As we enter the middle of March, my wife is preparing for the final leg of her pregnancy. As I told the nurse in our monthly visit last month, I’ve been feeling great, so let’s review the To-Do list from a few weeks back: 

• Determine gender. Not much for us to do on this one, the appointment is scheduled for February 10th that will determine the gender, but this will become the starting line for all subsequent tasks. CHECK - Totally owned this step, I sat there while the nurse found my son’s ding-a-ling.

• Learn about Baby CPR. Scheduled for February 18th. CHECK - Nary a one of those plastic CPR dolls perished on my watch. 

• Clean and purge guest room closet. CHECK - Sorry old soccer trophy from my youth, one day you’re in, and the next you are out. Auf Widersehen. 

• Purge and transfer my closet from nursery to guest room. CHECK - Maybe I don’t need to keep the GAP wool pants I wore out in college in 1999.

• Strip wallpaper border from nursery. Will be completed by painters.

• Determine theme for nursery. CHECK - Totally awesome nautical design.

• Determine color paint for nursery. CHECK - Totally awesome Dockside Blue.

• Determine color paint for upstairs bathroom. No paint for this room yet. 

• Hire painters. (Yea, I’m one of those guys.) CHECK - To be completed 3/14.

• Clean and purge office. Technically not imperative to arrival of baby, but if I am making a run to the Goodwill donation center and there are things that can be purged from the office, now is the time. NOPE.

• Learn about car seats and their installation. NOPE.

• Determine what stroller/car seat apparatus we want. CHECK - Listened to advice from other parents and registered for one. 

• Register for baby shower(s). IN PROCESS.

• Assemble furniture. Scheduled for delivery and assembly. 

• Clean and purge kitchen cabinets to make room for baby eating paraphernalia & food. NOPE. 

• Rearrange basement to provide for play area. Not needed until at least 2013, but it needs to be on this list. CHECK - Flipped the couch 180 degrees and made more room for everything. I feel stupid that we’ve had it way we did for 3+ years. 

• Child proof house. (See point above.) NOPE

• Probably dozens of items I am not thinking of or even aware of. My in-laws are visiting this weekend to complete shower invitations. Something tells me I will have a bevy of suggestions come Sunday afternoon. 

Not to shabby, I think. There is one item that I’m concerned about and can’t seem to get my head around. Knowing that every pregnancy is different, and you can’t plan for everything, etc. etc. etc. 

What is D-Day going to be like? My money is still on a necessary cesarean due to my gerthy dome and shoulders, but let’s say that’s not the case. Let’s say it’s June 14th, Natalie’s at work and her water breaks. Now she works on the east side and I am on the north side. So, she can get a ride from a co-worker, but they have to drive 20 minutes to Riverside and pass a hospital to get there, do people pass hospitals to get to another one farther away? I know that typical delivery times are measured in hours not minutes, but it’s still a question. Can someone put my mind at ease? 

Also, I’ve heard that the first and third trimesters are the worst. How accurate is that, what am I looking at for these last 100ish days? 

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The wife is in her 22nd week of pregnancy. Just slightly over the midway point. Everything is going well.  Last Friday was the appointment where they completed a full ultrasound examining anatomy and determining the gender, if you want. As the day grew closer more people began to suggest that we wait for the delivery room to find out the sex. 

“It’s so exciting” they said.  

“It’s such a surprise” they clamored.  

“There’s no feeling like it” they noted.  

You know what? They were right. It was a surprise, it was exciting, and there has not been another feeling like that in my life. I fail to see how any of these emotions would be better experienced twenty weeks later after my wife has spent, in all likelihood, at least a few hours evicting a tiny human from her body. Not to mention the fact that by keeping the reveal until the time of delivery, we would be bombarded with green and yellow, and yellow and green, blankets and onsies and toys etc. etc. etc. 

Being planners we wanted to know the gender. We wanted to fully decide on a name. We wanted to have the nursery completely ready and gender specific. We wanted to connect with our unborn tot and be able to say his or her, instead of it or just baby. We wanted to be prepared. 

So, it’s a boy. A little human boy that despite most of his and my efforts, will end up being fairly similar to me as a man. It’s a boy and we can prepare ourselves. It was a truly emotional day that we were able to celebrate as it’s own exciting part of the pregnancy. The anatomy of my son also looked “beautiful” to quote the technician, and that really was all were were hoping for. We are blessed.

Time to get working on that To-Do list.