31 Weeks and Growing

Today marks Katie's 31st week of pregnancy. It also marks the first day of my new life. That's right, good people, Jeff changed his first diaper last night.....well, sort of. During our weekly birth class last night, our instructor asked me to get off my posterior (harder than you'd think right now, following a Thanksgiving weekend game of football), sit on the floor, and change the diaper of one "Pebbles the doll." I must say, while this exercise was undoubtedly easier (and cleaner) than the real thing will be, I received high marks from both of my teachers. Jennifer evaluated me on my technique, including minding the baby's head at all times during the change, while Katie weighed just how soon she might hand over all poopy diaper responsibilities. Had I known my efforts were to be met with such praise, I might have sandbagged just a bit to potentially delay my participation in this most illustrious component of child rearing. As it is, however, I'm sure to be in the thick of it when Lily arrives.

By the end of the night, Katie and I had been introduced to all things post-partum. From the good to the bad to the ugly, we now know that we can expect lots of fun even after the baby is delivered. Yikes! It's amazing the things people don't tell you! Nonetheless, we are even more excited now for our baby girl to get here. Katie is still feeling about as well as can be expected, and we are making sure she's eating right and drinking lots of water, staying somewhat active, and doing her prenatal exercises. We both know that she is going to experience increasing discomfort over these last two months, but so far she has taken everything in stride, and I'm very proud of her.

The last bit of information to share is the dogs' reaction to having Baby Pebbles in the house last night. As soon as Jennifer walked in with the doll in her car seat (to teach us about car seat safety), both Jay and Buster were immediately interested. They of course mobbed Jennifer as usual, their Shih Tzu guard dog training evident in the number of debilitating kisses they landed, but they soon forgot her and focused on the baby. In fact, after Jennifer got settled and the initial interest in our visitors had seemingly passed, Katie and I glanced over to find Buster, not sitting quietly as we had believed, but rather inside the car seat itself, sitting on Baby Pebbles' chest and sniffing her plastic face. Needless to say, we hope not to recreate this scene upon Lily's arrival at home. While we know the dogs will both be excited and somewhat threatened by the impending addition, we are hopeful that their curiosity will soon give way to love for their new little sister.