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comment by AlderaanDuran
AlderaanDuran  ·  3540 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Paddling into the Waves or What I Learned from Not Muting

Yeah, my wife is technically full term with our daughter right now. Could be any day now. I'm not worried about sleep or staying up late after the baby comes, looking forward to it. My career has already made me accustom to functioning on little to no sleep. I'll be a soldier and handle it.

We're old suburbanites anyway now. Don't go out a ton anymore, rather stay in. Tonight for instance, I'm just having some cocktails and editing photos from a shoot and listening to music... and getting distracted by Hubski.





thenewgreen  ·  3540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Don't go out a ton anymore, rather stay in. Tonight for instance, I'm just having some cocktails and editing photos from a shoot and listening to music... and getting distracted by Hubski.
-Replace editing photos with editing music and we're not so different AD. What was on the menu? What were you drinking?

When you're not able to go out as often as you used to, you get much better at crafting drinks and cooking etc. At least that has been my experience.

Best of luck with the baby, I'm excited for you. As you may know, our daughter is 3 now and it's been the greatest experience of my life having her around. She's a blast and the relationship between a father and a daughter is a very special one.

Quick story:

When we got the ultrasound and found out we were having a girl, the first person I called was my father. I asked him, "dad, what did you prefer having/raising boys or girls?"

He responded, "Steven, I can't tell you that." but after some prodding he said this, "The other night I was at your sister's house and we watched a movie together. Mid war through the movie she fell asleep with her head on my shoulder. When was the last time YOU did that?"

-So there you have it. My father's way of saying raising/having a daughter is more rewarding than a son. I took no offense to it, in fact I can now see where he is coming from. The other day my daughter asked me if she could marry me when she gets big. The amount of love there is astounding.

Enjoy the journey pal. Be sure to check in and let us know how it went when you can. All my best!

AlderaanDuran  ·  3540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What was on the menu? What were you drinking?

We made some pasta with alfredo sauce and shrimp. The wife then promptly went to bed at like 8pm. Then I had a few 7and7s and and got some much needed time in Lightroom to edit photos.

Thanks for the thoughts on daughters, I've heard that sentiment a lot from numerous other parents I know. When coming into have a baby I was kind of all, "I hope it's a boy", but didn't really have any reasoning beyond being male myself. But the more I hear, read, and think about it, the more I'm looking forward to having a girl. I really didn't care too much either way, but my wife was ecstatic to have a girl I think. Her mom died when she was in her teens and they had a really close relationship, and she feels this is kind of her giving back to the universe in a way. We're naming her after her late mother and grandmother.

I'll be sure to check back in at some point.

thenewgreen  ·  3540 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Wow, the parallels are amazing. My wife's mother died when she was nearly 13 and they too were very close. My wife was ecstatic to have a girl. We recently had our son and my wife was very conflicted about having a boy. She really wanted all girls. Turns out, she's beyond in love with the kid and couldn't be happier with him.

Turns out the old adage, "I just want a healthy child," is pretty spot on.

Again, my best to you three.

AlderaanDuran  ·  3528 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So... on the subject of daughters and our wives being similar...

Went to the local clinic for our weekly checkup last week on Thursday, wife's blood pressure was astronomically high and she had protein in the urine. Her Ob pretty much told her she had preeclampsia, and told us we needed to go directly to labor and delivery at our hospital. When we asked why, she said, "You're going to meet your daughter in the next 24 hours one way or another."

Ran home, grabbed the go-go-pregnant bag, headed to the hospital, got into a labor delivery room. They ran some more tests, yada yada, said "Welp, we need to get that baby out of you! We're going to put you on some drugs and break your bag in the morning." They did. Wife gave birth "traditionally". Long story short, I have a healthy and beautiful baby girl as of 7/25/2014.

All I wanted was a healthy child and so far I have one and couldn't be happier. I don't think I've cried in years but man when she came out and started crying and I knew she was alive.... biggest relief I've ever felt in my life. Never really had a chance to bond with a being growing inside my wife, but at that moment I wanted nothing more than to hear her crying and know she was alive. That was a pretty powerful moment.

Honestly, just feel relieved the whole pregnancy thing is over. "Is it going to be okay?", "Will it be healthy?", "Is my wife okay?", "When will the moment come?" All that stuff is gone now. Such a relief!

Was hoping she'd be born on my birthday, 7/30, but alas that was not in the stars. She was born 7/25. You can't win them all.

thenewgreen  ·  3528 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Congratulations AD! There's nothing like hearing/seeing your child for the first time, especially when there are complications. I've been there.

My best to you three. You have a daughter now, you are someone's father and will likely be the most important person in her world. -such an awesome responsibility!

Enjoy pal!

veen  ·  3528 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Congratulations on a healthy kid! How cute is she?

AlderaanDuran  ·  3527 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Pretty cute. I'm a guy who thinks most babies are ugly, and I'd totally call my baby ugly if she was, but she turned out pretty cute. She looks a lot like me... but yeah, I'm obviously biased.

thenewgreen  ·  3527 days ago  ·  link  ·  

She is objectively cute, nice work. Now, find her a job. Babies are such freeloaders :)