Video Diary Special!

This weekend we're having the nursery painted!

Before being a prospective nursery, this room was used as an office and then a spare room. The walls (old house = horsehair plaster) were in terrible shape, and the colour a very 'sexy', but totally not nursery friendly brown.

I called on a young man, Brenden, who is spending the weekend patching and painting the room. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to update you and show you the new nursery!

Please use this as evidence if I should die on 01/01/2010

It's that time of year when we have to select our medical and life benefits.

 

Much like many people, we're given a chunk of credits that we can apply to different benefits. This usually means that someone like me (blind, British, scared of the doctor) may apply more credits to vision and dental coverage, less to medical coverage. I don't need to add our child to my plans just yet, apparently having a baby is counted as a 'qualifying event', and means that I can change my stuff when the 'event', 'occurs'.

 

I'm usually fairly frugal with my credits. Credits that remain can be converted to cash, which is added to your paycheck. The bare minimums usually work for me, enough coverage to be legal, not quite enough to be healthy.

 

This year is different.

 

This year I've given myself a half decent medical plan. I've gone with the premium vision plan, purely so that I don't have to clean my glasses on the scrubs of the delivering doctor before taking my first look at our son. I've even gone with a good dental plan, and might even go to one of those tooth doctors. I saved though, the biggest splurge for last.

 

I usually go with the minimum 1x salary for life insurance. I don't like to spend my money on life insurance, because I will never benefit.

 

Next year though, things change. So I turned the dial to 11. The max that I could get, I'm worth $200,000 dead. Alise is the sole beneficiary.

Shake it Baby, Shake it

It's possible.

It's very possible.

It's possible that Alise has felt the baby move, and maybe kick.

Right now we are on 'kick alert'. Alise called me this morning to tell me that she thought she'd felt the little chap move his feet. It's difficult to say for sure, there's a lot 'going on in there'; but this was a feeling that she's never felt before.

So we'll be very quiet the next few days, hoping for a repeat. If a kick is confirmed, then I'll be painting a ping pong ball to look like a soccer (football) ball, and making Alise swallow it. Just to give the boy some early practice.

References on Request

It was quite a day yesterday, my apologies for not posting. We've got a lot to talk about though, so stay posted.

I work for a company that is contracted to the State of Massachusetts, and as such am considered, for budgeting purposes, a State employee. Under normal circumstances this is a pretty good thing, the benefits are usually good, the jobs usually safe, the coffee usually of a pretty good standard.

These are not normal circumstances.

Like much of the country, indeed the world; the State of Massachusetts is low on money. $140 million has been slashed from the budget, cuts are being made.

It's for that reason that 9 of my colleagues walked out of the door yesterday, never to return. Among them some good friends, who I hope to keep in touch with but who I'll miss day to day. More layoffs are expected, and as I was the last in, I'm hoping to hell that I won't be among those out but I'm also preparing myself for the worst.

It's led to quite the atmosphere here. It almost feels like we're on one of those game shows where people are eliminated each week until a solitary winner remains. 'Who Wants to Keep Their Job!' is what I'm calling it, and I think I'll pitch the idea to the television people when I next see them. I kid, of course. Cutbacks are a necessary evil sometimes, it's just unfortunate for all that the economy is in the state that it is.

In other news though, happy awesome news; something wonderful happened this morning. Join us next week to find out what! (aw, just kidding, I'll write later on today).

Beggars 'R' Us

We went to Babies'R'us on Saturday, to start the registry for the baay-bee.

Sure, it was kind of fun to be given a gun and told to roam free among the store, scanning shit onto our list; but it was also a little depressing. We already knew this before; but babies need a lot of stuff!

We scanned a total of 11 things. We will need to go back. Often. There are many things, many whole sections of the store that we missed.

If anyone is interested in viewing our list, go to www.babiesrus.com and find the registry tab at the top, and search under 'brann' for last name of registrant, or crossland for co-registrant. We will let you know when we've finished the list, by which time the boy will probably be working there himself. It seriously could take that long!

Video Diary - Echo Bridge

Fall is here! Finally! The leaves are golden, the air cold and fresh without being frigid and filled with snow.

We took Coco for a walk in the woods earlier, to a place called 'Echo Bridge'. Hopefully the video will show why it's called that!

Blitzkrieg

For the last couple of days, Alise and I have been virtual mirror images of ourselves. We both sit, looking tired, with our hands stroking our stomachs.

 

For Alise, of course, this is all perfectly natural, healthy, and sweet. She's holding our child protectively, like the wonderful mother that she already is. She's getting used to this new growth, and getting to know her new body. Aaww… so sweet.

 

For me its because a war of attrition has broken out in my bowels.

 

After an initial night-time raid, the ars-is of evil struck a blow against the colon-ition. It was an intestine battle, during which the Turds were expelled from the Holey land.

 

Ok, I'll stop there. Sorry.

 

Of course, because I'm male, whenever I'm sick I'm 'dying'. Pretty soon I'll be fighting fit though, and ready to eat Indian food once more. To victory!

It's a small, small world

I think one of the strangest things for me about this day and age, is how small the world sometimes seems.

Today I read a story on the BBC website, so published in London, about a terror suspect that had been arrested in Massachusetts. And this was how I first found out about it.

Nevermind that I actually live in Massachusetts; I hear about where I live via the country that I left.

When I was growing up, America seemed like a lifetime away. I had always been very interested in the country, and it was always #1 on my personal 'I want to go there' list. Now I'm living here and I call it home; and understandably I guess the appeal has waned. Now I think that China or Japan are terribly interesting and deserving of my presence, and hopefully we'll be able to visit at some point.

Our child will think nothing of traveling long distances. As things stand, he's 3000 miles away from each of his grandmothers, one being to his east and one to his south-west. One of his uncles is currently about 3000 miles west, his closest grandparent a three hour car ride north.

A lot depends on whether we decide to stay where we are or to move closer to relatives, but it's likely that our boy will grow up with different ideas about family than we did. I truly hope that he will be as close to as many of them as possible, and hope that he won't miss out on anything just because his dad moved to America.

Farewell old friend...

Alise and I said goodbye to a dear old friend today.

Alise has had a belly button ring for about 10 years now. Its always
been there, a constant in an ever changing world. As the belly has
grown though, its become clear that this ring, this symbol of youth
and wild abandon, has to go.

We will miss you, old buddy. Thanks for the memories!

--
Sent from my mobile device

When I was young, we only had 3 channels!

I read two separate articles the other day.

 

The first was about some new kind of battery technology, that if successful will create batteries that, though just the size of a penny, could provide energy to power a device for 10 years. Without being recharged. Imagine the possibilities? Cars could be clean and need no gas, laptops could be used in the third world, and my phone won't need to be plugged in every night.

 

The second was about some mad scientist bloke who is developing a procedure that can slow the functions of the body to a basic crawl, allowing the critically ill to get medical care before it's too late. It's as if they are put into a suspended state. All very cool.

All of this is very exciting. Of course, I wasn't born in the dark ages but the level of advancement over the past few years has been quite astonishing.

Which led me to ponder… what will this earth be like when our son is our age?

What will the life expectancy be? What will transport be like? Television? We had a colour TV, but only with 3 channels and no remote control or method of recording. We had one computer at school, but it was very basic by today's standards and each child had about an hour a month on it. Alise and I, between us, have (I think) seven things that can get onto the internet. Will this be considered laughable in the future?

 

It's exciting to think of being a parent, but almost more exciting to think of the advances that will occur during his lifetime.

Video Diary Time!!

Fall, you tardy bastard

Dear Autumn,

 

WTF man?? What happened to you this year? Are you okay? Sick? H1N1???

 

We wish you'd told us. We had everything ready for you. We were going to pick apples and carve pumpkins and kick piles of leaves into the air. I had jackets for us all to wear too! Usually you show up and I can wear them for a few weeks and feel comfortable. But no. Apparently you're just TOOOO important and decided to bail on us.

 

Old man Winter, despite his age and arthritic knees, was EARLY. This should shame you. He actually made it snow this morning.

 

There's still time for you to make an appearance… just please be quick. Halloween just isn't the same without you.

 

Coldest regards,

 

New England.

The Strangest Thing...

The attached photo was obtained at the ultrasound.

It's one of those 3D type thingys, I'm not sure what the technology behind it is but it's one of the strangest ultrasound images I've ever seen. It shows our baby boy's face, and it's kind of creepy and kind of cute. Make of it what you will!

Song Time for Baby

When you were in, the ultra, sound,

I asked the doctor, what will you be,

'will it have bollocks, will it have none',

Here's what she said, to me…

 

It's a boy, a boy…..

 

 

That's quite enough of that nonsense.

 

So! We're having a boy. The ultrasound yesterday was quite an experience, really. While we didn't really get to see much of the whole of the child (not sure why, maybe he's too big to get onto the tv screen at once now?), they were able to do a 3D type photo of his face. I'll post that here when its scanned in.

 

It is quite a bizarre photo, and he looks kind of half alien/half child. The more that I look at it though, the cuter he gets. I think he's going to be a little heart breaker when he's older and less critically under-developed.

 

The strangest part, most certainly, was seeing that he was sucking his thumb. Even at just 18 weeks; this being, this child of mine was lying back, enjoying life, and sucking his thumb like his dad did until he was about… oohhh… 17.

And The Weiner Is...

For months now, I've been convinced that our child is a boy.

That's not to say that I'd necessarily prefer a boy, I've just had a feeling. Admittedly it was a 50/50 shot, but I was pretty convinced.

Today we had the ultrasound. While in there I asked the question, Rolf Harris style (British/Australian reference). 'Can you tell what it is yet?'

The radiologist checked with Alise to be sure that she wanted to know. Purely with the motive of proving me wrong, she did want to know.

'It's a boy' she said. I danced a little.

I would have been perfectly happy with a girl, of course. But, it's a boy!!

Ultrasound day

I'm writing this from the hospital, on my phone. Please excuse any
spelling errors.

We just had an ultrasound, and are waiting to see the doctor. Or
nurse. Or doctors assistant. Or something. Anyway, someone with much
more knowledge than I will be seeing us shortly.

The ultrasound did go well, and all appears to be in order. When the
time is right, we will announce the sex of the child, because we now
do know!

--
Sent from my mobile device

A Momentous Happening!

Something of great importance happened on Friday evening.

 

Alise and I, happy with our bulk cooking/freezing extravaganza, decided to splurge and go out to dinner. We settled, after some discussion, on a Chinese restaurant that's close to where Alise used to work. Called the 'Ginger Root', located in the Italian section of Newton, it's not much to look at from either side of the windows but it serves good Chinese food at a reasonable price with great service. And the mango chicken really is to die for.

 

After gorging ourselves, we both reclined and adopted the 'hands on belly' pose. When the waitress bought the check, she gave a shriek. 'You're pregnant!' she gasped.

 

This, ladies and gents, was the very first time that someone who doesn't know that Alise is pregnant has said that she is. It's official, she's looking like someone who's pregnant.

 

I did have to take a moment to make sure that she was talking to Alise, and not to me. While Alise is displaying a belly that's consistent with a 4 month old growth, so too am I.

 

It is, apparently, a common phenomenon. The daddy also eats for two, and puts on some weight. Last night I took a bath and was alarmed to find that rolls of fat were creeping up my torso, almost restricting my movement. I've added a few pounds, and I'm getting chunky.

 

While its never a bad idea to add some insulation as winter approaches (and it seems to have taken an express train, the morning walk was not pleasant today); I've never put on weight or bulk as quickly in my life. I'm eating well, but heartily, and at the current rate will be a bit of a bloater by the time the baby is born.

 

So; I'm going on a bit of a diet. I'm going to fight the flab and reduce my carby footprint. No more bacon shall pass my lips!

 

God I'm a terrible liar…

Bring Me My Grapes!

Alise and I were talking about her symptoms, or lack thereof, the other day.

 

It is, of course, a good thing that she hasn't suffered from morning sickness. Some women can suffer terribly, which isn't a good thing when nutrition and hydration is so important. The other 'Hollywood friendly' symptom that's been largely lacking has been for food cravings.

 

It was always central to my image of 'expectant father' that the man be seen driving all around town at 3am to locate the specific brand and flavor of ice-cream that his partner desired. I've always heard stories of women craving the strangest concoctions, mixing ingredients with wild abandon and barking almost impossible orders, Emperor style. 'Bring me freshly picked oranges! And then liquefy them with Gouda. And do it now!'.

 

Alise hasn't asked this. She hasn't really asked anything close. When she needs to eat she NEEDS TO EAT RIGHT NOW! – but she's basically been eating the same things that she ate before.

 

So, I kind of feel like I've been missing out. It feels like I've missed out on a rite of passage. This way is preferable to scouring the 24 hour stores for blueberry jam, but still… I've been largely redundant throughout all of this.

 

One symptom, of course, that's hit particularly hard in the last week or so has been lack of sleep, coupled with back aches. We'll touch on that one shortly.  

Water Water Everywhere...

This morning I woke up fairly late and scurried to get ready for work. My morning routine on days like these involves dressing largely in the dark so as not to wake Alise any more than I already have, throwing some food down Coco's throat, letting her outside so that she can water and fertilize the lawn, swishing some mouthwash, grabbing some lunch out of the fridge (if available) and scooting out of the door to walk the 15 minutes to the train station.

 

This morning, as I walked, I noticed that one of the temporary water pipes that's been set up in the neighborhood had sprung a leak, and was sending a torrent of water into the street. I avoided getting splashed by cars and got to my train.

 

When I checked emails on my phone, I saw a flood (pun intended) of emails from the neighbors, complaining of a loss of water pressure. I communicated to then (via the neighborhood email chain thingy) my findings, relaying that it was probably the cause of said loss of pressure.

 

Emails erupted. Everyone complaining, and reporting their loss of water. I remember thinking to myself 'jesus! Calm down people! It's only water!'

 

Of course, in a few months it'll be different. Alise and I can perfectly take care of ourselves whether we have no water, no electricity, or even (gasp) no internet. Soon though we'll depend on these things, we'll need all of the creature comforts of home to be uninterrupted. We'll rely on people and things. Whereas now we often say 'you and me against the world', we'll soon need the world more than ever.

MIND THE GAP!!

It was probably only about 6 weeks or even a month ago that Alise and I were in a Gap Maternity store.

 

At that point, she had put on a little weight, and had a little bit of a tummy. She really didn't look pregnant though, more like she'd eaten quite a bit recently and hadn't exercised. Her clothes were getting a little tight though, and we'd begun to shop for maternity clothes.

 

While there, and while she was trying on her clothes, Alise found a 'fake belly' in the changing room. Basically a bump with Velcro strapping, she was able to see for herself how she'd look with a baby belly, and therefore how the clothes would fit.

 

At the time, if I'm honest, it kind of scared me to see her with this fake belly. Hypothetically I know that a real belly would soon come, but to see an artist impression of Alise in the future had put me on edge. And this was only 6 weeks ago, if that.

 

Within the space of this 6 weeks (or less. On reflection; I think it's more like a month) Alise has certainly grown. She went from 'might have had a few too many cheeseburgers' to 'I should probably give my seat up to that girl but I don't know for sure if she's pregnant so I might offend her if she's just a bit heavy' to 'baby on board'. Obviously she's going to get a lot bigger before she gets smaller, but she's certainly well on the way.

 

And am I scared? Do you know what? I'm actually not. Alise looks wonderful. She's glowing, she looks healthy, and she's as cute as a button. These are good times.

Time Flies When You're Having Unplanned Pregnancies...

Sometimes I like to play a game.

Actually, I should rephrase that statement. At pretty much every stage of my existence I'm playing some kind of game. 'What stop will he get off the train', is one. 'How many people will call in sick today', another. You may think I'm childish, but it helps to pass the day and it's all good practice for when the child arrives. I've actually considered that I'll think of this thing as less a child than a really late little brother or sister; which I'm sure is going to put Alise into a great position.

Anyway. This game I'm talking about.

Starting from the front page of the BBC website, I allow myself 5 clicks and have to end up at the story that was published furthest back in time. Because the BBC website has only been around since 1998 or so, and because the links to stories are related to current affairs, ending up in the early 2000's is a great achievement. The other day I broke my all time record (securing the Gold medal in the process), when I landed, on click 5, at this gem published in 1999.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/432463.stm

I then sat, my jaw dropping evermore, and read the story.

Firstly, this is batshit insane. A grandmother at 26?? I'm 31 and consider myself pretty young and I'm worrying about my readiness for parenthood. If I were this lady I could be a grandparent of a 5 year old! Crazy.

I then, soon afterwards, got an email from an old friend, Catrin, who reminded me that 10 years ago I started work at the same company that she currently works at. This shook me. (I should point out that when I say 'Old Friend', I mean that I've known Catrin for 10 years. Not that she's old. Though in fairness, she is 10 years older now than when I first met her).

I guess time really does fly. A lot has happened since I first showed up for my first 'real job' in an ill fitting suit and with a leatherette briefcase, but it really doesn't seem like it was 10 years ago. In 10 years I'll be in my 40's. In another 10 my child will be either at college or... well who knows where s/he'll be. If their life is anything like the people in the article, I could be a grandfather in a little under 13 years. Now there's something to scare the bejesus out of me.

We're running out of space...

One of the better pieces of advice that I've had in the last few weeks was this:

 

'Practice bending over now. You'll be doing it a lot when you've got a child'

 

Sound advice.

 

Alise and I both have issues with our backs. I have graduated from feeling a twinge in my back every now and then to now always saying 'oouuch' whenever I bend at a greater than 90 degree angle. Often I wake in terrible pain, and many of my older t-shirts now stink of Ben-Gay. For those of you that are not American, Ben-Gay is a menthol rub product, and not what your perverted minds are thinking it is.

 

To try to help ourselves, we've been talking about buying a new mattress. Many people with back complaints consider a good mattress the best purchase that they make, and no doubt we'd feel the same way. Since, however, we're a pair of cheap bastards; we've been exploring more frugal alternatives.

 

The first thing that we're trying is a mattress pad. This thing that we bought from Target is the consistency of a heavy comforter and sits on top of the mattress, below the ground sheet. We put it on last night and it transformed our bed from 'fairly normal bed' to 'most comfortable bed in the world'. Time will tell what effect this will have on our spines, but I'm not going to let this thing go without a fight.

 

This though, isn't the only difference to our sleeping. Alise is having to sleep on her side these days, for that's what's recommended. To aid this, last week we bought a body pillow. A big, long, soft, green thing that's now sharing the bed with Alise, myself, and our four cats who have decided to bury their individual differences for the sakes of somewhere warm and comfortable to sleep.

 

Things are getting a little crowded.

 

We don't have the largest bed in the world. It's a queen size, and on an average night contains 4 pillows, 1 super large pillow, 7 heartbeats and some crumbs. If this truly is the calm before the storm (which I'm in no doubt, it is), then it's going to be one hell of a storm.

Video Diary Time!!

I know, I know... It's been a while! But fear not, here is the latest video diary.

Small thing to note though, this wasn't actually going to be a video diary. It was supposed to be a photo. Since the camera was set to 'video' mode though, I made the snap decision to do it live, and shoot where we were. This explains both the hesitation at the beginning of the video, and also the fact that it was taken 'portrait' style as opposed to 'landscape'. You'll either have to tilt your head or turn your monitor on one end. You'll cope.

And dinner will be served at 4pm...

Alise and I were discussing our 'what to do's this weekend' earlier.

 

Last weekend we went to the football (soccer) game at Gillette stadium, home of the New England Revolution and the New England Patriots. They've built quite the complex there, with stores, restaurants and a Showcase cinema. Last weekend we went to 'Five Guys' for a burger before the game, and found it to be (in my humble opinion, at least) the best burger joint on the face of the Earth.

 

We've decided that this weekend we'll go to see a movie at the Showcase, having lunch at Five Guys before we go. Quite seriously we decided to go to an afternoon screening, because when we go to the movies in the evenings we get tired and feel like falling asleep.

 

Now, Alise has an excuse for this. She's pregnant! What's my excuse?

 

My hair gets grayer with every passing month. I get tired easily, and my back hurts. I'm old even before someone as yet unborn has the ability to say 'Gawd Dad! You're SOO old!'.

 

I'm wondering what effect this baby will have on me and my energy levels. On one hand I think that it'll whip me into shape. That I'll be so busy that I'll have no time to be tired. On the other…

 

It scares me to even think what shape I'll be in, in a year from now.

She's Going to be a Baby Doggy

I mentioned Coco yesterday, and her magnificent efforts to save us all money by heating the house solely through the heat of her farts. She hasn't yet realized that we outdo her efforts by opening the windows to allow the smell, and the heat to escape, but she is trying and we appreciate this.

There has been another noticeable difference in Coco's behavior, over the last few weeks.

I've told you about Coco before, but let me recap. Coco is a gorgeous, very large, lovable and quite goofy nine year old Chocolate Lab. She's an English Lab, so has larger ears and a more pronounced nose that your typical lab, which just adds to her beauty. She's the kind of dog that people slow down to gawk at, and children love her. We were walking her the other day down our street when a child being held by its father came the other way. This little girl (must have been maybe a year old) gave a shriek and pointed at Coco, her legs waving in a gesture of sheer joy, matched only by the smile on her face and also by the tail wag of Coco.

Coco is great with kids. When around adults, especially tall, adult males she will horseplay like the horse that she is. She'll rush into people, jump up at them, try to lick the tops of their head, and generally be a big and unruly goofball. When faced with small kids though, she'll calm down and allow them to pet her, she'll make less violent movements, and she'll let them do anything to her. She's wonderful, and I'm quite sure that she'll be wonderful with our child.

There is something though, I think, that she's already started to do. I think that she's started to become ultra protective of Alise.

If Coco is allowed into our bedroom and onto the bed, she'll quite gently but quite deliberately crawl to Alise and lay her head onto her stomach. She'll be calmer than she used to be. I've noticed this as a subtle change recently, and I think it'll become more pronounced as the weeks pass. In addition, last night she heard someone outside our house. Before she would have let out a short 'gruff' sound. Last night she howled, loudly, and then barked. Very rare for Coco, but I think indicative of her probably very innate transition to protector and guardian of Alise.

Coco, if you're reading this (and I know you do all sorts of things while we're at work so I'm not putting it past you), thank you. You've been an awesome companion for the last few years and I'm looking forward to introducing you to your little brother or sister to you. They'll have a long way to go to beat you.