I've been feeling bad for missing a prenatal appointment with Kate this week—today was the first one that I've missed in either pregnancy due to being at the AERA conference in New York. So, of course, something had to be weird. For some reason the baby's heart rate was overly high and was measuring unusually small, so Kate was off (again!) for an unexpected ultrasound. Long story short, the numbers were an anomaly, everything is just fine, and as a bonus, we found out that our little koala is going to be a baby girl!

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One of my jealous moments during both pregnancies has been the time frame where Kate can feel the movements and small kicks while I have to wait and hear about it ;) We've finally gotten out of that for this pregnancy. I have to be more on-point to catch this one kicking since the activity doesn't seem to be quite as constant and intense as it was with Aidan was but, considering Aidan rolled himself in the delivery room and did his first crib crawl at one week, odds are pretty good that this one won't be quite as active.

We're already at twenty weeks into the pregnancy (time flies when you don't know you're expecting for most of the first trimester) so it was time to have the routine ultrasound. Hmm... routine... this is the eleventh ultrasound we've been to and the first that was actually routine (not that I'm complaining! In this case, boring is good)

Anyway, one of the things we were excited about was finding out the baby's gender (or at least I was—Kate still wasn't entirely sure). In the first pregnancy, it was nice having a little more information and it made it easier to pick a name and such. This time, it would be nice to be able to talk about “sister” or “brother” to Aidan as we try to help him understand everything that's happening.

So... the baby is good and healthy, but decided to be uncooperative and wrap around the umbilical cord like a koala bear, so we couldn't identify the gender and will (hopefully!) have to wait until delivery to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. Ah well, I wouldn't feel right if there were no chaos in my life :)

So, we went in for a prenatal checkup this morning. Everything was going along smoothly until we went to listen the baby's heartbeat on the doppler and got...static. After a few minutes trying, Dr. Vandenhul said that there was probably a problem with the doppler but that we should head over to the hospital for an ultrasound to make sure. Of course, the soonest appointment we could get was just after lunch, so we had a three hour wait. I immediately dropped back into the place that I was for much of the last pregnancy when we worried about Aidan, as did Kate.

Anyway, we had lunch, sat, waited, and prayed that all was well. For me, it didn't help that I ran into Dr. Kenney at the hospital—while he's a fantastic doctor and very pleasant, it was just another reminder of a much scarier time. Anyway, the ultrasound is fine, and somewhere in our doctor's office is a doppler unit that I'd like to introduce to Mr Hammer. Here's to hoping that this is the last of the scarily surprising events this time around.

On a side note, I've been so incredibly proud of Aidan today. with everything happening, he somehow understood that Mom and Dad were worried about something and was the sweetest boy all afternoon. Once everything settled down, he wanted some solid “Aidan Time” but after the day we all had, Kate and I needed that too, so that was Just Fine.

This year we decided to dress Aidan up for Halloween to answer the door and maybe go to see a few the neighbors we know. We decided that we'd rather try to make the costume than go looking for one. Being a big Megatokyo fan, I've joked about AidanZilla a few times when he's in a particularly bad mood, so the idea stuck. Some polar fleece, polyfill, and a couple of hours behind the sewing machine and it was done. Getting him to stand still in it was a bit of a trick, but here's a collage of photos of Aidan in the costume:

Kate's not been feeling well for the last few weeks, and she's been pretty certain she's been fighting off a flu that's been going around. I asked her a few times if it was morning sickness, but never absolutely seriously and she was certain that she's not. Anyway, she finally decided that this had gone on long enough that she either might be pregnant (my stance was that if she's not, it's well past time to see the doctor!)

So, enter the déjà moment. This time, Kate got one of the “one or two line” tests, probably because it was the type that resolved the matter last time. Well, apparently, this one wasn't as clearly readable as the last one, and again, my solution is to “buy another damned test” So we go digital and verify that yes, we are expecting!. Because Kate had been nursing, this left us without an easy way to determine the due date—our doctor joked with Kate about being two years pregnant ;)

So the next step was to head to the hospital for an ultrasound that verified that Kate is already well through the first trimester and due in May! Here are the ultrasounds:

I was fresh out of undergrad and was still working part-time at my undergrad job working on projects. Most of our friends and family came over. I wore a tux and tie and a hat. There were flowers, and God stopped in, and I married my best friend.

And I was happy.

And we ate oreos—because it was the Right Thing To Do.

Seven years later, I’m again working for the same people, but now I plan many of the projects. We still have the same friends and many more. We have a terrific (and quickly growing) family that has stood by us through the best and worst. I wore a tie today (and still don’t really care for it all that much), and wear many hats with names like father, husband, director, author, and degree candidate. So it’s very good that God still drops by frequently for a good laugh or cry and makes sure to give the blessings that have made sure that I’m still happily married to my girlfriend. So there are flowers.

And I’m happy.

And we’ll eat oreos—because it’s still the Right Thing To Do.

Happy Anniversary, Kate

1. Play
2. Eat rice cereal
3. Play with rice cereal

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For my first father's day, we went with my mom and dad to visit my grandparents with Aidan. Unfortunately, my grandpa was in another room or napping whenever the camera came out

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Cats, Cards, Naps, Artists, and Video Games. It doesn't get much better than that.

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Things got delayed a little because of being mostly quarantined during the flu season, but Aidan finally had his baptism today

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Having fun playing and having a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Sydik

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Visiting Nebraska City for cousin Alan’s graduation

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This quilt was a cross-country project (Pennsylvania to Washington!) by LynDee, Jan, and Valerie, who Kate and I became friends during an online class this last fall.

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Aidan’s Great-Great Aunt Genny sent him a nice frame and crocheted afghan

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Kathie crocheted the edges of this blanket during a game session—very good influences for Aidan indeed!

Sabrina sent this VERY soft blanket

Aidan's started smiling lately. It just takes several dozen photos to catch it ;)

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The nice ladies who knit for St. Elizabeths make these nice little hats for the newborns. Unfortunately Aidan kept it on JUST long enough to take this picture.

It's time to get more photos of Aidan online. He's two months old already and managing to charm anyone in his path ;)

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Life is good, but very busy. Here are some of the best photos of Aidan from this last month.

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For Kate’s Birthday, we all went out visiting people and generally enjoying the nice weather.

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Aidan is already a week old! Whether he likes it or not, that also means it's time for his one-week checkup (btw, the answer was not

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Hanging around the house, getting into the parental groove. It's good to be home.

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Well... Aidan and I were, at least. Apparently Kate was busy lurking about with a camera.

Back home and doing well. Thanks to everyone who made it by the hospital, sent emails, cards, telephone calls and everything else. The experience at St. Elizabeth’s was really great—no matter what, we always knew that someone was there to help, and even better, to teach us how to do some of the basic baby care things. I might write more later, but I suspect that you’re all just here for the pictures anyway ;)

Valentines day with more family and friends dropping by to meet Aidan.

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A lot of people have been waiting to meet you, little one.

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Aidan John was born on February 13 at 12:03PM. He weighs 6 pounds, 7 ounces and is 20 3/4" long. He and his mom are doing great. No pictures this time.

Alright—maybe a few—I'll post them next

The nursery redesign is finished. I think that it turned out really well&mdashit's certainly a major improvement on the old design. Now we hope that he doesn't hate blue, green, or Winnie the Pooh.

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The gang over at CII threw a shower for us today! Everyone had a lot of fun and Kate and I were glad to have a chance to stop and relax and talk with everyone. And, amazingly, I remembered the camera to take some pictures.

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Stacy and the other grad students in Kate's program threw her a shower today at Art Chicks in Louisville. Kate and I both want to thank everyone for a really great shower!

January has been completely chaotic. We've been trying to get the house ready, keep up with classes, keep up with work, and make it to the full load of perinatal classes. I also started taking the camera with me, so we have some nice pictures of people and places during this last month or so.

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Back to Dr. Kenney. The issue he was concerned about isn’t an issue, so he isn’t concerned about it. No more high risk appointments and he told us to let him know when the baby is here so he can visit at the room. As always, another picture, but this is the last one until the birth, so make it last.

We thought that today would be our last ultrasound appointment with Dr. Kenney. Unfortunately, he saw something that is normal, but borderline that he would like to look at again. Dr. Vandenhul is telling us not to worry too much about it though, so we'll try to calm down. We do, on the other hand, have more pictures

One of the selling points when we bought our house four years ago was that there had been a lot of work done on the interiors that matched our aesthetics. One of these was a nursery done in a Winnie the Pooh design. As time passed, I began to dislike the darkness of the original design and wanted to freshen it up. A few years ago, I also had to repair the ceiling from an incident in the attic that involved punching a large boot through from above. The low quality of my first repair effort didn't help my feelings about the room. Now that we're getting close to needing the room it makes sense to get the redesign going and find out where Kate and I can take the room. My sense is that it'll end extremely well or very badly indeed. Updates later.

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Another set of ultrasound pictures. Things are looking great and there is nothing left to be concerned about. Dr. Kenney wants to see us again in a month as a matter of principle to check up on things, but his mannerisms have warmed considerably and he reminded us again to relax and enjoy the pregnancy and to have a good Christmas.

We had another appointment with the high-risk OB today, and another set of ultrasounds verifying that the ventricular problem has gone away. He feels very positive about things now, wanting to do more regular ultrasounds to keep an eye on things, but is telling us that the problems we saw before are gone and to enjoy the pregnancy normally. And of course, we have more pictures:

This has kind of been my mantra for the last couple of weeks while Kate has been feeling the first kicks, but not strongly enough yet for me to. Finally tonight, relaxing after work, Kate pulled my hand over and I suddenly felt a light tap. It was faint enough that I had to verify with Kate that this is what I was feeling, and it finally was!

About a month ago, I had what was with no doubt the worst day of my life. Today, after much waiting and praying and hoping from Kate and I and many, many good friends, we had another appointment and found out that the ventricular problem seems to be completely gone—not reduced—GONE. The doctor has told us to come back in another month, but that from this point we should treat this as a normal pregnancy, which is what he is thinking that we're going to have. I've spent my morning thanking God, but I also want to make sure to again thank everyone who has been with us waiting and praying. As always, we also have pictures, and this time there is a 4-D image that gives our first really good picture of what his face looks like! On a more serious note, this experience has been very important in reminding us to take nothing for granted. At the beginning of the pregnancy, I think that we got very wrapped up in the experience, and one of the most positive things to come out of these last weeks is that we are remembering to pray for this child the way that we should have from the very beginning.

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Things are a little more promising than they were a couple of weeks ago. We had another appointment today with our high-risk. Best of all, the amniocentesis came back negative for genetic abnormalities, which eliminates the worst of the worst case scenarios that were described to us. Also good, it looks like there may be a little bit of shrinkage at the ventricles relative to before, but the measurement is still very high. Now we're hearing that there is a very high likelihood that within the first few days after delivery, possibly by early c-section, we might have to put him through surgery to add a shunt to alleviate excess pressure on the head. They say that the surgery has become fairly routine and safe, but that doesn't make me feel any better. So I guess I keep praying. Through all of this, we've been very well surrounded by caring family, friends, co-workers, church members, and lot of people we've never met. I want to thank all of you for being here for us and for the baby through all of this. The only good thing about all of this is that I do have more pictures to share.

Here are the ultrasound pictures from earlier today

This has been the worst day of my life. So, we got a call the day after the last ultrasound, telling us there was something wrong on the first ultrasound and that we needed to make an appointment with a high risk ob-gyn for another check. That was this morning, and something is very much wrong. It appears that the lateral ventricles in the little guy's brain are pretty enlarges consistent with the onset of hydrocephalus. Even worse, there could be a genetic abnormality that could cause us to lose the pregnancy or for his life to be dramatically shortened. I don't know if I've ever felt so helpless in my life, being given one option worse than another and options that I refuse to consider and watching them use a god-awful needle to take an amniocentesis sample that has a small chance of making things even worse and won't even have a result for nearly two weeks. Both sets of parents came this evening to spend time with us, and that helped, but I'm nearly exhausted now. All we can do is pray, and I've been asking everyone to please pray with us for this little one.

We had our first ultrasound today, which was a little surprising, as we're not normally due for one quite yet, but some of the blood tests were indicating that we might have an off due date or, even more surprisingly, be having twins! What we did find out is that we're having a boy!

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Someone really should write a nice summary of what things are essential when shopping for a first baby. While they're at it, maybe they can describe why I would want to spend $500-1000 on a crib that essentially is intended to commit a child that I've never met to an heavily styled crib / child bed / headboard / daybed for most of the next two decades.

Interestingly, it turns out that, on the “+” = pregnant, “–” = not pregnant style test, a “|” also indicates pregnancy. I still prefer to think that it means that you need to by different brand of test. Either way, that's the story behind the new category for this post. Kate and I are expecting our first child in February 2006!

Today I was confirmed in the Catholic Church and Kate and I renewed our wedding vows during the same service. Four sacraments in one day is certainly a record for me ;). It was good that a lot of family were able to make it, and Jeannine and Warren were there to stand as witnesses again. Jeannine was also wonderful as my confirmation sponsor, and Mike and Gina were there as gift bearers for my first communion. Thanks everyone! I also have pictures that Warren sent along

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A cat who ignores meat, eats glue, drinks ink and has tattoos... Where did we go wrong?