Bitter parents

What's with people that are parents giving off the negative vibes. I'm really excited about having a baby and totally looking forward to the experience. I am not naive and realize it comes with it's challenges but why do people feel the need to rub that in. I find as I talk to parents about these last remaining days of my life without a child all they ever say are things like "enjoy it while you can", "you'll never do that again", "i remember those days" etc. All said with that sinister mwahaha tone...like Dr.Evil revelling in his evil plan. They also mention the many changes that will come and all mention it with this distaste as though their lives have been ruined. (no sleep, no time, no money, no freedom) So far parents have been the worst advocates for parenting that I've encoutered. Single people are so excited for us and have nothing but encouraging, supporting things to say. I wish other parents would be giving us nothing but positive comments especially given the fact that we are in the ninth month and the baby is coming very soon. Any thoughts on this phenomenon? You parents?

Crib Q&A

Today our general manager at school called me into his office and presented me with a HUGE box. Inside was our brand new crib matress and some sort of sleeping set. I havn't quite figured out the sleeping stuff yet, so I will let you know after closer examination. It did however come with bumper pads, so who can tell me what the deal with those are?

The problem, which leads into the question of the week, is this: the mattress is brand new from a nice Sears-esque type store, bought specially for us, made of a this top end foam stuff that feels cushy but not puffy. Its like a really stiff memory foam type thing thats about 2 inches thick. It fits the crib snugly on the sides (I can't get a finger width between it and the sides, and my books says it must be tighter than 2 fingers...) BUT it is about 4 inches too short. So, here is my question: Is an option cutting a similar piece of foam to snugly match up the end and covering the whole thing with a sheet ok, or absoltuly out the question? I can ask the manager about getting a longer one, but I suspect the problem is that the crib was shipped here from the US and the mattress is from Taiwan and it was the closest he could get to the size. (He did have the exact mearurements, so I know he tried) Do crib mattresses come in a standard size? Before I get dissmissed as bad mother of the year please note that I havn't placed any baby on the mattress in questiosn yet, and I am only presenting this as a possible option. I think the point is to have no gaps whatsoever anywhere that babies can fall into or roll into, but is there something I missed?

Pictures from Penghu

Two weeks ago was a holiday week for us and we went on an awesome mini-vacation with our best Taiwan friends. Panghu is a tropical island archipelego off the west coast of Taiwan. Our goal was to get away from school work and enjoy laying and relaxing in God's creation. It was a super duper good time! Here are some pics of the lovely pregnant Nevada who has definitely started looking 8 months pregnant. And a few with me just so you don't forget who the daddy is.

Kicking up a storm

I'm sending out the 'Is this normal' question...

She has been kicking SOO HARD lately. She is pretty mello all day, moving around a bit but mostly just readjusting and stretching out, I think. But then at night she has these freak out sessions where it feels like she is starring in her first kungfu movie. They used to be quite sporadic and short; about 10 seconds to a minute but now they go on for 10 minutes sometimes. In fact, she even woke me up last night she was kicking so hard. I really don't think she likes it in there very much, or else is preparing for a carreer in TaiBo or kick boxing. Generally, I feel she's gotten so angular. Sometimes I am round, but other times there is a definate triangle quality to my belly.

Tell me I'm normal!!

34 weeks...

34 week checkup on Monday. The doctor was hilarious, he was telling us a story about his vacation to Georgia last week and he thought it was so funny, and Chris and were like, yah its sort of funny but not really...Chris will put the video up soon. (He's been subbing all week at school, plus church, etc, so no time)

So all is well with Baby. She is getting more and more real every day, not that she wasn't real before, but as we feel little feet poking out, see her face on the ultrasound and little mouth sucking away already. Our little baby!! The doctor said 'This is not a big baby. But that's OK." He said he likes delivering small babies: "If it's easy for the mother it is easier for me!" Good logic :) She isn't really small, just a little skinny still. She weighs 2kg (4.4 pounds). She doesn't feel little to me. 6 weeks left and the uncomfortable stage is beginning. Rolling over in bed is harder, getting up out of chairs is harder, the stairs are harder, I keep bumping into everything, and my feet are so sore in the mornings. Like I've been walking all day in my sleep. But otherwise I am good.

Pictures to come soon, there are some nice ones of me in a bathing suit from Penghu...And handsome Daddy as well.

Best pics yet...

After checking out my friend Becky's belly pics over at Baby Grrrl I felt the need to step up our efforts. Actually Nevada and I had been thinking about that a lot lately. We should really be putting in a bit more effort into capturing this special time. I think it feels so normal at this point that sometimes we forget how special it really is. We are off to the beach for a mini-vacation this week and plan to take some really good shots. The ones you're seeing today were shot on the campus of Taiwan University, near our house. Enjoy!

(I decided to put them on Flickr instead so here's a teaser. Click on it to go to the Flickr album)

My beautiful Taiwanese wife

So pregnant ladies here as a general rule wear these tent like dresses. I'm not sure why but you can always see women waddling around the streets in their tents. Nevada recently borrowed some clothes from a Taiwanese co-worker and there were a few nice things and a few tent-like things. Here she is sporting one of the tents that she felt comfortable in enough to wear it in public. I think she looks cute in everything!