Lately, life has moved pretty rapidly for the Yoders. Being the man of the house, I have found it necessary to make adjustments now that my roles have shifted. I have had to resurrect some of my cooking skills I had as a bachelor. In doing so, I have gained a deeper understanding of my father. While growing up, us kids would look forward to the rare nights when Mom would be away. Not to knock Mom at all, it just meant Dad would cook his specialty: fried baloney sandwich! Yeah, thanks for that Dad. Though very yummy to my youthful taste buds, I now understand that it was the ease of preparation that motivated my father. It seems the apple has not fallen far from the tree. I have eaten ham sandwich five out of the last seven days. And today to mix it up, I fried it.
Stephanie has had her sick days, but they have been nothing close to the infamous week of non stop morning sickness. She has been able to function at work fine, then come home and crash on the couch watching Friends until 8:30. Then off to bed.
My Dude You're Going to be a Dad book tells me today was a big milestone. We had our first checkup with the midwife. Her name is Amy. Long ago, I determined that I would not be a passive husband during this entire pregnancy, sitting tired and unengaged at the back of the office while the women discussed the health of my wife and child. So I made sure I was present.
It was strangely easy to stay alert and focused while the RN fired a hundred questions at us about our medical, surgical, and genetic history. I resisted the temptation to one up Steph and the nurse on the number of surgeries undergone ( its five), but couldn't help thrusting my fist triumphantly in the air when I heard the news Steph was eligible to participate in a safe study that would result in us getting over $150 in gift cards and a free car seat for our baby! Cha Ching!
By far the most exciting moment came at the end of our meeting with the midwife. Listening for the baby's heart. Amy informed us that since we are only nine weeks along, the baby has to be in just the right position and its very unlikely that we will hear anything. None the less, when she put that microphone up to Steph's belly, I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation. I hadn't even realized I would be that nervous.
She felt around with the mic, there was a number of noises including a slow swishing sound that was Steph's heart. Then we heard something different, quick, loud, and clear: "taptap taptap taptap". My eyes were wide as saucers and we looked at Amy as she confirmed "That's your baby's heart." I still remember the sound and I could tap out the exact rythm right now. This experience totally blitzed me, otherwise I would have prepared my reaction better. "THAT'S MY BABY!" is what I was yelling at the top of my lungs inside my head. But I tried to be a conserved adult man. That inner battle didn't bode well for my outward expressions. Wide eyed, mouth closed, breathing heavily I just stared and muttered "no way..."
That was the climax of the visit. But before we left, the good doctor extracted enough vials of Steph's blood to last her a good week of joyous testing. I hear there are a lot of these visits yet to undergo, I don't think I can handle many more like today. My heart is full, praise the Lord.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Dude You're Gonna Be a Dad
First off, the Boston Marathon bombing shocked me this week and I was reminded that there are people in this world I need to protect my family from.
Since Saturday, Steph has been feeling much better. She has her old personality back, which makes life around the apartment pleasant. Her nausea has almost completely subsided. She no longer dry heaves at the mere touch of my hand which allows for kissing and cuddling at night and what not.
Steph spent the weekend recovering her strength and she is back in the classroom this week. She has less energy than normal. The time is 8:17 p.m. currently and she is already tucked in bed.
My week has been interesting so far. On Monday, my technological prowess as a young educator was tested to its capacities. During the middle of my lesson, I found that Google Earth no longer worked for my students. I gave Tech a call and found out that the one day I had chosen to do one of my most glorious (and internet necessary) activities, was also the day the middle schools were commencing ISTEP testing on the internet. Apparently, the Google Earth tour of Europe I had designed for my students was so powerful, it was slowing the students testing! So Tech cut off my bandwidth. I did a little haggling with them and got some back. I had the students turn off all the map layers except the base and 3-D buildings layers, this gave me the capacity to run half of my computers. So it turned into a partner activity.
Today one of my students was suspending pending expulsion for striking another teacher on my academy.
And that's my week so far. When I came home, I found a parcel by our door from some good friends in Bloomington, Illinois. One unintended consequence of starting this blog is that family and friends have been great with offering me advice. My ignorance in this subject area is pretty obvious and so I have welcomed it. We both received gender specific pregnancy books. The title of mine seems to fit me pretty well.
Since Saturday, Steph has been feeling much better. She has her old personality back, which makes life around the apartment pleasant. Her nausea has almost completely subsided. She no longer dry heaves at the mere touch of my hand which allows for kissing and cuddling at night and what not.
Steph spent the weekend recovering her strength and she is back in the classroom this week. She has less energy than normal. The time is 8:17 p.m. currently and she is already tucked in bed.
My week has been interesting so far. On Monday, my technological prowess as a young educator was tested to its capacities. During the middle of my lesson, I found that Google Earth no longer worked for my students. I gave Tech a call and found out that the one day I had chosen to do one of my most glorious (and internet necessary) activities, was also the day the middle schools were commencing ISTEP testing on the internet. Apparently, the Google Earth tour of Europe I had designed for my students was so powerful, it was slowing the students testing! So Tech cut off my bandwidth. I did a little haggling with them and got some back. I had the students turn off all the map layers except the base and 3-D buildings layers, this gave me the capacity to run half of my computers. So it turned into a partner activity.
Today one of my students was suspending pending expulsion for striking another teacher on my academy.
And that's my week so far. When I came home, I found a parcel by our door from some good friends in Bloomington, Illinois. One unintended consequence of starting this blog is that family and friends have been great with offering me advice. My ignorance in this subject area is pretty obvious and so I have welcomed it. We both received gender specific pregnancy books. The title of mine seems to fit me pretty well.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Wake up, Wash Puke Bucket, Sleep, then Repeat
I have not looked forward to a weekend so much in a really long time. Steph's morning sickness, house searching, track coaching, and teaching all but exhausted my free time this last week.
"Morning" sickness my butt. Steph has been battling nausea all day and night for the past three nights. She has been able to keep down very little more than Graham crackers, water, and her pre-natal. Her constant puking was what troubled me the most. It kept her from eating and kept me up at night.
Seeing my wife in such a state brought me down emotionally for the entire week. I was worried for her health and the health of the baby. She is normally my main source of joy. Jumping through loops to get to a doctor in the giant Methodist Hospital system is a pain too. Is this how people become alcoholics?
First house walk through started this week. We saw three. First one was a little small. Second one not a bad option overall. Third one was amazing except the listing agent left out some extras on the MLS sheet (large kitchen, large lot, pool deck, bidet, and over 1,000 square feet of wet moldy basement). I hope I didn't contract mycosis in the time I was down there. The search goes on.
I will end this on a happy note. Steph is feeling much better and the vomiting has stopped. She is up and more herself. My mood has improved as a result too. We are entertaining my sister and her friend this weekend. Things are looking up, the Lord gets the praise.
"Morning" sickness my butt. Steph has been battling nausea all day and night for the past three nights. She has been able to keep down very little more than Graham crackers, water, and her pre-natal. Her constant puking was what troubled me the most. It kept her from eating and kept me up at night.
Seeing my wife in such a state brought me down emotionally for the entire week. I was worried for her health and the health of the baby. She is normally my main source of joy. Jumping through loops to get to a doctor in the giant Methodist Hospital system is a pain too. Is this how people become alcoholics?
First house walk through started this week. We saw three. First one was a little small. Second one not a bad option overall. Third one was amazing except the listing agent left out some extras on the MLS sheet (large kitchen, large lot, pool deck, bidet, and over 1,000 square feet of wet moldy basement). I hope I didn't contract mycosis in the time I was down there. The search goes on.
I will end this on a happy note. Steph is feeling much better and the vomiting has stopped. She is up and more herself. My mood has improved as a result too. We are entertaining my sister and her friend this weekend. Things are looking up, the Lord gets the praise.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Morning Sickness
(Appropriately, listening to the Star Trek theme song on Pandora as I am writting this)
This morning we were forced back to reality. Spring Break has ended, that means getting up at 5:30 am again. Needless to say the transition did not bode well for Steph.
We were hoping she would not get sick because her mother never had morning sickness during pregnancy and Steph hadn't shown any serious symptoms yet.
If hopes and dreams were peaches and cream, Steph would have puked those up too this morning. We got up at the first calling of our alarm clock. I started breakfast and Steph only succeeded in making it to the couch. There she stayed. Cereal was no good. I attempted to feed her toast and jelly which her body also rejected. I gave up and headed to the shower. Steph soon joined me in the bathroom and proceeded to vomit into the toilet. So much for the Nobis immunity to morning sickness. Never-the-less, off to work she went and made it the whole day.
Here is the lesson I walked away with this morning: For a man who has a wife that is pregnant, companionship means quality time in the bathroom rubbing her back as she ralfs up the buttered bread you just tried to feed her. I will attempt to keep a food diary from this point on.
This morning we were forced back to reality. Spring Break has ended, that means getting up at 5:30 am again. Needless to say the transition did not bode well for Steph.
We were hoping she would not get sick because her mother never had morning sickness during pregnancy and Steph hadn't shown any serious symptoms yet.
If hopes and dreams were peaches and cream, Steph would have puked those up too this morning. We got up at the first calling of our alarm clock. I started breakfast and Steph only succeeded in making it to the couch. There she stayed. Cereal was no good. I attempted to feed her toast and jelly which her body also rejected. I gave up and headed to the shower. Steph soon joined me in the bathroom and proceeded to vomit into the toilet. So much for the Nobis immunity to morning sickness. Never-the-less, off to work she went and made it the whole day.
Here is the lesson I walked away with this morning: For a man who has a wife that is pregnant, companionship means quality time in the bathroom rubbing her back as she ralfs up the buttered bread you just tried to feed her. I will attempt to keep a food diary from this point on.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Exciting News and a New Chapter in Jesse's Life
I will begin this series of blogs with the event that informed me of the changes that are about to happen in my world.
Wednesday March 27, 2013, location Indianapolis. I, Jesse Yoder, age 27, was in my first week of Spring Break. I had created a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish during my two week vacation. I look forward to these breaks in my school year because they give me the opportunity to refocus myself as a professional and get back to the ideologies I started with at the beginning before the rush of the school year made them a jumbled mess in my simple mind. This Wednesday I had a couple things on the agenda for the evening. I had an indoor soccer game and our (Steph and I's) new small group was meeting afterwards.
A minor distraction to the whole evening, Stephanie was ansey to take a pregnancy test. She had started to have symptoms of pregnancy and we had been trying to become pregnant so it was not out of the realm of possibilities.
However, one thing I have learned as a married man is that the female anatomy is unpredictable. Stephanie's body and I have done this dance before. The first time I was a newly wed husband and the possibility of becoming pregnant so close to being married was a wake up call. Well that turned out to be a false read. Her body would cry wolf two or three times after that and I had become numb to her random physical happenings.
Which brings me back to March 27th, once again, Steph's body wanted my attention. A wave of nausea, stomach cramps, and physical changes in certain areas of her figure roused suspicion of pregnancy. I told Steph to wait until after she missed her period and not waste a pregnancy test (Her body would not get a rise out of me this time). Steph disagreed, stating these were different feelings than before. We discussed the matter and agreed that we should wait to take the test til after her period. Satisfied, I left for my soccer game. I shut the door and Steph made a B-line for the bathroom.
I returned victorious from my indoor session to find my wife in the bedroom with a sentence written on her stomach in lipstick that demanded my attention : "Your going to be a daddy"
My first thought was: That is not the correct use of 'Your'. I can be slow in some circumstances. Enter emotions. I'm going to be a dad? I literally wasn't quite sure how to react. Some thinking time in the shower and I emerged excited. It finally hit when we prayed and thanked God for blessing us with a baby.
Fast forward a couple weeks. We've gotten our official doctors letter of our pregnant status, we are 6 weeks along currently, baby is due on November 30th. We informed all family and friends and I'm sure will post it on Facebook soon. Steph has commenced getting sick in the morning as well.
And that brings us up to speed. I decided to keep up this blog for a number of reasons. Primarily, as a creative outlet and thought processor for myself. It will also be a place that friends and relatives can go to get an update on the Yoders. Also, I thought it should be interesting since there is less out there on the pregnancy process from the guy's perspective.
So into the unknown we go. Hopefully, I don't embarrass myself too much with this whole process and I learn a lot. During the next eight months my attention will be focused on my beautiful wife and trying to make sure her needs are met. I am sure I will neglect this at some point. Thanks for reading and I hope you derive some type of enjoyment from this blog.
Wednesday March 27, 2013, location Indianapolis. I, Jesse Yoder, age 27, was in my first week of Spring Break. I had created a list of tasks I wanted to accomplish during my two week vacation. I look forward to these breaks in my school year because they give me the opportunity to refocus myself as a professional and get back to the ideologies I started with at the beginning before the rush of the school year made them a jumbled mess in my simple mind. This Wednesday I had a couple things on the agenda for the evening. I had an indoor soccer game and our (Steph and I's) new small group was meeting afterwards.
A minor distraction to the whole evening, Stephanie was ansey to take a pregnancy test. She had started to have symptoms of pregnancy and we had been trying to become pregnant so it was not out of the realm of possibilities.
However, one thing I have learned as a married man is that the female anatomy is unpredictable. Stephanie's body and I have done this dance before. The first time I was a newly wed husband and the possibility of becoming pregnant so close to being married was a wake up call. Well that turned out to be a false read. Her body would cry wolf two or three times after that and I had become numb to her random physical happenings.
Which brings me back to March 27th, once again, Steph's body wanted my attention. A wave of nausea, stomach cramps, and physical changes in certain areas of her figure roused suspicion of pregnancy. I told Steph to wait until after she missed her period and not waste a pregnancy test (Her body would not get a rise out of me this time). Steph disagreed, stating these were different feelings than before. We discussed the matter and agreed that we should wait to take the test til after her period. Satisfied, I left for my soccer game. I shut the door and Steph made a B-line for the bathroom.
I returned victorious from my indoor session to find my wife in the bedroom with a sentence written on her stomach in lipstick that demanded my attention : "Your going to be a daddy"
My first thought was: That is not the correct use of 'Your'. I can be slow in some circumstances. Enter emotions. I'm going to be a dad? I literally wasn't quite sure how to react. Some thinking time in the shower and I emerged excited. It finally hit when we prayed and thanked God for blessing us with a baby.
Fast forward a couple weeks. We've gotten our official doctors letter of our pregnant status, we are 6 weeks along currently, baby is due on November 30th. We informed all family and friends and I'm sure will post it on Facebook soon. Steph has commenced getting sick in the morning as well.
And that brings us up to speed. I decided to keep up this blog for a number of reasons. Primarily, as a creative outlet and thought processor for myself. It will also be a place that friends and relatives can go to get an update on the Yoders. Also, I thought it should be interesting since there is less out there on the pregnancy process from the guy's perspective.
So into the unknown we go. Hopefully, I don't embarrass myself too much with this whole process and I learn a lot. During the next eight months my attention will be focused on my beautiful wife and trying to make sure her needs are met. I am sure I will neglect this at some point. Thanks for reading and I hope you derive some type of enjoyment from this blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)