Father@FortyOne #9 – “Anticipation”

Do you remember that Heintz Ketchup commercial from the 70′s? (Here it is on YouTube for my more youthful friends out there:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLoyg3JKRQ&NR=1)   Well, that’s more or less our lives right now in the Hoff family household.  Not necessarily waiting on ketchup to come slowly out of the bottle, but for a certain baby boy to make his grand appearance.  (Cue the Carly Simon theme music!)

Nesting to the nth degree has been going on for about two months.  (Although you wouldn’t necessarily know by looking at the house.)  Dawn’s mostly finished sorting all of the shower gifts and getting them put away.  She’ll soon shift to writing “Thank You” cards because she really can’t do much in the way of housework in her condition.  We’ve purchased a Pack-N-Play for little bits.  We still need to get a car seat/stroller combo, and will probably do that today.  The video camera has a new tape and a charged battery.  The digital camera is ready to go.  We all have overnight bags packed to go to the hospital, complete with snacks, books, and entertainment items.  Everyone’s numbers are programmed into three different cell phones for that “we’re headed to the hospital” phone call… now all we need are some contractions.

Dawn’s last doctor’s appointment earlier in the week wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear.  This past month she has been suffering with aches and pains she didn’t have with the other two pregnancies.  Bad hip pain and going to the bathroom 28 times (on average) per night hasn’t helped her get a lot of rest, which means I have a lot of sleepless nights also.  She often tells me, “Your son keeps kicking me!” like I can really do anything about it.   To sum up her feelings, I could put it this way… “GET THIS KID OUT OF ME NOW!!!!“  The doctor told her that the baby wasn’t showing any signs of “opening the door” yet, which I think disappointed her.  She’s a strong woman, but I think she’s really starting to reach her limit.  She showed me a website last night with ten different ways to induce labor culminating with some recipe for labor-inducing cookies of all things.  I’m fixing to make her two dozen of those puppies!

Now there are still a few things we’re not prepared for, but will be eventually.  Some of the casualties of a surprise child in your 40′s include:

• We don’t have a room for him.  It cracks me up when friends ask, “So is the nursery ready?”  Or “What color is the nursery?”  The poor child will have to stay with Mom and Dad in their room for probably the first six months or so.  We’re thinking we can build a room in the attic.  Right now though, he’s going to have to go the same route as another Baby we all know and love who didn’t have a “room at the inn.”  Thankfully he can stay in a baby bed, rather than a manger.
• Both of our vehicles are four-seaters… not five.  I think we can squeeze a car seat between the girls in the back seat, but it’s going to be comfy for awhile.  I don’t think they’ll mind though.  All it will take is Sweet Baby Ray flashing them a smile and they’ll forget about being squished more than normal.  We’ll eventually get a minivan or something like that, but for the moment… we’ll be a VERY close family. 

I think those are minor, missing items… right?  Regardless, we’re about as ready as these Hoff’s can get.  We can’t wait!

I’m checking out some trampolines on ebay while writing… I’m not sure trampolines made it on the ten labor-inducing methods from that website, but I bet it wouldn’t hurt to try.  Between bounces I can hand her a cookie.  (Eyebrows going up and down!)