We saw the baby move!

So today we had to go to the doctor. We had sort of a rough few days over the weekend, and they just wanted to check things out. The good news is though, we got to see the baby move on the ultrasound! Saw it's little legs kick, and arms move! Everything is good for now, but it's still a little scary. My wife is a trooper though. This definitely hasn't been easy (although, I've never heard any of my friends who have been pregnant say it was easy), but it seems like sometimes she can't catch a break and just have things go a little easier. We'll get there hopefully. Everyone says they felt better during their 2nd trimester, hopefully that catches up to her soon. She deserves it. I'll keep today short and sweet, and leave you with a picture of baby Falb that we got today. It's not the clearest, but you can make out the head, eyes, nose, ears and mouth! I mean seriously, look at it's little nose!

Baby stuff is expensive and overwhelming.

And so it begins...

Actually, it began a while ago, but now that Christmas is approaching, and our shopping is out of the way for that, the next major purchases start to surface. I'm pretty sure our child is going to have nicer things that we do, and that's fine. I'm pretty sure that's how life is supposed to go anyway. But man o man, baby stuff is expensive. Let's discuss what we've looked at so far. Please please please those of you with kids and/or experience with any of these items, leave us some feedback on this stuff!

First of all, let's talk car seats. I've been researching car seats for about two months now, and I'm fairly certain I could pick a quality seat for toddlers and up. Infant seats seem to not get as much attention. I believe that I have it narrowed down though. First on my list is the Britax Chaperone. This seems to be one of the best rated and reviewed infant seats I can find. The plus side being that it works very easily with the Britax strollers to make travel system. I have a number of other seats from Combi, The First Years, Sunshine Kids, Graco, and even some other Britax seats on the list, but none seem to be as highly regarded or well reviewed. At least not ones that have a carry handle for the infant seats.

Which leads us to strollers. Obviously, compatibility is high on our list of requirements, but I know that many strollers are compatible with seats/etc with little effort. I really haven't done a ton of research on the strollers, because there are just so many out there. Also, it will depend initially on which seat we pick, as I stated, we'd like to have that compatibility/functionality. I've really only been focusing on the Britax strollers. The B-Agile seems to be the one I gravitate towards. I believe that eventually we'd look at something like a Mountain Buggy Terrain for hiking/camping.

Furniture. I have no idea where to start. I have my obvious list of things that I want. Specifically an all organic/natural mattress. But that's about as far as I've gotten. So what about the actual crib and dresser, changing station etc? We both really like the Annabelle collection from Million Dollar Baby. But there is so much out there, it's sort of overwhelming. A 4-in-1 seems to be the way to go, at least price wise. And the rest of the furniture should be adequate throughout early childhood, if not longer. But there are so many things out there.

What do you all recommend? What have you had luck with? What would you avoid?

White Christmas (the movie)

Today is officially 13 weeks. And so far from the sound of it, it sounds like my wife is having a better day. That seems to confirm my suspicion that right now she's running at a couple good days in a row, followed by a couple not so great ones. Hopefully that ratio starts to tip more and more to the good days.

Last night, we started watching White Christmas for the first time. She had never seen it. I think I scared her off of "classic" Christmas movies when I made her watch It's a Wonderful Life, and we all started talking like Jimmy Stewart. Either way, she didn't quite make it to the end, as she took her B6 and half unisom. Which I don't know why, but it makes her pretty loopy.

On an only semi-related note, I got my grades back today for Fall 2011 semester (well, almost all of them.) I did pretty well. I'm happy with that, as I tried to split my time as best I could between spending as much time as possible with her while she was awake, and trying to get my school work done. I missed a couple things, and skipped some reading, but two A's and a B works for me. As long as the other grade that hasn't been reported yet is at least a C, I'll be an extremely happy guy. I pray that our child has better study habits and a better work ethic than I do. This semester was even harder for me because I'm horrible at accomplishing school stuff unless it actually interests me. Just ask any of my high school teachers. I'm surprised I didn't drive some of them into early retirement, or at least cause them to choke me.

Please baby, don't be like your dad.

Monday, December 19th.

So,

We hit a true milestone on Saturday. Darby was able to get out of the house for a while in a social situation. It was her brother's girlfriend's birthday celebration, and we made it out to bowling for about two hours. Although she didn't bowl, she said she still had fun. That was kind of huge in my opinion. She's also been less disgusted by food smells, and even managed to not puke when her brother stuck a pitcher (yes I said pitcher) of chicken wings in her face.

Sunday was a little rough. Not sure if that was her body's response to that much excitement, or what, but she was ultra tired, and not feeling so well most of yesterday. Here's to hoping today is better for her.

On a less serious note, I wonder what our poor kid is going to be like. I wonder what sort of warped, corrupted mind it's going to have. Have you met my family? Have you heard the things my wife says? Sure, she's intelligent and witty, but that girl can curse like a sailor and loves a good dick or fart joke. Or basically any sort of toilet humor. Sometimes more than me. Given free reign, she could possibly give Kevin Smith a run for his money. Luckily though, I know she'll be a wonderful and caring mom. Just one that I know will secretly (or maybe not so secretly) snicker at the inadvertent double entendres and jr. high antics of our child as it grows up.

God, I love that woman.

Operation Watermelon accomplished

So after work yesterday, I did manage to stop by Byerly's and pick my wife up some watermelon. And a pineapple, and some fruit cocktail. I got home, and although she was very happy for the watermelon, and immediately dug into it she couldn't enjoy it thoroughly. Yesterday wasn't a great day for nausea and her tummy.

This morning wasn't much better, and she opted to work from home. It seems that she's getting a couple good days in a row, and then a couple bad days in a row. As I stated yesterday though, I'm happy she's at least starting to get cravings for things. Hopefully the good days start to outnumber the bad days soon. I'm thankful she's getting good days though!

In other related news, the books about baby stuff I think are breeding themselves. We have more and more of them around. And it's mainly my fault, because I bought two more the other day. Of course we have "What to Expect...". And it's been informative, but a lot of people that had reviewed that book online also pointed to the "Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregancy" I'm definitely liking it also. As an early Christmas present, I also bought Darby a copy of "Belly Laughs" by Jenny McCarthy. She seems to enjoy it. I'll probably read it when she's done.

So what are your favorite or must have pregnancy books?