We have a chunker!

Well I know one thing my kid is better at then 100% of other kids his age. Being huge! He checks in at the 100 percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. His current nickname is the michelin man, although if you ask Laura he's not fat, he's husky.

Laura and I had very different reactions when we heard this news. Laura's first question to the doctor was, "Am I doing something wrong, should I stop feeding him, how have I created this huge kid?" My reaction was, "That's Awesome, let's keep it going!" They say it means absolutely nothing long term, but at least we know he's getting enough to eat. I can still hope for a 6'6 athletic kid, even though the likelihood is very low.

We apologize to everyone who doesn't have a picture of Chase that normal people sent out. We still haven't gotten professional pictures or done his footprint yet. They don't do that in the hospital anymore. Don't feel bad about the pictures though, Laura and I haven't actually printed any either, they are just all on a computer or online, so when people stop by my desk asking for a picture I'm the bad parent that says I don't have one.

Otherwise everything is going along in a pretty normal fashion. Laura had to come back to the working world this week, so far so good. Although she did float the idea out there about possibly going part-time. I said that wasn't part of the excel life plan we have, so that won't work right now. :) Baptism next week, 3 weeks away from heading to daycare. Everybody tells us to enjoy this time because pretty soon he's not just going to sit there anymore, we'll have to chase him.

By the way, the Twins are horrible so if anyone wants tickets, I've got some to sell you.

We got rid of our first mistake as a couple

Well, say goodbye to Gertrude, or as I said, good riddance. We call it our first mistake (the house we live in being the 2nd :) ) because we were morons when it came to negotiating for that car. We were just graduating college and Laura had her other car totaled. So we went out looking for cars. First of all while test driving, Laura states loudly, with the salesman in the car. "I Love THIS CAR, We have to get it!!!" As you can imagine it was tough to negotiate after that. I fell for the stupid, well we can give you $500 dollars off, but you would have to buy right now! I stupidly reply "OK". About a month later we started referring to the car as our fist mistake.

I feel like we do a little better now when negotiating. All negotating online, make the dealers compete against each other and keep driving the price down. Because if there's one place I do not like, it's car dealerships. (sorry if anyone is a car dealer) It just always takes so long to get anything done. This time after we had bought the car, he wanted to give me a tour of the dealership, I don't need to see the lounge at that point, just get me out of there. We could have looked at the lounge during the other hour we sat there doing nothing. We bought Chase along in case it started taking too long. The plan was to pinch him to make him cry and make the salesman uncomftorable . Because at this point the crying doesn't really bother us. We can pretty much just sit there and watch him cry. We actually find it kind of funny. I know, we're mean. So anyways we got a Toyota Rav4, so we've given in and already gotten a bigger car, although it's not a minivan.

Chase is pretty excited today, it's his first Twins game. (Quick break - Chase totally just punched Laura in the face, hilarious) We are going to show him how to keep score. I'm sure he'll fall asleep just like his mom usually does. The little guy is up above 15 lbs now, which we are finding out is prettty huge. First doctor's appointment is still a couple of weeks away, but to all those people who bought us newborn clothes, sorry he only wore that size for about 2 weeks.

I'll probably post pictures more than I blog, so if you are curious check there first. Val got married two weekends ago, so Chase did some dancing there in his little tux. I'll try to throw some more Chase pictures up today. One you can see how excited he is to wear the ridiculous clothes his mom dresses him in. This week it's a dragon bath robe with slippers. He loves it. :)

As for mistake number two, if you know anybody willing to overpay for a townhome in Ramsey, let me know.

The first word is...

HI

Or at least that's what it sounds like. :) Next up is Dad. The funny thing is you can see he is trying so hard to say something, and then finally a sound comes out. Plus you have his ridiculous parents just staring at him with stupid faces and saying hi a lot. People make the weirdest faces when talking to a baby, including myself. Interesting to know what they actually think.

Otherwise its been about a month since the last post. We've kind of fallen into a rhythm and he's not walking or crawling yet, so not much excitement to talk about. He's been to Iowa 3 times already, I know some people in Minnesota who have never been to Iowa. At Mike's graduation he was passed around to about 40 different people. I tried to get pictures of all of them but I got tired.

He's been to church a couple of times now which is definetely different with a kid. You spend half the time concerned that he is going to start wailing during a sermon. 2 for 2 so far with being quiet.

There was also one weekend Laura decided to go to a wedding and I stayed home with him. That night I found out why they make babies cute. He cried pretty much from 1 until 3:30 in the morning. He's lucky he smiled one time in the middle so I could keep my sanity. I made my mom come up that weekend and she finally got him to sleep at 3:30. Definetely a stinker, I asked him if he wanted a spanking, and that didn't seem to calm him down at all.

He's already outgrown most of his newborn clothes, so there's about 40 outfits down the drain that he never wore. Sorry to all the people who gave us newborn onesies as gifts. We weighed him last week at 13 pounds. The good news is he can now wear his Twins clothes. He's getting pretty pumped for his first game coming up the 4th of July weekend.

Well that's it for now, Laura got him some fancy clothes for Val's wedding next week so we'll post those pictures in a couple of weeks. I'm also going to throw up a bunch of new pictures right now as well.

We got a smile.... or it was gas

We've been told that babies start to react in the 4 weeks to 2 months range, but we're pretty sure we've gotten him to smile at us a couple of times in the last couple of days which is pretty cool. We also find his huge belly kind of amusing, skinny chest, skinny legs, huge belly. That's what happens when you eat all day. Other than that not a lot to report on the little guy.

His first visit to Iowa was amusing. He was quiet the entire time we were driving until we crossed the border then he started crying. Go figure. So the new game to play is where can you pull over to feed him without drawing attention. So far it's been next to a grain bin and an empty daycare parking lot. It was also comical trying to leave and come back home. Trying to pry a baby from its grandparents arms is impossible. I finally had to say, "Put the baby in the car seat" My dad was trying to get him to play with toys, little young for that.

First mother's day came and went as well. Laura got both her mother's day present and a push present. Suprisingly Target doesn't sell push present cards yet, looks like a big opportunity.

We are also starting to recognize faces and what they mean. When he snorts and shakes his head, he's hungry. When he's happy he will just sit there and stair at the wall. When he tries to avoid eye contact and gets really quiet, watch out something's going to happen. You have to be really careful of this on the changing table, never trust a quiet baby on the changing table. I had a perfect streak going until this morning with a clean baby, oh well. One night I got up to change him and stepped on a wet spot on the floor. You couldn't be angry with the kid, you had to be proud for his range.

We'll try to post some more pictures today as well.

He peed on himself

I was going about my business changing a diaper, which are now more frequent again and nastier, when I felt his clothes and noticed they were all wet. Then I felt above his head and that was wet too. So I'm pretty sure he peed on himself which explains why he got really angry. I told him to warn me next time so I can have the video camera ready to see what kind of air he can get.

My current favorite thing that he does is his snort. It sounds just like a pig and he usually does it when he is hungry. Still working on getting him to sleep in his crib or the pack n play, he usually tries it for about 20 minutes and then starts crying. So sleep at night involves sleeping in a chair with him on the chest. Fine for now, but I told him this will not last past age 12.

I have to go back to work tomorrow, although we are going to buy a lottery ticket tonight to see if I can become a permanent stay at home dad. More pictures down below including a demonstration on how to play video games with a newborn and his patented fist under the chin sleeping move. Time for us to eat, Ginny made us lasagna on Sunday and we've been eating it for every meal since, so time for some variety although obviously it was really good because I usually eat leftovers once at the most.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410/20090428MoreChasePictures#

Day 3 of Parenthood

We've decided we are going to keep the little guy. We've made a little progress over the last couple of days, especially after the nurse showed up today and told us we were doing everything wrong. So get the bumpers off of the crib, when he cries feed him no matter when he last ate, and pretty much let him do what he wants. We followed these rules and immediately he sleeps for like 3 hours straight. Best part of that is he slept on my belly while I played PS3. So now he hardly cries and sleeps a lot. Exactly what he's supposed to do. He also let out the loudest belch today, uncle Rich would be proud. You also know you've reached a new stage of your life when you start looking forward to a poopy diaper. (so you know he's actually eating enough) Plus he just threw up in Laura's hand. Yeah!!! It's the little things.

We had to get his earmuffs out today as we watched the movie Role Models. Their are a few words he probably shouldn't hear in the movie. We also made sure he faced away from the TV since it is the unrated version. We have to enjoy this while he still doesn't understand what is going on. Then it's all Disney movies and Nickelodeon. Can't wait for the telletubbies. Not much else going on, he timed it right so I got to miss a couple of classes, so he's scored some points from me already. We may try to venture out tommorow, so we'll see how that goes.

Chase is here!

For some reason blogger is blocked here, so I’m keeping track in word and then you are seeing it all at once.

Friday Morning - 4 AM

Well, we’re assuming today is the day. It’s 4 AM, we’re in the hospital, Laura has her drugs, and she’s trying to get a little sleep. At the doctor’s appointment this morning they sped the process up and it obviously worked as by 8 tonight the process had begun. Tough to know when you are actually supposed to come in, but with us being 40 minutes away we didn’t want to risk it. We got to the hospital at about 1 and by the time laura got drugs it was 3 hours later. She kept emphasizing that she wanted drugs though, and made sure the nurse did not forget.

At the time of the epidiral I was just standing in front of her and holding her hand. The doctor had just relayed a story about how a guy fainted and hit his head on the sink and had to go to the ER. Luckily I have practice in fainting so towards the end, I felt it happening again. This time instead of trying to shake it off, I sat down. So Laura’s getting a needle shoved in her back during a huge contraction, and the nurse has to get me some juice since I look green. Good thing I’m not having the kid. They have informed me there will be a chair ready for me during the actual delivery.

Pretty crazy to think that we will not return home by ourselves after this weekend. I was playing some PS3 when it started, so I got my last bit of that in as well as our random suppers of chicken wings and fries. Laura’s doing really well. Comments she has already made.

- I don’t want another kid
- Get me drugs
- Get me drugs now
- Did I mention I want drugs
- My husbands a fainter, watch out for him

I’m going to try and get some sleep now, obviously at the end of this there will be a link to pictures.

Friday Morning - 6:49 AM

Pretty rough last hour, the pain medicine wasn’t working and Laura was in a lot of pain. At first the machine distributing medicine broke and stopped letting medicine come out. They checked everything 3 times and then decided to just redo the epidural. When she sat up they realized that the first one had come out, so whoops. Laura had some pretty bad contractions at that point and was thinking she’d have to deliver the baby naturally which scared her the most. They restuck it in though, this time no fainting worries, and it looks like she might actually be sleeping again now. So I believe this sets the timetable back another few hours, hopefully she can get some sleep though. Kind of stinks when there’s basically nothing you can do to help. Plus I would say Laura and I tend to skew more towards the sarcastic side when talking with each other, that doesn’t quite work when you are feeling the most intense pain you have ever felt. Sun is coming up, we’ve been at it for around 11 hours now. Still hasn’t had her water break, so I think they might force that at some time.

9:22 AM - Saturday

So then it got a little busy after the last post. Laura was actually able to sleep until about noon and then we started the final part of labor. At the beginning she asked how long it would take, and I think we both thought “maybe 30 minutes”, obviously forgetting the class we took where it said it was a couple of hours. An hour and a half later, Laura was starting to get mad, which helped the situation. Finally, after 2 and a half hours, Chase Cameron made his way into the world, and man was he a lot larger then expected at 8 lbs 7 oz and 22 inches long. I got to cut the umbilical cord and then we took him over to get cleaned and warmed up. He came out with extremely wrinkly hands and feet due to some circulation problems, but everything was fine after a couple of hours. Overall the process was long, but Laura said it wasn’t too bad. She’s ready for the next one already. :) Laura did a great job, I tried not to laugh when she went for the 4th push during a contraction, but there was just this look of, “I’m sick of this, and I’m not wasting a contraction.”

We then finally invited the grandparents in to see their new grandson. Let’s just say Laura and I didn’t hold him very much over the next 8 hours. My dad just kept using the word Grandpa a lot, and people were making phone calls left and right. We then went through seeing some of his firsts, like a bath and his first meal. Unfortunately after everyone left we also got to experience the first diaper change. Good times. I faked like I was sleeping the rest of the night when he needed his diaper changed, so Laura took care of those. We actually slept pretty well during the night, he would sleep between feedings for the 3 hours without a lot of crying, so we’re feeling a little more rested this morning. I almost forgot that he got to see his first Twins game last night, although he pretty much slept through it, just like his Mom. 1-0 during his lifetime.

He stayed with us the entire time, and he actually just left us for a procedure. So hopefully they bring the right one back. I think we are planning on heading home today, so he’ll get to see all of the cool baby shower gifts he got. He can see the bobblehead collection, the PS3 that he won’t get to play more then an hour a day unless it is against me, and his basketball hoop that he can start shooting with. He should be able to start taking grounders in the next couple of weeks to get ready for baseball. :) That’s all for now, I’m sure when I’m up at 3 AM some night I’ll be able to write some more.

9:23 AM - Sunday Morning

Last night was a little longer then the night before. We think his current crib is a little big for him as every time we laid him down he would start crying. So we basically traded off holding him all night. That's not lasting much longer this week. :) He's pretty content now after eating a little bit. Grandma Friedrich has figured out that putting him in his stroller keeps him pretty content, so he's hanging out there now. Laura probably got around 3 hours of sleep last night, including an hour on the floor, so we've sent her back to bed for hopefully a good 3 hours. Overall he seems pretty happy, we already have the diaper changing down, and he seems to like both of us, so that's good. Here's a link to some of the first pictures, as we have more we'll post him. The 12th picture is my favorite, because he looks like an evil doctor or something with his old man hands in front of his face. His hands are back to normal now and he has lost his cone head, so supposedly that means he's starting to look cuter.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410/20090424FirstBabyPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCKTrkuPh_s-YjQE#

30 days and counting

Well, it's crunch time. Something that felt very far away is now down to the final month and you know that it could happen any day now going forward. Laura's starting to get a little nervous, and wondering if we are all ready to go. I'm pretty much not trying to think too much about it, and hoping I figure it out once he is born. My dad asked if I've been reading a lot of books on how this all works, and I said not really, I'm more of an experience learner I would say. How hard can it be, right?

Good news is we do have a lot ready to go now. Two weekends ago Laura and Ginny worked on putting all of the bedroom furniture together. If you're wondering where I was as, I was putting together bookshelves downstairs, so don't think I was just playing video games or something. So the rooms all ready to go, and we have all these really tiny diapers that seem too small to be real. Just crazy how small he will be.

Laura has had some baby showers. What exactly the purpose of some of those games is, I really have no idea. What's the point of cutting a piece of string for how big you think the mom's stomach is. You are going to lose either way; either you cut it to small and lose the game, or you cut it to big and the mom hates you, you can't win. Laura supposedly cut her string 2 feet too long, to which she responded "that's how big I feel". We did get a lot of Twins and ISU clothes so we should be good to go. I'm proposing that for the kid's first picture, but Laura doesn't agree yet. My work team got us all of that stuff you don't know you need. It's also stuff you don't ever want to have to use. A lot of creams, ointments, and other awkward devices. This is going to be interesting.

We had our first of weekly doctor visits this week. Laura completely offended the nurse. Laura weighed in and she made a comment about how big she is. I'm pretty sure she still weighs less then the nurse, who's not pregnant. The nurse responded with a simple "You're pregnant", with a little attitude. So I don't think Laura made any friends. The stomach is pretty much growing straight out, almost to the point where Laura can eat off of it, which has been her dream all along. Everything seems to be in order, the little guy is already in the correct position, and things seem to be on track.

We head home this weekend for my Alumni basketball tournament. Which is a little scary that it's now been 9 years since we've graduated so we are now the oldest team in the younger division. Crazy. Next time I write will probably be after the baby is here, so look forward to that. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to update as I'm wide awake at 3 AM feeding him or something.

Later

Baby Class

So you know that perfect Saturday morning. Nothing going on, no plans, very relaxing, do what you want. My last Saturday was the complete opposite of that. It was time for baby class at 8:30 in the morning which meant we got up the same time as normal, although I do hear that you don't get to sleep in after you have kids as well so maybe they considered this to be part of the prep.

Let's go over topics you don't want to hear about at 8:30 in the morning
- mucus
- discharge
- stages of color in baby poop
- Different positions of labor - here's a link to my favorite ones

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410/20090310BabyPositions?authkey=Gv1sRgCPax_uDk6fKt1AE#

All very exciting and educational. Then there are the movies. I think the instructors secretly love showing these videos. If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky. I'm pretty sure we walked in the room, she said good morning, and then she said "Yes, we are going to watch two videos today." She threw it out there like a sneak preview of something to look forward too, which it definetely is not.

So let me do a quick movie review for you. These movies take you through the process of labor, the whole process of labor. Especially that part you don't want to see. Also whoever the casting department is for these movies should be fired. Although honestly, who signs up to have this video taped. I just imagine meeting this person in the street and saying "I think I know you from somewhere, wait I just can't place it, oh now I remember." And then I quickly run away as fast as I can in fear of that picture flashing back in my head. For some reason Laura felt anxious about the whole process the next day, I wonder why. What's the point to the ending of those movies. Although my favorite part is that the husband in the second movie said to practice changing diapers he practiced on his cat. Sounds like a great idea, if anybody has a cat I can borrow, let me know.

So that pretty much wrapped up day one of baby class, we did get a tour and i learned that labor lasts a little longer then the 30 minutes it usually seems to take in the movies. So definitely some valuable stuff. We're supposed to go back Saturday for round 2 and all the breathing techniques.

The little guy is rolling all over in Laura's belly and we are starting to be able to see body parts, so pretty crazy. 7 weeks to go. I think Laura's ready anytime. We're cleaning out the baby room right now, so things are moving along.

Beards and Bellies

Wow, it's been a month since the last time I wrote. I know I left the big beard cliff hanger last time too, so think of the past month as a writers strike, but I'm back and will try to update a little more often. Not very much is happening on the baby front, it continues to grow, everything seems to be fine, it moves constantly. Laura thinks she felt the shoulder last night. She does wake up at 3 AM sometimes and wants me to feel the belly. Depending how awake I am I throw my hand over. Of course he usually stops moving when I do that. I'm to the point where I'm ready for the real thing, or at least I think i am. We also had to stop for Ramen noodles last night, that's pretty much the only craving she's had. I did post some pictures of both my beard and her belly as of today. So 6 and a half months along, 10 weeks to go from today. We have no name yet, so who knows, the kid may just be baby Becker for awhile.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410/20090219BeardAndBelly?authkey=bwmKPgXCW_M#

We had a very exciting last Feb 14th without kids, otherwise known as Valentine's Day with Ray. If you ever want to be humbled, try doing something you know you are terrible at, for me that is manual labor and working with my hands. I have no idea why this is, genetically I should be good. My dad's good at it, my grandpa builds things like a firepit on wheels, I can't even build a birdhouse right. I felt bad leaving Ray here by himself the first couple of days, but then I realized it probably went faster without us here helping. :)

I did learn how to put up trim, I learned that I can't operate a manual saw (couldn't get the thing to cut), and how to putty nail holes. That's a fun job. I even pulled a hammy on that one, don't ask me how, I have no idea, took 4 days to recover. Give me an excel document, no problem, give me a hammer and watch out. But hey, carpet is on the way in the next couple of weeks and then our 4 year basement project is over. Laura has decided we won't try finishing things ourself again. Thanks Ray, basement looks great.

Well we have our classes coming up first weekends in March and some baby showers on the way. I'm sure the classes will be entertaining. Laura and I don't take many things seriously, so it may be tough to have a straight face and not make some sarcastic comments. For Valentine's day Laura did buy me a baby's bib from the Minnesota Twins. I need to order the kid's first outfit for coming home, a Twins outfit. Laura and I are still discussing this one. I think their may be a game May 1st, so the plan is to have the baby the 30th and then go to the game the next day. I think that will work. I'll try to get the next update out after our first class!

Names and Cleaning

So I cleaned this weekend and last, man that's tough work. I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I realized that in the 4 years I've lived here I've never used the swiffer on our floors. But hey, there's a first time for everything. I think I know why Laura's back was hurting.

Just to reitirate a point from the last blog, I really don't notice dirt. This is a talent I picked up very early in life. Supposedly I used to walk right over things on the stairs that my parents had placed there for me to carry downstairs. My wife will ask me, did you notice the bathroom needs cleaned, "nope". She's even tried tests of not cleaning or doing laundry for 4 or 5 weeks to see if I notice, I don't. Only when I run out of boxers or socks does the thought run through my mind that the laundry may need to be done.

Don't blame my mom though, she just wants it to be stated that it's not her fault. Don't blame my dad, he's a crazy cleaner when he gets going. Just so you know he's not a perfectionist, he just likes things always done right. My favorite quote from him. I told my wife she's an enabler for allowing this to happen, but hey, that's why we're having kids, to do the chores.

You don't realize how hard it is to name a kid until you are going to have one. Every name you come up with you realize you know someone you don't like with that name, like Christian. (I kid, good friend) We haven't gotten very far, we like to try names out on our work teams to see what they think. Right now the list is Max, Sam, Chase. I was told Max sounds like a dog's name, people like Sam as a nickname for Samantha, and my current favorite Chase caused my mom to gasp and turn her nose up in disgust, which I'll be honest makes me like it even more. "It sounds like someone running" was her comment. True, that is what Chase means. I think my concern would be if we had a slow kid who couldn't run very fast and kids would tease him by saying "Chase me, Ha, Ha" So who knows, we have the whole middle of the name book to go through yet.

To compare the current stage of pregnancy with one of Laura's favorite movies "The Lord of the Rings", it's kind of like the middle of the Two Towers where you're waiting for the cool battle to start but you have to go through a lot of talking first. In other words, not much happening. We go to the doctor, they ask how she feels, we say fine, we go home. And yes, I compared the baby being born to the final battle in the Two Towers, it has a happy ending. :)

So not much new, he still kicks constantly, Laura's in maternity clothes, and I'm cleaning. Oh by the way I'm growing a beard for two weeks, it's a challenge at work, I'll post pictures on the progress. So now I've given you a cliffhanger to keep you coming back. Kind of like 24.

Crazy New Year's Eve Party

Yup, definitely getting old. It's 10:51 on New Year's Eve and I'm sitting at home in Ramsey. The worst part about that, I actually prefer this to a packed bar. Plus I'm cheap so tonight cost me $6 bucks total, just enough for a Papa Murphy's Pizza. Finally, a pregnant wife usually isn't too keen on spending a night in a bar. :) So I will live vicariously through the analysts I work with. Three of them headed to Chicago for the weekend, a little more exciting then Ramsey. Hopefully they will have better stories about New Year's Eve then me.

We are bringing in the new year with the best movie of the year however, the Dark Knight, on blue ray, on my big TV. You got to love the magic trick of making the pencil disappear, I'm going to watch that in slow motion after the movie is over.

The pregnant belly is no longer hidden. Laura decided that it was pointless now, so first day back from Christmas, no more jackets, large sweaters, or other belly hiding clothing. She said a couple of people stopped her to ask her how far along she is. She keeps claiming it gets bigger every day, I usually answer that I think that's the point. The kid is pretty much kicking constantly now, between the ribs, right in the bladder, and everywhere else on the stomach. I'm able to feel that now so it's pretty cool.

I'd like to talk a little bit about the absurd notion of a push present. In case you don't know what that is (I didn't) supposedly the jewelry companies of the world created a push present idea where the dad is supposed to buy the mom a gift for carrying the baby. I always thought the baby was the gift, as the mom you get to feel something grow inside of you, get really big, and then have it all go away and you get a kid for it. So what if sometimes it includes throwing up, swelling, and a little pain at the end. Laura keeps reminding me that she expects one, I keep reminding her it probably won't happen. So we'll see.

Laura also found some book that said I should be doing things like cleaning the bathroom, scrubbing floors, and doing all the dishes now. I'm not a big fan of things like that, but I suppose I can pitch in here and there. Although I keep reminding Laura that my brain just really isn't wired to notice dirt, so she may have to remind me sometimes.

120 days left until the kid walks into the world. The way it kicks constantly it will probably be running at 2 months. I will leave you with some New Year's resolutions, which are usually absurd because everybody breaks them.

1. Play as many video games as possible before the kid's born
2. Figure out how to use proper language around children, sometimes Laura gets a little out of hand with swear words
3. Start working out again, my goal was to have Laura and I meet at our weights by the end of her pregnancy, but she's not doing her part
4. Clean the house every other month (hopefully that's good enough)

That's all I can think of right now, I'm sure next year's New Year's will be more exciting, maybe we'll be able to take the baby to the bar. :)

Happy New Year!

Cancun trip

So I know you are not going to believe me, but Cancun is cold man. We probably saw a grand total of about 5 hours of sunlight the entire time, it was 70's, windy, and cloudy for most of the time. I didn't get a lot of sympathy from people at work since it was around 0 at the same time, but hey I was expecting 80 and sun, so I'll complain if I want to. :)

We headed to cancun for my high school friends wedding. Kelles as we like to call him. For the first part of the trip we stayed at the nicest hotel in Cancun, Moon Palace. Great food, great service, great atmosphere. The second part of the trip, we stayed at the cheapest hotel, my choice of course. Terrible food, they couldn't even make hot dogs or french fries right. It was on the strip though so we got to go in the ocean for a couple of days and played a little beach volleyball. Both were all-inclusive and I tried to ask for a pregnancy discount since Laura could not drink. I didn't get it.

At the beginning of the trip we saw some Mayan ruins and we snorkeled in the cold water. After we snorkeled we had "beach time". This involved Laura and I huddling underneath towels to stay warm.

The wedding was on Wednesday, which was one of the nice days. Everything went off without a hitch, and it was a great wedding. Some great pictures of Kelles during the wedding, my favorite is the prewedding drink and smoke. Another highlight was Carrie's (the bride) brother dancing with our waitress at the end of the night. Overall we had a great time there.

We met my college buddies and their wives Adam, Krista, Dale, and Jessica at the second half of the week. Good times getting together and having a few drinks, although most of the time we served ourselves. We learned that Dale can't handle a boat on the ocean as he headed out for a 6 hour shipping trip and then forced the boat to turn around after an hour or so due to a little seasick issue. He claimed there were 8 foot swales, but I'm not so sure. :) You can also ask Dale and Jessica to perform at future events as they were called up on stage one of the nights. Both of them did a little stage dancing, I believe the worm may have made an apperance. They have video if you can convince them to show you.

There have been a lot of requests to see Laura's baby bump, some claim it's not even there yet. Laura has requested that you send pictures of your belly first, and then she will post some pictures of her belly. If you take a look online, you may catch a little glimpse.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410

So that's it, good vacation, nice to take a break in the middle of December.

It's a .......

Well if you want to just know the sex of the baby now, you can jump to the link below and check out the pictures. That way you can avoid having to read the whole explanation of the day :).

http://picasaweb.google.com/mbecker0410/BabyPhotos#

So today was the halway point ultrasound. It sounds like we lucked out and got an early one that people don't normally get at around 8 weeks, but this one was definetely a lot cooler. Although not everything went exactly as planned. When we got their they asked Laura if she had drank a lot of water in the morning. I guess we missed the memo that Laura was supposed to have a full bladder. They proceeded to have her drink 3 small glasses of water very quickly. Not a great idea.

We were about 20 minutes in when Laura said that she did not feel very good. We all kind of froze for a second and then I realized, yup, she's going to ralph. Due to my cat like speed I was able to grab the trash can and get it to her in time. So back came the water and some orange juice. This was the first time Laura's thrown up the entire time, so we gave the nurses some greif about that. Also, for those of you who know the eye surgery fainting story, I just wanted to let everyone know I did not faint. So if you are keeping score, wife vomiting right in front of you, not a problem; watching a giant eye on a TV screen, find me a chair.

Other than that everything went pretty normal. We spent about an hour going through all the different body parts, measuring the leg bones, arm bones, stomach circumfrence, and size of head along with other things. Pretty cool technology overall. We were obviously waiting for the gender announcement which they made us wait about 30 minutes for, although both Laura and I had it figured out a little earlier than that. If you haven't looked at the pictures yet, now would be a good time. Pretty obvious that a baby boy is on the way. Not sure if the kid will like having that online in the future, so we may have to take it down at some point, but we thought it was pretty funny.

They keep telling us that the kid is pretty active, so I'm just imagining a one year old running around the house constantly screaming or something. We keep wondering if other babies just lay still in the stomach. We thought the legs and feet looked pretty big so we're hoping that Laura has a 6-6 uncle we don't know about. Time to start buying the basketball hoop and Twins jerseys, although we will also be OK if he wants to be in dance and play chess all day. :) Maybe.

So start sending in your baby boy name suggestions. We currently have none. Laura always had girl names picked out. My top choice right now is Maximus Meridius. Sorry Dale, Laura has vetoed Wilson and Billy so far, I'm still pushing Jimmy. But now we can eliminate half of the baby name book, so that's good.

Laura's belly is starting to make its presence known, which she tries to fight every day. We're starting to feel some movement, but no violent kicks yet. That's all for now, I'm still trying to convince Laura to let me put up some pictures of the belly, but I want to stay married for right now so I'll follow her advice that I better not put them online.

Am I supposed to eat my kid?

So you know all of those pregnancy books and websites that tell you what to expect as you go along; why do they believe the best way to describe the size of the kid is to compare it to food? They compare it to things like watermellon seeds, pears, and even a pineapple which is my wife's favorite. They really couldn't think of anything better then a pineapple? Just what a pregnant women wants to envision giving birth to 5 months down the line. It would be like comparing them to animals and saying now it's the size of a shrimp, now a hamster, and now it's the size of a porcupine. Real nice. I guess from my standpoint at least they compare it to foods that I wouldn't eat anyways, mainly fruits and vegetables. We may have a problem if the size comparisons were things like swiss cake rolls, hamburgers, and pizza.

We also had a dry run of what dinner will be like a year from now when Amy and Mike brought over their 6 month old Natalie. Basically a lot of noise, a lot of pounding, and a lot of moving around. Very entertaining and very cute, but just a little different then the current dinner situation at the Becker's which usually involves sitting in the living room, watching TV, and eating things like a bag of doritios, some Hickory Farms beef sticks, and a Diet Mountain Dew. Although it did cause us to use our dining room table. That's right, the table we've used about 10 times the whole 4 years we have had it. The table was just glad to be used for something other than holding mail.

It was fun to get to see how a 6 month old reacts. Basically you just need something that can make some noise and that they can try to grab. In our case she was fascinated with a water bottle. So no toys will be bought by us, I'm just using things I find around the house.

Finally, what is up with the lead time on daycares. I contacted a daycare this week and was told the next opening was in December of 2009. What are people doing, picking a daycare and then making a baby? Do parents just go around putting their names on waiting lists in case it happens? I'm asking the question when we go to the next one on Wednesday, need to learn in case we have a second kid. Although we'll wait and see how this first one goes before making any more.

Doctor's visit next week I think, Ultrasound in two weeks, Cancun in three. Can't wait.

Doctor's visits

So about three months in we got to go to our first doctors visit. First off, the baby doctor's office, much faster than the normal doctor's office. The one where you make an appointment, show up 10 minutes early, and still wait 30 minutes to get into a room. Then a nurse comes into the room, does a quick check, and then you wait another 30 minutes. That's why I just avoid the doctor. Anyways, this one much faster, they put you in a room on time, and the doctor comes right away. Nice.

So Laura starts going through all of the checkup and the doctor asks how we told the family, so Laura explained the skydiving thing. Funny thing is that the doctor she called to ask if it was OK to go skydiving, is the same doctor in the room! She informed us it was the first time she had gotten that question.

We got to hear the heartbeat which was pretty cool and fast, so then we were pretty sure there was a baby in there. Then they asked if we wanted to try a quick small ultrasound, which we did. So we got to see the kid for the first time, very strange, you basically see the heart beating and then our kid was waving it's arms and legs all around. Crazy! Our doctor said it looked like a teddy graham, which it did. So first doctor's appointment ended, we are definitely having a kid, and we are not having triplets, oh well. No TV show for us like John and Kate + 8.

So a month later we have the second appointment. Pretty much a letdown after the first one. Laura weighs in, they ask her how she's feeling and that's about it. I was like really, that's it. The one crazy thing was that when they tried to find the heartbeat the doctor said the baby was moving around a lot. I told Laura I pictured a little mini baby running around in her stomach, in slow motion. Probably taking after it's dad, the great high school cross country runner. :) Let's hope not, cross country not very exciting to watch.

Next doctor's visit in a couple of weeks, ultrasound early December. Should be exciting!

Telling other people

Thank god we've finally told everybody. Probably one of the most annoying parts of the whole process. :)

Of course my sister complained that I didn't mention her in the first blog post. What she didn't know is I would get to that later. The fact that she didn't believe me for about 5 minutes, so I almost just hung up on her. I'm such an honest person, I don't know what her problem was, but yes Val it was very important that you know. My favorite part is that she said she would not wait as long to have kids, without conferring with her future husband first. I told her maybe they should talk about that kind of stuff. :)

We had to tell Steph through Skype on the computer since she's over in Korea, and she was very excited. Other family and friends found out as we went along. Including some people finding out because they read this blog since Laura didn't get to everybody fast enough. Laura did get to tell her Korean relatives when she was over there and they were all very excited about it.

The day before I told some of my coworkers one of them told me to wait to have kids because I was still young and should just enjoy life. It was tough to supress the smile that day to hold it in. I told another we would be needing an infant Halloween costume the next year.

The really bad news is that we believe we have lost the bet with my college roomates on who would have a kid first. We kind of figured we were in trouble, but we were hoping someone else would have news first. So now we owe a dinner I think to all of them, so not only will this kid cost me money (just read some parents spend 17,000 dollars on random baby stuff the first year, ridiculous, my kid will learn to play with a cardboard box, I'll at least draw a face on it) but I have to pay off a bet as well.

That's it for now, seems like everybody is aware now, so I'll keep posting updates as we go. For now, back to watching poltergeist while I can still watch movies like this without worrying about scaring a little kid to death (like I was when I watched this movie when I was 5 because of my babysitter, the flying things in the room, a little traumatizing). I'll probably post something on the first couple of doctor visits soon.

We're Having a Kid?

Ah, the reason for the question mark being, do we have any idea what we are getting into. I think not. So in case you are one of the people my mother has not found and told, and somehow you stumbled onto this blog instead, Laura and I are expecting our first kid. I've decided to blog a little bit as we go along, but the first few will be recapping some of what has already happened since I had to wait until we told everyone. To answer the few questions everyone asks.

1. due date is end of April
2. We don't know what it's going to be yet, probably will find out in a couple of months
3. Yes, this was right on the timing I had laid out in my excel financial plan 4 years ago, pretty impressive

Today's post is on how we and the fam found out.

Us

We were open to the possibility of a kid and after a few weeks went by we decided to try the pregnancy test. Mainly because Laura was going to go skydiving Labor Day weekend and we needed to see if that would be OK. So we got the pregnancy test, but supposedly it's harder then it looks on that commercial that shows the pee hitting the stick. (Laura loves that commercial) First test a little inconclusive, second test showed the positive, we bought a 3 pack and figured we shouldn't waste it, so the confirmation was also positive. After the excitement of finding out, a look of shock crossed both of our faces as we realized life would be a little different in 9 months.

Friedrich Family

Back to the skydiving thing. First of all Laura did actually call the nurse line to ask if a pregnant person could go skydiving. (The answer is no in case you were wondering, duh, but of course she doesn't listen to me) It was Labor Day weekend and Laura had planned on doing this with her mom for a long time. So as we were sitting around the table the day before skydiving, Ginny asked if Laura was excited about skydiving. Laura's line was supposed to be "I can't go skydiving, the baby might fall out". Instead she gave a weak no, looked away, and Ginny read it right away. Lots of hugs and excitement. One family down, one to go.

Becker Family

The difference with this side, is that it's the first grandkid, and they've pretty much been asking when it would happen since we were married. I think they were close to giving up hope, and hoping Val would give them a grandkid someday. We bought baby bibs and took them down to the campgrounds where they were at. When we got there Dad had gone fishing and took like 2 hours to get back. He finally came, we told them that we had another gift from Laura's family in Korea. So they opened the bag for a glimpse and then there was screaming and more screaming and some more screaming. Probably went for like 2 minutes straight. Don't forget we are in the middle of a campground site. Awkward. Aunt Becky conveniently brought over a pan at this time, probably to make sure nobody was dead, but she didn't catch on.

From there we've slowly told friends and family so almost everyone knows. If not, you're free to tell more people. That's it for this blog, trust me, I'm sure there will be more good stories as we go.

Korea Day 8

Day 8

Our last day on our own was pretty uneventful. We bummed around Steph’s apartment until noon then headed back to Seoul to do some more shopping in Dongdaemun. First, we dropped Mom off at the Korean History Museum :). We had dinner with Pastor O’Neil, his wife Jennifer & their 3 children – John, Grace & James. They made us our first “American” meal that we’ve had on this trip – spaghetti!! As much as I love the Korean food, I think I’m ready for some pasta, pizza, potbelly’s, mcdonald’s breakfast…yum. Anywho…the O’Neils live at the base of the Seoul Tower – amazing location and it was so interesting to hear all about their time in Korea and their missionary work here. Later in the evening, Steph, Corey & I went to a Wine Pub so we could meet a few of her friends here. They had lived here anywhere from 3-6 months and were originally from St Louis, Canada & England. I thought it was pretty cool that this random mixture of people found each other in South Korea no less! As we headed back to Steph’s apartment, we stopped to have a little snack @ a vendor stand – ricecakes dipped in a hot sauce called dokboki – delicious, but super hot!

Tomorrow, we are heading to Ilsan to stay with our cousins for the remainder of our trip. We are driving up to tour the DMZ(de-militarized zone) that divides South & North Korea. Should be really interesting! Not sure if I’ll have access to internet for the rest of this trip so this may be my last blog until I’m back in the states! Can’t believe we only have 2 more days!!

Korea Day 7

Day 7

I have go first start today's blog by commenting on my husbands!! I just read both of his posts...and just have to say I was laughing so hard I was crying! he is a much funnier blogger than I will ever be - so he's the official family blogger for future vacations.
Matt: I can't wait to come back and see our beautifully painted basement ceilings...er i mean see your beautiful face! glad to hear you're missing me and ready for me to come home!

Now for today's blog:
We ended up not going shopping last night in Dongdaemun b/c we were so tired after our thai massages….so our plan was to go at somepoint today. We headed back to Seoul today to have lunch with Oppa & Oni (our cousins). Steph’s friend Joe also came to translate for us. We ate a traditional Korean meal(can’t remember the korean name right now…) – chicken steamed in ginseng, rice & chicken broth. Each person gets their own pot with what looks like a cornish hen(bones and all). It was pretty delicious, but definitely not as spicy as we’ve become accustom to eating.

After lunch, we went to visit the Korean War Memorial. There were several statues/sculptures depicting the human struggle during this time that lead you into the Memorial Hall. These sculptures were pretty powerful and really showed the struggle that soldiers & refugees went through during this time. One statue in particular that was really moving for me was one called “Statue of Brothers”. This was a statue of two hugging soldiers-one fighting for North Korea, one fighting for South Korea. This statue represented all of the families that were torn apart by the Korean War. There were many instances where brothers & family members were separated and forced to fight against one another. I found out that to this day, there are still thousands and thousands of families that are separated due to the unresolved Korean War. The South Korean government has been trying to help families reunite, but it is very difficult as the only way out of North Korea is to flee through China.

Although these sculptures reflected a “serious” time in history…we couldn’t help but take some silly pictures-so be sure to check them out J

The aircrafts used during the war were also displayed outside the memorial hall. I don’t know my fighter planes/jets that well, but they seemed to have very small planes/helicopters as well as massive fighter jets & submarines. We took plenty of pictures of these as well…so for those of you in the know…please view the pictures to get more details on the types of aircraft used in the Korean War. ,

Inside, there were displays walking you through the history of the S Korean military & government. Most interesting to me was the chronology of how the Korean War played out – where the battle lines were drawn and how close S Korea was to surrendering. Within the 1st 3 months of the war, N Korea had pushed their way to the very southern tip of S Korea. Had it not been for the intervention of S Korea’s Allies (US/GBritain/Spain to name a few), S Korea would’ve been overtaken. They also had rooms & rooms displaying artillery, swords, uniforms – did you know that women fought in the Korean War? Ok…I’ll stop rambling about the museum….but all in all, it was very interesting.

Next, we headed to Namdaemun to do some shopping. Suprisingly, Corey was the only one that got anything!! After a few hours of shopping, we traveled by bus up the Namsan Mountain to see the Seoul Tower(the tallest building in Korea). We ate dinner there as well which was beautiful with the night lights of Seoul in the background. It was funny to hear from our cousins that this was their first time in Seoul Tower as well as the Korean War Memorial…considering they live so close!!

After Seoul Tower, we did a little more shopping in Dongdaemun, where again, Corey was the only one to purchase anything! Who knew he was such a shopaholic?!? There was one particular salesman in one of the stores that was really infatuated with Corey…and kept telling him to take his shirt off! Corey was having some trouble deciding on what size to get and this guy kept insisting that he take his t-shirt off to try on the shirt…when he did, he couldn’t stop commenting on Corey’s abs…it was strange & hilarious at the same time. We got a picture of Corey and his “friend” so check that one out too!

Tomorrow, we are going to relax-maybe do a little shopping; then meet up with our old Pastor & his family from Algona who have been living here for the last several years.