I want you to know… it has been freaking HELL for me to keep this a secret for as long as I have. And facebook hasn’t made it easy, either – it pretty much got out to many of our family members a month or so ago thanks to some careless tagging on the part of my Dad. (Thanks, Dad! Love you!) But yeah… some time in late July, I’m going to be a PARENT. Yessir.
Why the waiting to say anything? Well, the thing with pregnancy is that during the first trimester, things are more likely to go wrong than later on. The chances of a miscarriage or other such things tend to be higher, so a lot of people just choose to wait to break the news to most people until after those first three months are over and done with. For us… that was Wednesday. I’ve been chomping at the bit to share this news for two freaking months now, and I’m ecstatic to finally be able to share it with you guys. I know it’s usually the kind of thing people freak out about, but though I haven’t talked about it in the comic, (well, other than the glimpses into the future where we have kids, of course) becoming a parent has been one of the things I’ve most looked forward to in my life. And earlier this year, when we moved into this house (4 bedroom, ’cause we knew this was a possibility) we kinda realized that we were finally ready. So I did some looking around, found some decent health insurance for Liz, and started planning like a madman. And sometime in November, the events in the comic today transpired. :)
Now, this also relates to the whole episode with Liz early in December. You’ll notice I never mentioned what exactly was going on with her – that’s because it would have spilled the beans much, much earlier than we had planned. See, Liz has a condition called Hyperemesis Gravidarum. What it equates to is severe, unrelenting and potentially very dangerous morning sickness, for lack of a better term. In practical terms, it meant she had an episode where she vomited every 10 minutes for six hours straight, causing severe dehydration and necessitating not only a trip to the E.R., but a three-day hospital stay. Hyperemesis is apparently somewhat hereditary, and we found out AFTER the fact that both Liz’ mother and sister had it, so she was predisposed to it. Turns out she had it worse than either of them. For the past month, she’s been on three simultaneous anti-nausea medications to keep her sane, and she’s still nauseous well over half the time. So, that’s what was goin’ on with us. I felt bad for not being more forthcoming about it at the time, but we wanted to make sure everything was still OK with the baby before we talked about this in detail.
And in case you’re wondering… it is. We had our first ultrasound about 2 weeks ago (I’ll refreain from posting the picture, since it mostly just looks like a little grey blob at this point) and everything was great. Apparently, women with Hyperemesis tend to have very strong babies, so it’s kind of a blessing in disguise. Due date is July 22nd, which makes my dad happy – he made it very clear to us that we were not to have the child on a holiday under any circumstances. :) It makes Liz’ mom happy too – her birthday is July 25th and for some reason, she really wants the baby to be born then. The takeaway here is that our parents are odd people.
But long-winded as I’m being, the main point of this all is this – I am so freaking excited to be a father I cannot stand it. The notion of having a little person that I can share all the crazy geeky, nerdy stuff I like to do with is awesome, and though I know we’re in for an incredible amount of work and sleep deprivation, (seriously… we know. Everyone seems to like to share that fact with us, like we had no idea. “Really? Babies don’t sleep through the night right away? Whaaaaaat?”) this is basically us starting the next chapter of our life.
And yes, this IS going to be a part of the comic. Real Life has always been my little semi-journalistic outlet. It reflects my life as I see it, and this is going to be a huge part of my life. BUT! I don’t want you thinking it’s going to turn into freaking Baby Blues or some other kind of baby-centric comic, or that I’m going to be focusing on this all the time every time. That’s just not how I run things here. The comic is going to remain what it always has been – a way for me to get my nerdy sense of humor out and share it with you, and that’s never going to change. There may, however, be an additional character on the characters page eventually, though. :)
