Time moves too fast......

So it feels like just the other day that we got the "BIG" news. The shock value seems to have disappeared until I talk with someone else that has yet to hear of our special package coming. When I get to tell someone new it excites me again as if it the first time I am hearing it myself. The days keep going by faster and the weeks that we thought were so far off are now approaching us at a speed greater than we anticipated. We have less than 6 months until the baby is here. Six months until we are responsible for the well-being of another life. When I think about it in those terms then I get a little anxious. I am by no means ready to take on another life. I guess there is really no way for me to delay this is there? Can I just have the baby grow in the womb until I feel confident that I am ready? While Katie may not enjoy that, I think it might be the easiest route. While most women who have had a baby and even those who have not will disagree when I say pregnancy is equally as stressful on the man as the woman. No, I do not have to carry the baby but I do feel the extra pounds being added to my figure from always having to have a snack in between meals. And as hard as we try to have healthy snacks laying around, the occasional bowl of ice cream or candy finds its way into my diet. Keeping up the woman's morale is also a very important yet overlooked issue that us men sometimes forget. Every morning I am hit with the "how does this look" followed by the "nothing fits" grumble in the closet. I know it can be discouraging when you find yourself gaining weight and going from a very attractive fit young woman to a very attractive young woman with a "pooch"....this is the only word I have found to not be offensive ;) I find it very difficult to describe to the disgruntled woman that she is just as attractive if not more so because she is carrying something that we created. I just do my best and say positive things. She keeps reading in books that we should be able to "see" this or "feel" that but up until the other night I had not experienced any of these things without the aid of sophisticated scientific instruments (doppler). While giving the nightly belly rub, I felt a little firm line running across the lower abdomen. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say its the uterus....at least that's what the books are saying I should be feeling by now. Even if it really isnt the uterus, I'll tell people that cause it makes me feel like we are progressing. The doctor visit this past Friday was encouraging but not as exciting as the previous ones. I guess I'm getting hard to please. We heard the heartbeat again and there was no mistaking it.....Its gotta be a boy. It was beating so strongly through the doppler I thought I would be able to hear it if I just put my ear to the belly. No such luck. We have 4 more long weeks until the next visit where we could possibly find out if it XX or XY. If we find out its going to be a girl, I am quite happy with the newest Male addition to our family, Willis Poulsen. Willis is a blue male pit bull with one blue eye and one hazel eye. He is only 15 weeks old and acts even younger. We have been having dog withdrawals for quite sometime and finally pulled the trigger. At times I have questioned our decision but while he curls up with us in the bed or on the couch and passes out snoring I know we made the right choice. Housetraining has been difficult and frustrating to say the least but I think this is great training for us with whats about to come. For some reason I don't think we have to worry about the other baby biting us or nawing on the corner of the couch. I could be wrong though. I have seen some pretty odd behavior out of little people. So as time flys by, we keep on trying to accomplish things all the while waiting on this baby to arrive. If you review our itinerary, you would think we are not affected by this so called economic recession. Virginia Beach shopping one weekend, touring San Francisco and drinking wine in Napa Valley the next (no not the expectant mother), Gloucester to visit Dad, Betsy and Nook. Down time is at a premium right now and I do not see it becoming easily attainable in the future. As we wish these weeks by to hear more exciting news and watch the development of the baby....I just want to take it a little slower and cherish the moment. We are only here once and I want to capitalize on that. Living in the NOW