24 Down

Well today has been a pretty good day. The Gophers new football coach signed a real good recruiting class. I've been telling Melissa and the rest of the Badger fans they have about two years before the Gopher nation locks The Axe in Minneapolis for a very long time. I'm already day dreaming about the first game in the new stadium in 2009.

Well (most of) you didn't sign on to read accolades about the Gophers, so I'll tell you that we had the best doctor appointment yet in the new era today. They did a real thorough evaluation of Bea's head, organs, heart, skeletal structure and so many other things and she passed with flying colors. Best yet her weight has climbed from 13 ounces three weeks ago to 23 ounces! Very few parents will be as happy as Melissa and I about their baby turning into a little butterball. Melissa had a relatively rough day yesterday with worries about today's appointment but she's in a totally different mood now. After the doctor visit today we're high fiving.

We keep on getting different gestation periods from the doctors, but it appears we're at 24 weeks today. Bea's development is tracking along just fine at 23 weeks and 5 days (just 2 days behind and well within the margin of error for the analysis). Critical dates that Melissa and I have on our calendars are 28 weeks on March 7, 30 weeks on March 28, and 32 weeks on April 4th. I'll be real happy at 28 weeks, popping the champagne at 30 weeks (non-alcoholic stuff for Melissa and Bea - no apples though) and I'll be pulling a 1/2 barrel of beer around the neighborhood at 32 weeks. Bullet might even get a taste. Everything beyond 32 weeks is icing on the cake.

We've been real hesitant about getting too excited about stuff. We've been putting off shopping for things as we didn't want to be disappointed if something goes wrong and wanted to keep our emotions in check for a while. I recently bought three children's books to start reading to Bea at night. Last night we transitioned to Sherlock Holmes.

We're very fortunate for many things. Having just one baby will allow us to do a lot more as a family. We're also very lucky that Melissa and I will be able to resume productive, healthy and active lives and have the ability to provide good opportunities for Bea. I'm also very blessed to work in a position and company where I can drive home and take Melissa to a weekly doctor appointment. That wonderful Blackberry (I say this a little sarcastically) allows me to stay in tune throughout the day and I can catch up on work at night after making dinner and taking Bullet for his chilly walk. Not to many people have jobs as flexible as I do.

We're fortunate that with good planning we chose professions and companies that support families, we paid a little more for a smaller house to be closer to our offices so we maximized family time, and we put away enough rain day money that Melissa is able to stop working for seven months without a big burden. Not having to worry about more things has a tremendous impact on Melissa and thus Bea's development. In other circumstances we could easily have faltered but we're hanging very tough as a team (with constant support from a friendly canine) and it appears we'll be exiting this troubling time much stronger.

Matt