dreaming about pregnancy

3 Comments Posted on Health, parenting, Pregnancy, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Dear Holly: Mommy’s Big Bruise a Week before Your Due Date

39 weeks.

Dear Holly: Mommy’s Big Bruise a Week before Your Due Date

Dear Holly,

On Monday morning, Mommy casually bumped her leg on the side of the bathtub. She noticed it left a bruise.

By the time she got home that evening, she pulled up her pants leg to see if that little bruise had gotten any worse.

As you can see from this picture, the bruise got much worse. It looked like she just smeared black ink over her leg.

I’m assuming blood circulation must be worse in her legs right now during the pregnancy, for such a massive bruise to come from just a minor bump.

So when you read this letter, you’ll know that this was what was going on in our lives, exactly one week before your due date: She had a huge bruise on her leg!

Yesterday Mommy went in for what I assume will be her last visit before you will be born. The technician mentioned that there were pockets of fluid that looked a little low, but that a radiologist would review and make the final assessments on the report. The ultrasound showed you as being 7 lbs. 3 oz., though the technician said that is not very accurate and it’s generally about a pound off.

I suppose our family is as ready as we can be for your arrival. We all got haircuts. Our overnight bags are packed in the trunk. Grandma is flying in from California on Monday. And Nonna and Papa are “on call” for the moment we leave for the hospital.

There’s a very real possibility that since your due date is a week from today, the next letter I write to you will be about your birth!

I’ll be telling how hopefully short the labor was… and how hopefully Mommy went into labor in the morning time so we all had a full night of sleep before you arrive.

We’ll see how that works out, though.

Love,

Daddy

9 Comments Posted on People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

dad from day one: She’s Having a Baby

The word on the street is true.  And we couldn’t be any happier about it!

Three weeks ago my Mexican grandma (who has always been very religious-superstitious) called my sister, saying, “Do you have something to tell me?”

“No…”

“Are you sure?  You don’t have anything to tell me?”

“Nnnnno…”  (more hesitantly than the first time)

“I had a dream.  I had a dream where I saw your grandfather in Heaven and he was so happy.  He was pushing a baby stroller.”

In other words, my grandma assumed the wrong grandchild.  She also told my sister about another dream she had where she saw “the most beautiful little girl in a rocking chair”.  We’ll know in about eight more weeks whether or not that second dream is true.

Something I never realized about finding out you’re going to be a first time parent is that it has to stay a secret for a while.  Long enough to make sure it’s not a false alarm.  Long enough to confirm with a doctor.  Long enough to get a sonogram.

We’ve known for over a month now.  It’s a huge secret to keep from the entire world for that long.  What a relief!  Hey, we’re having a baby!

Expected arrival is on my dad’s 54th birthday:  November 11th.

Obviously I’ve got a lot more to say about it all and I will continue to encounter plenty more as time goes on.  Therefore, this is the first of many in my new series I call “dad from day one”.  While it seems pretty easy to find material out there for expectant moms, not so much for expectant dads.

Expectant dads don’t encounter physical changes, but they do experience psychological ones.  In this new series I will be journaling the whole process, from the time we found out we’re having a baby, until… well I can’t say until the baby is born because that’s only the beginning.  And speaking of the beginning, when is day one?

Was it the day of conception?  The day we found out?  Today, the day I’m publicly telling everyone I haven’t already told in person or on the phone?  I don’t know.  Day One is the beginning of this new person I am becoming.

In the likeness of a TV show I’ve never seen but heard good things about, How I Met Your Mother, another goal of “dad from day one” is to create an archive for this kid to come.  To show him or her what was going through my head during all this.

Eighteen years ago, I was given a blank journal by a classmate from school as a Christmas present.  Inspired by my favorite cartoon show at the time, Doug, I remember my first entry:

“Dear Journal, I will be writing everyday so that in the future when I have kids of my own one day…”
Then I stopped.  I embarrassed myself with the phrase “kids of my own one day” because it wasn’t the way I actually talked.  It just seemed too weird.  I threw the journal in the garbage.

Here I am 18 years later, seven months away from the big day.  About to have a “kid of my own”.  Let’s do this thing.

All pictures with the “JHP” logo were taken by Joe Hendricks Photography:

Blog- www.photojoeblog.com

Website- www.joehendricks.com