Sky Diving, Anyone?

I have only been once, but it is vivid in my mind. At first it is an adrenalin rush, free falling with the wind in your face. Then the canopy opens and it is so peaceful. Just floating there so high above the earth. The green fields below look like little squares on a giant blanket. It is like hanging in the air, motionless. There is no sense of falling at all. When you are 3,000 feet up, it doesn't seem like the earth is getting any closer. And then you see the green square that you are trying to land on. Before you know it, the ground is rushing up at you so fast, you wonder if your canopy is even working right! Within a few seconds you realize it is time to do whatever it is that the instructor guy told you to do right before you hit the ground!

If you haven't figured it out yet, this is also what it feels like to have a child. At first it is so exciting to find out your going to be a parent. The wind rushes as you imagine all the things you need to do to get prepared. Then the canopy opens and you just float along buying stuff and taking classes and reading books.

Well, right now i am looking right at that green square that we are supposed to land on. As we get closer to Marilyn's due date, time seems to be speeding up. I know that Einstein would disagree, but perception is reality, right?

The ground is rushing up at me faster and faster. I only hope that i can remember all the things we are supposed to do right before we hit the ground. (Mostly, i am just praying for a soft and healthy landing.) Just thinking about that drive to the hospital increases my heart rate considerably. I imagine the entire experience will give me a whole new meaning of the phrase adrenalin rush.

Marilyn had another sonogram last week. It looks like the baby has turned over and is heading the right direction. The doc says that she may be a week further along than we originally thought! (The ground is even closer than i thought.)

It seems like yesterday we had 2 or 3 months left to prepare and today we are only 4 or 5 weeks away. I wish i could squint real hard like that guy on "Heroes" and make time stop so we could get everything just right. But we have prepared as well as we know how and we have prayed for God's will in our lives.

The next post you see might just be accompanied by newborn pictures. We probably won't have much time to post, since we are busy wrapping up all the preparations.

Thanks to everyone for their support, advice and gifts for our little one. Special thanks to Donna for the written account of how Marilyn and I met from the perspective of our little girl (i almost cried.....almost) and to Amber for hosting an awesome baby shower complete with games, killer cake and lots of laughter.

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder.......

Diaper Cakes from the Baby Shower

cake by Donna

cake by Amber

It's been a while...

Sorry it's been a while... lots of stuff going on lately...

We had our baby shower(s) 3 weekends ago and we had a lot of fun! (Thank you, to those who were able to make it).

My friend Kisha, and my sister Donna flew in (yes, she actually flew on an airplane just for me!) on Good Friday, the 21st. We had the typical baby shower at 2:00pm for the women and it was a good turnout. About a dozen or so women were there, including some of my co-workers and friends, and of course, my mother-in-law. My girlfriend Amber (a.k.a. "my sister from another mister") did such a wonderful job of planning everything and putting it all together, and we had so much fun! We ate yummy food that she made and cake that was "to die for", and played baby shower games such as: guessing how many toilet paper squares fit around my belly/waist, and a passing of the baby bottle filled w/m&m's right or left depending on the key words in a story Amber read aloud, and I can't remember what else. I opened gifts and read aloud the sweet story of how my baby's life came to be, as written by my sweet sister Donna (choked up a bit before getting through the story). We laughed a lot, and I think everyone had a good time. Things wound down around 5:00pm or so, and most people left, except Donna and Kisha. We cleaned up a little bit and hung out.

That night, some of Eric's guy friends and a couple of my girlfriends that were here earlier, came over to celebrate "co-ed" style, which included "gag" gifts and more food and fun. One of the guys brought his version of a "diaper changing kit" which was a heavy duty filtered mask and rubber gloves - lol! Another brought a framed target practice sheet to prepare Eric for his "little girl's 1st date" (thanks Greg and Justyn). We played a couple of games and also read off the suggested names for our baby that everyone put in to a bowl. Most were legit/sincere, but there were some off-the-wall joke ones like "Bonquisha" and "Starkeesha Ra'chelle" - lol! Interestingly enough, there were several suggestions for "Erica" and "Grace"... Also, there were some other nice suggestions, so we'll see... ;o) Things wound down around 12:00am midnight.

A couple of weeks ago, I took my 1st glucose test, and it came back "elevated", so last Tuesday I had to go have 3+ hours of blood drawing done after fasting for at least 12 hours (by the time I finished, it had been more than 16 hours since I'd last eaten). The next day, I had my normally scheduled prenatal appointment and the good news was that the tests came back normal, other than I'm somewhat anemic. Yay - no pricking my fingers and micromanaging my diet!

The baby has grown quite a bit even since the baby showers, and she moves ALL THE TIME, but I'm loving it so far! It's such a unique and exciting experience, that I'm enjoying it for now... she hasn't kept me up all night (yet *knock on wood*).

The Dr. also said he believes she has "turned" head down and may have even "dropped", which is good news to us, if that is the case! We will have an ultrasound a week from this coming Monday, so that will be cool!