Welcome Home, Baby Alyssa

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while, but my wife had our baby. She was born on Wednesday evening about 11:32 P.M. Mom and Baby are in good health. It is a cool experience to be a part of; the whole birth process. Quite amazing, I'll have to say.

We just made it through our first evening at home. Alyssa did pretty well in giving us a few hours of uninterrupted sleep between feedings. My Beloved and I tried to take turns in the process of getting up. (Not as much I can do, but I try) I can hand her the baby and/or burp her and/or burrito wrap her and/or put her back to sleep. In the in-between-feedings, I think we were able to get some sleep, though my neck feels like someone was karate-chopping it all night. Strange. I say...Gotta watch out for the sneaky ninjas. Anyway...

I'll have to change the purpose of this blog, because I'm sure Iwill now move into talking about purposefully raising a child in the ways of God and the joys and challenges that go along with it. I will try to continue with my blog commitment for now, but surely not as often as before. ;-)

God bless,

Derrick

Soon to Be Baby Update

Well, it is coming down to the wire. My Beloved is about to give birth to our firstborn. We will be finding out Tuesday if we will be induced on Thursday. It seems likely that this will be the case.

It is interesting to think that in less than a week, our lives will be significantly different. I have only felt nervous once; and this was last Wednesday when the doctor casually invited us to have a baby a week and a day later. For me, this is typical as I usually do not get nervous about things until just before the "real" event, then my body dumps a load of adrenaline into my bloodstream.

I am not sure if this is good or not, but it seems to be the pattern for my life in a stressful situation.

Are we ready? Ha...Is anybody ever truly ready? I suppose I could liken the experience as similar to my first teaching job. I am was prepared the best I knew how, took all the right courses, met the various requirements...etc. but a lot changed when I stepped into the classroom. I learned that, while it was good to prepare, there was a lot of on-the-job training that takes place real quick.

Some things work out well because of planning; many things need to be tweaked to fit the situation. Teaching is a cycle of implementation, improvisation and reevaluation AKA Trial and Error.

I think it is likely, from my understanding, that parenting will be similar. We can plan, and learn and prepare the best we can, and there will be plenty of on-the-job training. Some of our fairytale ideas will be shattered and we will engage in 18+ years of Trial and Error. The plus side of being a teacher is I've gotten 5 years experience of Errors and Trials with other people's kids. :-) Heh. Heh.

This may be the longest post in a long time if we get her on Thursday. :-) God Bless, and I thank you for your support in our lives and on the blog. But mostly in our lives.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.