Some news

I think all 3 of you who read this blog already know this, but here's the news anyway:

We are expecting. A baby, that is. We are also expecting Obama to win, but that's a whole different topic. The baby, who we are calling Young Jebadiaeh for now, is due May 15. That won't be his/her real name. It's an alias. We will figure out his/her real name someday, but you probably won't hear about that until s/he is already born and named.

I will do next part interview-style, since these are the most common questions:

Are you going to find out the gender?
Probably. But I haven't decided if it will become public knowledge, mostly because I do not like gender stereotypes, and though they are unavoidable, the child does not need to have them before s/he is even born. Of course, I'm only avoiding it for a few months. (this is JK^2's argument to the contrary).

Where will the baby sleep?
Probably in the room that we are currently using for an office. This is because it has the least furniture, mostly. It allows us to continue to have a guest room for a while longer.

What color will you paint the room?
The room is currently a very nice yellow, and I think it'll stay that way.

Where are you having the baby?
Massachusetts General Hospital. So far, they have been fabulous. Let's hope the baby doesn't decide to be born during rush hour.

You didn't have the horrible morning sickness, did you?
I wish I could speak about it in the past tense, but unfortunately, it's still going strong. And we're going on 7 weeks of it now.

Will you move back to Buffalo now that you have a kid?
No.

Will you go back to work?
Yes, but I'm still figuring out how we'll work that.

[I'll avoid the questions about "how could you go back to work?", etc. because I don't want to go off on a rant tonight about equal parenting, mental health, gender stereotypes, etc.]

How is your job taking it?
They are fabulously supportive, as they are for all family-based issues (this sounds sarcastic, but it's really not. They really are great. It's a big reason I've stuck with this job)

So I can't think of any other questions to answer except, of course, the most important question: how do you feel about it?
Excited, happy, scared, amazed, super sad that our dads didn't make it to meet our kid, optimistic ...

I have been quite happy. Really, the only thing that makes me sad is knowing that our child will never know what it's like to know my dad. And I think Jim feels the same way about his dad. We will tell him/her all about them, but how do you describe what it was like to laugh at one of my dad's corny jokes? And have him laugh with you? Or the comfort of coming home after a long drive from Boston and knowing he'd be in the back room waiting to hear about our trip? You can describe what a person was like, but there's no way of feeling how they were like. I miss my dad all the time and am really sad that our kids will never know him.

A question to leave you with for the night, since I'm not sure how to answer it yet:

Should we take a trip? A lot of people take a trip at around 5 months (I guess I'll be feeling better then). And if so, should it be a big exotic trip, ie., involving an international destination? I have mixed feelings. First, there's the money issue. This is on various levels. We lost some money in the stock market, and we're going to have a lot of expenses once the kid is here, and we need to keep paying for Jim's economics program. There's also the health issue. I need to avoid food poisoning, etc. We seem to always get a case of Montezuma's revenge (aka Pharaoh's revenge) every time we travel, with a few exceptions. Even when we were in Iceland, perhaps the cleanest place in the world, JK^2 ate something that did not agree with him. I am worried about this. But on the other hand, it may be a long time before we can go off on a trip like this again.

Of course, if the answer to the "let's take a trip" question is yes (and it would be nice to go), the next question is WHERE?

I will leave that thought with you tonight.