
2) When do you think he will arrive?

Just for some extra info:
- Noah was right on his due date (although labor carried him into the next day)
- Noah weighed 8 lbs 13 oz.
- Sherry has gained less weight than she did with Noah
- Ben is convinced that today is the day

In case your curious...

no baby yet.

Another Day, Another Week?

We had our weekly doctor's appointment today and NO PROGRESS! I was certain that something would have changed over the last week considering the number of contractions I have had- but I was wrong. Everything still looks great and we are scheduled to go back for another appointment next Wednesday. We did talk about the possibility of induction- but decided to wait until I am overdue for that option.

Goodbye old, hello new

As we are about to have our second BOY, Sherry and I figured it was time to update the site with a more masculine look, versus the old pink template that we have had since the site's conception.

The pink has served us pretty well, but I have had this festering thought for a while that it was not fitting... not that there is anything wrong with boys liking pink. So last night when Sherry said, "I have been trying to change the template, but I am scared that I will lose all our customizations," I knew it was time for me to act. So I did a little googling for free blogger templates and found the one you see now. I know it isn't Noah, but maybe I will take the time to get a picture of him up there, but for now it just feels much more appropriate.

I also removed the ads as I have had them on this site and my more technical site for 2 years and am up to $30 total. The junky feeling just isn't worth it to me any more.

What do you think?

Getting There

We went to the doctor this morning for our weekly checkup. She said I am still only at 1 cm - but I am now 75% effaced. She seemed a little surprised at how low Noname is sitting and said that she didn't think I would make it to my due date!! But then said that labor is always a guessing game so anything is possible. I am siding with her though and still think he is planning an early arrival. She said everything looks great and we're scheduled to see her again next week- if I make it that long! :)

Noname's nursery

We haven't done much in preparation for Noname, mostly because we already have the majority of the things we will need for him and also because we have had an extremely busy summer. We have opted not to buy Noname a new crib. Instead we are going to wait for Noah to transition to a bed and then move the crib to Noname's room. In the meantime, Noname will sleep in the pack-n-play bassinet. So right now, the only "nursery" items in his room are a changing table and pack-n-play. I did go ahead and order new bedding for him. What do you think? I decided to move away from the traditional blue this time and try something new- plus I didn't want to have to paint the already tan walls.

19 Days

We only have 19 days until Noname is expected to arrive. With Noah, I never dropped, dilated or had any progress before labor actually started- so I was pretty excited last week at my doctor's appointment when she said I was already 1 centimeter and 25% effaced. But of course the doctor had to burst my bubble and tell me that it is normal after your first pregnancy to show progress earlier. Whatever, I still think he is coming early! I go back to the doctor on Wednesday and hopefully I'll show a few more signs of getting close to delivery. I am getting pretty uncomfortable and it is getting hard to chase after Noah and to pick him up- and as you can tell from our recent video of Noname, he looks a little cramped!

Noname does the wave

We thought we would share a video of what the daily life of a 9 month pregnant lady is like. This video is from earlier this evening:

Katie & Drew's Wedding

Katie & Drew's Wedding
Originally uploaded by beebe4

Thanks to Dad and Noushin, we had a great time in Atlanta this weekend at Katie and Drew's wedding. Noah was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with them while we got to take our last getaway before Noname arrives! We also got to see Greg and Elizabeth- although we were sorry that Elizabeth was battling a fierce stomach bug! Hopefully she is feeling better now! Thanks again to Dad & Noushin for taking such great care of Noah while we were away- and thanks too for our new double stroller!

Countdown

4 weeks / 30 days / 720 hours / 43,200 minutes / 2,592,000 seconds

No matter what unit of measure you use, Baby Noname does not have long at all until he takes his first gasp of air.

We are getting very excited, and received the upgraded double stroller this week. I put it together last night and Noah has a mark on his face to prove that his climbing and Daddy's construction skills don't mix. Thank you to the Texas Turemans, the Great Bridge Hunters (plus popeplyslax and kittycait), John and Noushin, and Sherry's grandparents (I will come stay at your house for a week, if you can post a comment on this blog) .... it is truly uncalled for and truly appreciated.

Noah is still pretty oblivious to how much his world is about to change, but he has shown that he understands the concept of sharing at a play group this week so that was a great sign.

Now to the other end of he spectrum

I was playing around on YouTube and saw this video which I found interesting. I love how graphics take the gore out of things since I have such a weak stomach.