First appointment scheduled!

So our first appointment with the OBGYN is scheduled for August 11 at 8:15. We are using the same doctor that two of my coworkers use. We will be beginning week 9 at the first appointment which seems late, but I have been assured that that is ok.

Also, I went to CVS last night on an errand for the wife to get prenatal vitamins. I walked in and tried to handle the task myself. I hate asking for help from people at stores. So I walk over to the vitamin section and start scanning. Vitamin A, B, C, Zinc-oxide, Flinstones chewables, everything but what I am looking for. Frustrated, I ask the pharmacy tech where to find them. They were in the women's care section. Tricky, CVS, tricky. The tech hands me the CVS brand and explains that they are the cheapest ones. Normally, I am all about the cheapest anything, but this is my kid we are talking about here. So I ask why the One A Day Women's Prenatal ones cost more. Turns out they have more and better stuff in them. So here is my lesson learned for today:

Folic Acid - One thing that the One A Day Women's Prenatal vitamins had that the generic, cheaper brand didn't is a full 800mg of folic acid. What is folic acid? Well, folic acid is a vitamin that naturally occurs in leafy, green vegetables, peas, dried or fresh beans, sunflower seeds, and liver. It is necessary for the production and maintenance of new cells. It is especially important during periods of rapid cell growth, i.e. a developing baby.

DHA - The One A Day prenatal vitamins also contained and advertised that they included DHA. DHA stands for docosahexaenoic acid. Why is this important? Well it turns out that this is an Omega-3 fatty acid. I have personally taken these to help prevent heart disease. DHA is actually a fish oil that is important to the baby in the areas of brain and retina formation. In fact it is the most abundant omega-3 fatty acid in the brain. It is found naturally in fish and other seafood, which pregnant women are limited on their intake of.

What I know at this point...

So it has been one week since the EPT tests came back positive. Crisi called an ob-gyn yesterday and the earliest that they could see her was August 20. We got the names of some other doctors from co-workers, and she is going to call them today to see if we can get scheduled sooner. At this point, we have not had any doctor confirm that we are in fact pregnant. However, we do have these classic symptoms; a missed period, three positive pregnancy tests, daily waves of nausea, and near-constant sleepiness.

So what do we know at this point. Well thanks to some great info in the What to Expect When You're Expecting Book and the companion website here, we have a fairly good EDD (estimated due date). The website has a calculator that you can use to figure out the EDD based either on your assumed conception date or the first date of her last period. We used both calculation methods and the results came back as either March 21 or March 22, 2010. I am going to go with March 21st until someone tells me otherwise. It is such a good sounding due date. First day of spring. First day of the astrological year (Aries is first sign, Wikipedia is full of such good info).

So that puts us at being at or near 7 weeks. Right now our baby is the size of a blueberry. It has grown 10,000 times in size since conception. That alone is amazing! What is also amazing is that Crisi is expending more energy sleeping than I would bodybuilding. This week the mouth and tongue are forming as well as the sprouting arms and legs. Also forming this week are the babies kidneys and brain cells.

So what else do we know? Well we also did the Chinese calendar test. This is a centuries old calendar that supposedly predicts the baby's gender based on the conception month and age of the mother at time of conception. You can find a calculator here. Our results indicated that the baby would be a girl. We are both hoping for a girl. Crisi simply wants a girl more than anything. I want a girl so that whenever we are planning baby #2 then at least I won't be under that pressure. Now, granted the Chinese calendar thing is probably as accurate as a shot-in-the dark, but it is still fun to take.

I think we may have had our first flirtation with a pregnancy craving today as well. Crisi wakes up at 5:30 this morning and tells me she really wants a chicken biscuit from McDonald's. I try to ignore her for 15 more minutes until I have to get up and get ready for work, but she is persistent and after I got ready we went to McDonald's to satisfy her craving. I just want to keep her as happy as possible for the next 8 months.

Welcome and Introduction

First of all let me start out by saying that I am a virgin blogger. This is my first time. I have read and followed a few blogs before, but I always thought that I really didn't have anything worthwhile to share with the world. So why start now? To understand that maybe I should give you an introduction to the world of me.

I am 27 years old. I live in Nashville and work as an accountant. I have been married now for 9 days. My wife and I started dating shortly after I moved to Nashville from Mississippi in the summer of 2007. We honeymooned in Florida. On the third day of the honeymoon, we both confirmed our suspicions. Three self-proclaimed 'error-proof tests' broke the biggest surprise and shock of our lives. We are pregnant!

Our initial reaction? Shock. Surprise. Fear. We had just gotten married. We were newlyweds. We were supposed to spend a couple of years living it up, traveling, and being spontaneous. We were supposed to save up for a down payment and buy our dream house before starting a family. That was the plan. The plan was marriage, house, and then kids. We were both in agreement on this. But now our train has jumped the track.

After that initial shock wore off, I realized just how elated I was. I have always wanted kids. I love the thought of being a dad. I may have preferred to wait a little while before starting a family, but if this is the way it's going to be for us then I'm willing to run with it. So I am going to be a daddy. I like the way that sounds. I like the way that feels. Watching my wife walk down the aisle only a week ago, I could not imagine loving her anymore than I did that day, but since finding out that we are going to have a baby together, I feel love for her that I was not even aware existed on our wedding day.

So back to this blog, the reason I decided to start it is simple. I want to blog about my experiences - good and bad- of being an expectant father. I plan on discussing things I'm thinking and feeling, worries and concerns that I have, and all the things I learn along the way. I hope you enjoy and can share similar experiences with me.