A lot has been going on in our lives the past few weeks. As of yesterday, the baby is 16 weeks along and has a healthy heartbeat of 154 bpm. We are reminded every day how awesome it is to know that a life we've made is doing so great and will be here shortly. In fact, on the way to work today the Third Day song "Born Again" came on the radio again. However, this is probably the first time I've paid attention to the lyrics and saw how it represented some of the feelings I've been having lately. (See the video and lyrics below in case you've never heard it.) The song obviously discusses the new life a person has when "Born Again" through Christ. Although, I realized that the new life gift also represents our new baby, which will end up changing me equally as much.
We've also been progressing nicely with our possible new home. We are planning an inspection on our new house on Friday and just going through the paperwork to get our mortgage loan. It will be great to know that the baby will have a nice new home and open neighborhood to grow up in. So far, I am thrilled how the process has gone and in the end it looks like we won't be using much of our savings up front. So, more money for the appliances and baby stuff!
As if that weren't enough, I started going back to grad school last week. This will be a good test to see how I can balance all of these things, because I know it's not going to get any easier once the baby gets here. Although, this semester is the first time I've tried two classes and so far it seems even less stressful than in the past. We shall see how this all turns out come Christmas time.
Here's a glimpse of "Dad Butt" I have to look forward to:
Well, the baby is now 14 weeks along and seems pretty healthy, although I'm not a doctor so I guess we'll know for sure again on the 26th. We have still been doing what we can to get things ready for it's arrival. Stephanie just witnessed two of our friends give birth a day apart last week. Seeing the pictures of those babies helps to make it hit home. We're really ready to get all of our things in order and have been trying to take big steps forward in doing so.
Yesterday, we visited 3 houses in the Hartselle/Priceville area. After doing so, we've come to realize that we really like one in Hartselle that we had first seen a couple of weeks ago (pics in the slideshow section to the right). This will definitely be a learning experience about foreclosures for both of us. We may be making an offer soon after we see what the bank's stipulations are, etc. In case this doesn't work out, we definitely know the type of house we are looking for, and it looks there are some decent alternatives in the area.
Next week I will get the joy of working full-time and taking 6 hours of classes. Until now I have only taken a single class per semester. Although, I'm hoping this won't be too bad since one of the classes is practically review and done online. I am definitely going to have more of an insight on what I can handle when we have the baby around. My guess thus far is that I may be able to squeeze out one class in the spring if I can work it out to be online. However, the baby is priority numero uno and there's no rush in finishing up if Stephanie doesn't think it's a good idea.
As I progress in my blog maturity, along with possibly refreshing myself in some HTML, I will try to add little things to each entry. For starters, I am going to start having a comic strip/quote that allows myself or anyone else interested to foresee what I as a future dad have to look forward to. Today, I will start with a Baby Blues comic:
Well, the baby's been baking in the oven for 13 weeks so far. We were able to hear it's heartbeat last week @ 140bpm. In hearing this some people want to say they can predict our baby's gender from an "Old Wives' Tale". Like I told my mom, there's a reason the New Wives' (or in my case Husbands/Spouses) don't follow this "Tale" anymore, because science has proven that all of these methods have around a 50% chance of being true. Therefore, I would like to say that I will be holding off on any predictions until I "see" the evidence in another 7 weeks or so.
Since it is already the 2nd trimester, we are becoming more serious about the house search. I am becoming a little obsessed about where little Ben/Sam will end up playing and going to school ( I know it's far away, but I doubt we'll move again before he/she starts). This is comes from my complex where I want everything to be perfect for our child. Although, I am slowly starting to realize that "perfection" is relative. The good news is, we are definitely finding some promising houses in the Hartselle/Priceville area. I had been nervous about moving this far in the past, but after driving to Hartselle one afternoon in 5:00 traffic, it helped me realize that it only takes a max of 30 minutes to get there. Plus, we need a little separation from the Madison area and find a place less crowded.
Also, lately I've been on a kick of trying to find music I want to perform for the baby on guitar/keyboard. That's right, a couple of days ago I even broke out the keyboard which has been locked up for months now. For now, I am just trying to find certain songs to play and record sometime soon so that our baby can listen to it when I'm not around. Last night, I had this song in mind and tacked it on the list. Although, this song is about relationships I though of it as a lullaby with some minimal lyric changes:
Sleep, Don't Weep by: Damien Rice
Other than that, I'm about to start back in grad school this Fall. I'm planning on taking two classes in preparation for the baby. Because even though there's not a rush to finish, after the baby's born I'm not sure how much I can take. If you want more info on the baby, or it's mommy (Stephanie), check out her blog here. She has a much more mature blog that will tell you more of the stuff she has to go through during the process (sorry honey).
