Becoming Parents to Petro Kid

Thank you, friends

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:20:07 -0700

Two weeks. Tracie and I are two weeks into the greatest job ever. Becoming parents to Katie has been the ultimate in on-the-job training. There is no “sink or swim” choice with being a first-time parent; swimming is the only option.

We’ve managed to stay afloat this long thanks in large part to the advice, kind words and giant life preserver of love from all of our friends and family. It really does take a village to raise a child. At first, that village just needs to keep the new parents from going totally insane, and we thank all of you for that.

To the many friends and family both near and far who followed our hospital adventures via Twitter and Facebook, we extend tremendous thanks to you. We wish we could have responded to the overwhelming number of kind tweets and Facebook posts which everyone sent when Katie was finally born. We didn’t want to let the kindness go unrecognized, so with the deepest gratitude, we say thank you friends! Your support means more than we can ever tell you.

It's been a long road, but it's almost over

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:13:54 -0700

It’s been 48 hours since we came to the hospital. We’ve been down a long and often painful road. Granted, it’s been a lot more painful for Tracie, but it’s no picnic seeing your wife in pain because that’s what needs to happen. Fortunately, all of the gels and drugs to get things moving are finally working. Tracie is comfortable and labor is progressing. Thank goodness for pitocin and epidurals!

For quite a while, it felt like this baby would never be born. Now, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It still seems a ways off, but it’s there. Our daughter will finally be born tomorrow!

Baby wants to stay put

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:01:09 -0700

Another visit to the OB, another day of boring news. There’s still no progress or dilation, so it looks like Little Bean won’t be arriving any time in the next couple of days. But, her due date is Sunday, so she still has some time to get moving.

Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more likely that she will have to be evicted from her nice comfy home. If labor hasn’t started on by Tuesday, we’ll probably have to induce. Until then, we wait some more!

Still nothin'

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:43:11 -0700

Thanks to Tumblr’s suckage, the post which was scheduled for today got published yesterday. So, the OB appointment was actually this morning. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new to report. No dilation and no baby anytime soon. It seems that Little Bean is perfectly happy where she is and is in no hurry to leave.

The official due date is still 9 days away, so she may yet decide to be born on time. Until then, we wait…

Since there’s no baby yet, I thought I’d post this...

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:22:10 -0700

Since there’s no baby yet, I thought I’d post this photo of Little Bean sticking her tongue out during our last ultrasound. We loved seeing her cute little chubby cheeks and tiny nose!

At the time, she was at about 6 pounds, 2 ounces and looking totally healthy. Hopefully, this means she’ll be somewhere between 7 and 8 pounds at birth, but it depends on how much longer she’d like to wait. We’re hoping it’s not much longer!

Still waiting

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:04:06 -0700

No baby yet! Little Bean’s due date is a week from Sunday, so she could arrive any time now. So far, Tracie really hasn’t had any Braxton Hicks contractions and is barely dilated. It looks like this baby isn’t in any hurry to be early. Tracie is pretty tired of being pregnant, but she’s doing much better than we both expected.

Pretty much everything is ready in our house: the crib, dresser/changing table, bassinet and strollers are put together. Our hospital bags are packed and car seats are installed. We have an OB appointment today, so we’ll see how things are progressing. But now, we wait!

Whew, finally have some time to catch up on blogging before this...

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:14:06 -0700

That's her name (for now)

Little Bean likes Dr. Seuss stories

Duckies!

Cute little baby shoes

Whew, finally have some time to catch up on blogging before this baby is born! On the day of the baby shower last month, Tracie’s cousin Ashley graciously offered to take a series of pregnancy photos for us. She came over to the house, shot the pictures and had a poster collage of the best ones made for the shower later that day.

Here’s a few of our favorites from the series. We really loved the pictures with the ducks; it was a ton of fun to make that shot work!

Story time

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:00:00 -0700

A fun update from Matthew:

A couple of weeks ago, Tracie suggested that I read a story so that little Bean can get used to my voice. She hears Tracie all the time, but not me, so it made sense. I found our copy of Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and read it to Tracie’s tummy. To our surprise, Bean started moving around and kicking…she really liked it!

Since then, story time has become an integral part of our evenings. Bean seems to like the Dr. Seuss books which have good rhymes and meter to them. The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish are favorites along with Green Eggs and Ham. Tracie says that when I read to her, Bean moves around and “snuggles in” for story time.

It almost goes without saying that this is my favorite part of the day.

A name for our girl

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:00:00 -0700

Ha! You thought I was going to tell what name we’ve decided one. Sorry to disappoint you. :)

But seriously, our girl has a nickname at least. Before we even knew the gender, Tracie’s cousin decided to nickname the little one “Bean”. Why? Dunno. But Tracie and I have nicknamed her cousin’s three kids Cricket, Sprout and Boo, so we’re not complaining or asking questions.

The little one is kicking like a ninja!

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:00:00 -0700

More thoughts from the excited daddy:

We’re at week 24 and I finally got to feel the little one kick! On Saturday night, our girl was kicking like crazy. I hadn’t felt her yet, as every other time I’d tried, she immediately stopped. So on Saturday, I put my hand on Tracie’s belly, but this time, the baby kept kicking! I was so excited to finally feel her moving that I got a huge grin and did a totally dorky happy dance.

More from Matt: So our little growing baby turned out to be...

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:00:00 -0700

I believe the label.

Cute little feet!

Our girl's face.

Ultrasound says...it's a girl!

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:00:00 -0700

The biggest news (other than the actual arrival of this child) was finally revealed today: we’re having a girl! This means that Matthew will now be ridiculously outnumbered (1 wife, 2 girl cats and 1 daughter).

However, the real reason for the ultrasound was to check on the baby’s development, and so far, everything looks fantastic! 10 fingers, 10 toes and all of the usual parts are developing just as they should be. We even could even see her little heart beating away.

So, the countdown to November 28 continues, and the amount of pink in Petro House increases exponentially!

Getting ready, slowly

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 08:55:00 -0700

More thoughts from Matt:

Tracie’s been feeling mostly better lately. Most of the queasiness has subsided and she’s actually started cooking again. Over the past weekend, we finally had to go and buy her some real maternity clothes. The belly is just getting too big for flowy summer dresses!

We haven’t really had a chance to start turning the extra room in to a nursery and really preparing the house for the arrival of the kid. I know that the baby will be arriving in November or December, but since the house hasn’t really changed much, I haven’t been able to feel super excited yet. I think that once we find out if we’re having a boy or a girl and we starting working on the room, it’ll feel much more “real” and I’ll get annoyingly paternal. Or maybe just slightly paternal. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Almost time to find out what we're having!

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:55:00 -0700

The time is flying by! We’re halfway through the pregnancy and Petro Kid is growing nicely. At our last ultrasound, everything looked normal and risks for genetic defects were very low.

Our next ultrasound is July 15. By that point, we’ll be able to tell if we’re having a boy or a girl. Only 10 days left to get the betting pools started!

So Tracie has been craving cake lately. I went to Sam’s...

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:08:05 -0700

So Tracie has been craving cake lately. I went to Sam’s Club and came back with this. Sure, it’s not Butter & Me, but it works. When it comes to pregnancy cravings, the dad-to-be should a) not question them and b) do whatever he can to satisfy them. There’s your pregnancy lesson for the day.

Music for Petro Kid?

Thu, 20 May 2010 09:30:00 -0700

Music for Petro Kid?:

Since the kid hadn’t yet developed hearing when we went to the Glee Live concert, we’ll have to get one of these to make sure he or she gets their fix of great tunes. Seriously, this child has to have an appreciation for good music!

It’s been a busy few days for these parents-to-be! We went...

Tue, 18 May 2010 11:16:00 -0700

The first time we heard the heartbeat!

Side view

Closer view of the kid's profile

It’s been a busy few days for these parents-to-be! We went to see our OB-GYN on Friday and had a diagnostic ultrasound on Monday. Both times we got to hear the heartbeat! It was totally normal at 170 beats per minute. It’s amazing how hard the kid’s working to grow in there.

The ultrasound was pretty fun. The baby was very active, jumping around, moving his or her arms and legs, and generally refusing to get into the right position to have the necessary measurements taken. Even though it took an hour to get the procedure finished, it was amazing to watch our baby being so active.

After seeing how restless the baby was, we’re worried we’re going to have a very active little kid! Hopefully we have enough energy to keep up. Also, given the baby’s stubbornness in not staying in the right position, we think it might be a girl; yet another stubborn woman in a long line of stubborn women from Tracie’s side. :)

We’ll actually find out the gender when we go back for another ultrasound in mid-July. It was just too early to tell at this stage, but we did get some decent pictures!

Documenting Petro Kid

Mon, 10 May 2010 09:00:00 -0700

Welcome to Matthew and Tracie’s adventures in becoming parents! Here we’ll write about thoughts on the adventure we’ve already embarked upon and share updates on the progress of Petro Kid. Maybe we’ll even produce a collection of updates our child will one day want to read to find out what his or her parents were like in 2010 as we prepared for the arrival.

We’re at the 11 week mark right now, so some of the pregnancy has passed now. Tracie is still feeling queasy and not particularly great, but we’re hoping that will end with the first trimester.

Matthew’s thoughts:

I wish I’d gotten this set up earlier, but there’s no time like the present to get started! It’s a busy time around our house, so this got put off for a while. But now I’m excited to share some of how it feels to be an expectant dad. I know not everyone wants to read this, but if you do, I hope you enjoy it!