What Are You Having? An Excellent Question.

Since the wife and I have started telling people that we are expecting a baby the reaction is almost universal. The standard congratulations followed by the question "what are you having?"

Then we give them the answer. We are not going to find out. We really want this to be a surprise.

Now, the naysayers want an answer for a multitude of reasons. Some just out of idle curiosity, others because they want in on something they think is a secret, and then the practical people that can't find or don't want to give gender neutral gifts.

 I have noticed the seeming lack of gender-neutral anything and I think it is sad. And, while knowing the gender of the baby could be fun, I like a good secret.

The idea that I will have the opportunity to come out of the delivery room and announce to the world that we have a girl or a boy; it makes me smile just thinking about it.

It seems like the hardest part of all this will be not accidentally finding out. We have an anatomy scan coming up and the first piece of advice we got was "if you don't want to know you must tell anyone that gets near the ultrasound machine". I'm debating wearing a sign around my neck.

For anyone reading this wanting to know the gender of our baby- even if it slips somewhere we aren't telling. It has to be a surprise to someone.

Now I'll throw it out to all of you. Did you find out what the gender of your baby was? Of course if you have a guess leave it in the comments, all the wives' tales leave us at a stalemate.

The Announcement

For anyone that knows me, but hasn't heard or for those of you that have stumbled here by accident let me start by announcing that my lovely wife and I are expecting a baby! I hate to overstate the obvious, but hard to learn to be a dad without having a child.

We waited until the second trimester to let the world know and it has been a slow reveal to this point, but now it is time to pull off the proverbial band-aid off and let everyone know.

It has been an interesting 16 weeks from the home test when we looked at each other and couldn't decide whether to laugh or be terrified. The "are we ready?", followed by the "well too bad if we aren't" and the excitement of "we are having a baby!".

We have had two ultrasounds and I will never forget the stupid smile on my face when we heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. The second ultrasound I was excited to see all the parts babies have, arms, legs and a big head.

I plan on using this as a place for my thoughts as I figure out how to be a father-to-be and a father. I want to share the good and the bad, hopefully find some other men in learning to be dads and give some people a few laughs as I work my way through.