So I have not written in a blog
post in a few years. In fact the last thing I wrote about was my engagement to
my now wife/baby mama/woman who lately keeps putting this strange tasting milk
in my fridge in little bottles. In fact, that series of posts was much better received
than any of my travel pieces, so I should have been writing romance novels the
whole time. On that note, if this seems like it was written by your 6-year old
nephew who sticks crayons up his nose and eats glue off of Popsicle sticks during
arts and crafts time I apologize.
Having said all that, I am approaching
ten years of blogging and am looking to head in a new direction. Life has
changed greatly (and for the better I might add!). Gone are the days of months-long traveling expeditions, sleeping in hostels with a bunch of white people with greasy
dreadlocks, and drunken nights in exotic locales. Alas, now I am an old-married
man who loves nothing more than sitting on his couch with his amazing wife,
beautiful daughter, Netflix and dog, Milo, who has a strange fascination with
humping any blanket that has a cheetah or leopard print pattern. I’m going out on a limb here, but I think he failed sex education.
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| Not gonna lie...this one took a few takes |
Over the next couple of blog
posts, I will attempt to capture the magic (pretty sure that was what my wife
was calling it while she was cranking a baby out of her hoo-ha) of the recent
birth of our lovely daughter Adeline. I will attempt to leave out the most
graphic stuff, but hey if I was able to stomach it, I’m sure you can too.
So, where to start? Well, nine or
so months ago I looked at my wife and the next thing I knew she announced, “I think
I’m pregnant”. Actually, I am pretty sure that she said “I know I’m pregnant”. I
will forever remember this night because we happened to be about the town that evening and all my wife was concerned about was buying a stick to piss on when she
got home so that she could prove me that she was in fact “with child” as the
sophisticated people say. Well, wouldn’t you know it but we came home and the next
thing I know the two of us are hovering over a little piece of plastic in our
bathroom that my wife just happened to relieve herself on. And that my friend is where babies from. This
led to my wife crying tears of happiness and me standing there in shock looking
like someone who just invited ALF and E.T. to a dinner party and actually had both
of them show up. This was of course all verified by a highly trained medical professional in due time. Yes, it would seem that parenthood was imminent.
***PEE STICK VIDEO BELOW ONLY SEEMS TO BE PLAYING ON DESKTOP COMPUTERS! SORRY***
I will not bore you with the too many details about the next nine or
so months. The quick version goes like this:
- My wife’s belly grew (if she asks tell her it was hardly
noticeable)
- We spent a lot of money on maternity clothes that she never wore
- We spent a lot of money on baby clothes that my daughter will
probably never wear and baby accessories that she will probably never need or
use
- Gender reveal (yes, this is a thing!) and baby shower parties were
had
- Photos were taken
- A doula was hired (I will admit I had no idea what this was prior
to this)
- The decision was made to use a mid-wife instead of a doctor
- Many appointments were had with said mid-wife
- I made frequent trips to the store to buy very specific things that
my wife would crave (salsa runs at 11pm anyone!?)
- Milo would get jealous of the unborn child and deposit feces around
our living quarters
You get the idea.
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| Who doesn't love a good baby shower?! |
Somewhere along the way the decision was made by my wife that she
wanted to have a homebirth. I thought this was something that was only done
because people couldn’t get to the hospital in time. Nope, it’s a REAL THING I was
informed. Now I know most people
associate things such as homebirths to the pioneer age or maybe to the more “granola”
types (of which Colleen is not), but we
were told that it was perfectly safe and in the event that anything were to
appear abnormal with the pregnancy and/or birth we would be immediately taken
to the hospital. The decision to have a homebirth is one that everyone seems to
have an opinion on, so we did not tell too many people beforehand because every
Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks because they watch Grey’s Anatomy they are medical
experts. Newsflash: If you work in a grocery store give me tips on buying
produce, not on birthing matters. Sorry, rant over.
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| By the way baby...did we tell you about our birth plan? |
OH YEAH…AND DID I MENTION WE WERE PLANNING TO HAVE A HOMEBIRTH IN
WATER!? WITHOUT DRUGS! Here I was a mere few months removed from believing that
no baby could ever possibly be born anywhere but a hospital. Next thing I knew I was mapping out space in
my living room for an inflatable pool. If anyone is feeling really brave just
go watch some water-birthing clips on Youtube (and those are the ones that are
safe for public consumption).
If Vegas had set odds at the
beginning of our pregnancy that my wife would want to birth her child at home,
in an inflatable pool, and drug-free I would bet that the odds would have been
somewhere in the 10,000 to 1 range. And
that’s probably low-balling it.
And with that we waited. Our birthing kit was set, the inflatable
rental pool was on standby (think a larger, more durable kiddy pool), and the
nursery complete. Now we just had to
wait for the tiny human…Well at least I imagine they feel tiny coming out. Isn’t
that right ladies?
Thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoyed it!
~Brent~
NEXT BLOG: The birth of a baby!
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