First Winter Storm And Still No Hammie

Yesterday, was one of the most harrowing days of my life. You see, it was the first major winter storm in New England. Snow accumulation was estimated to reach between a foot and foot and half. Normally, this would not be too much of a concern. You could just hunker down at home, maybe shovel a little bit, have hot chocolate, read, relax. Well, all of those things are fine unless you have a wife that is two days past due. Yesterday, I did work until two and then started see the snow fall. It did come down hard most of the day. I kept on thinking, 'Why today?' We were planning on renting a hotel room to be near the hospital and then decided against it. If anything happened we would need to be prepared for it. Another thing we planned was if we could not get out then we would take ambulance. But in any event, we still needed to get to the hospital. Thus, we (Poo-poo, Toe Ma and Danny) started shovelling us out. Unfortunately, since it was the first storm the snow blower didn't start up right away. Probably took fifteen minutes to get it started. Luckily, it did start and we were able to shovel us out. However, I was not sure how the roads would be.

We were fortunate to not have any incidents last night; however, tomorrow Boston is expected to get another five to six inches of snow. Let the fun begin.

Everyone is waiting on you now, Hammie.

The Waiting Game

At this point, Hammie is playing coy with us. He's like 'There is no way that I am coming in that weather. It is just too damn cold out there for me. I like it right where I am.' That is o.k. for now, but Hammie's due date is the 16th, so we are expecting him anytime soon. In fact, my wife has been to the MGH five times this past week.

This morning, she woke up and thought that her water broke. We went down to MGH but they said that it did not break. To me, it seemed like it did, for there was definitely a lot of water. But hey, what do I know about breaking water. From what people have told me breaking water could be a trickle down the leg or like a fire hose. Well, I hope for Tina's sake that it is like a trickle and not like the hose. I can only imagine what that looks like. Can you? Is it like the Colorado rapids or like a bubbling brook? I guess I could You Tube it to see if any one has posted what this looks like, but I will opt out of this for now since I just ate. But hey, maybe tonight when my stomach is empty.

Anyhoo, that is the story for now. Will keep you posted.

Where are you Hammie?

The past couple of days Hammie has not moved too much. Usually, he is a ball of fire at night with multiple kicks and punches to my wife's stomach. So much so, that he makes the stomach look like the waves of the ocean. However, this has not been the case over the past couple days. Maybe he is running out of room. Also, it seems that he has dropped a bit. My wife's stomach is not as high. Who knows, maybe he is just resting before the big day...whenever that comes.. Does any one want to guess?

Hello, I am....

So far we still do not have a name for the baby. We have narrowed down the list to below five, but we still need to choose from those. It is one of the first major decisions you need to make for your newborn. For it is the name that the newborn will carry throughout his adult life. See, I am stuck with the name 'Dan'. Although I am fine with the name, the pronunciation of the name means 'Egg' in Chinese. Since my wife is Chinese, my name is a constant sense of amusement for all of her relatives. When my wife first told her grandmother my name her grandmother's first response was 'Why did his parents call him 'egg'? So far I have been called the following from her side of the family - 'egg', 'duck egg', 'shiny egg', 'scramble egg', the list goes on. Funny right. Therefore, we need to be selective in choosing a name. Since my wife is a teacher in Boston, I get to hear some interesting names. My personal favorites or 'Bozan', 'Tinino' and, I am not sure of the spelling, but it is pronounced 'She-ll-kill-ya'. Imaging being her boyfriend and your like 'Awesome, I get to go out with Shellkillya tonight and try to break up with her'. Oh well. So basically no names, but eventually our son will need to go 'Hello, I am...'. We just need to fill in the blank.

Count Down

Pretty soon December 17 will be right around the corner and we are all very excited for the addition to the family. My wife is ready to have Hammie now, however. She has learned to navigate with the her new proportions pretty well. Unfortunately, it not only looks difficult but is difficult. Ordinary tasks, like putting on pants, shoes, washing, and getting out of bed are a chore. I try to help out any way that I can. But I can only do so much. Luckily, December is around the corner and Hammie will be here. Only if we had a name....

Baby on Caffiene

I seriously believe that our unborn baby is on some kind of caffeine. Around 11:00 each night Hammie will be kicking up a storm. He's like doing a combination of break dancing, yoga and weight lifting at once. Because of this, it leads me to think, that the baby will be very active if not completely nuts (I don't mean nuts in a bad way, just very very active). Its like the son in the movie Incredibles that was just very active. I just hope that Hammie will be able sleep at night. But it seems that he has established his sleeping pattern that will carry through into childhood. Oh well, better get my sleep now!

Boy Baby

As the pregnancy clock ticks closer to December 17th, I have been having more dreams about Hammie. You would think that I would dream about a baby boy, but instead I am dreaming about a boy baby. Yes, you read it, 'Boy Baby'. Whenever Hammie is in my dream he has miraculously aged three to five years the second he is out in this world. And is not like he is going 'goo goo - ga ga'. He is like 'Hi, where is my breakfast?' Or 'Oh, hello, I am so and so and I was just born.'

What does this mean? I really don't know. It could mean a bunch of things. Maybe it means that I want to Hammie to grow up to five as quickly as possible. That way, I will not have to change stinky diapers or be peed on or miss out on sleep. Or it could just mean that I need more sleep.

Keep dreaming.

Can You Spare Some Change?

'Change', no I do not mean 'change' as in 'I need a quarter', but 'change' as in 'Holy S*' my life is a changing. Don't take this the wrong way, for I am greatly looking for the change that I will need to take come December. I guess I am just excited about the future and thinking about what will change. From what I understand, once when you have children, your free time is not your own. Every Sat my wife goes to baby sit for a family in Weston just so that the parents can have one night out by themselves. Is this something that we will need, too? Will we need to 'get away' from our kid in order to be happy? I don't know. Hopefully not, but I bet going to dinner or movie as a couple without a baby will probably be refreshing. What concerns me too is that when my wife goes over, sometimes the parents are arguing and the kids are crying. I mean, I am talking about the whole works here; the proverbial the 's***' hitting the fan' sort of situation. But, that is what happens when you have a family. It is a roller coaster and I am next in line.

The Sky Is Green

They say that ones pregnancy progresses the more 'wits' you lose. I have noticed that over the past few weeks my wife will say some things that make me really scratch my head and go 'hmmmm...that is strange'. Or I will go 'hmmm....that is not correct'.
At first, I was a fool, and I would contest her remarks with some logic. However, I have quickly learned that I will not win these battles. Thus, when my wife says something like 'Hey, the sky is green.' I will shake my head in agreement and go 'Yes, the sky is green. Isn't that great!' However, I know that it is all Hammie's fault and that my wife will be back in her prime college /brainiac form January.

September 20, 2008 Update

My wife's pregnancy is coming along great. At least to me it is. She might disagree, though. She is feeling the size of Hammie growing and thus kicking harder. Also, my wife is complaining more about lower back pain. However, soon enough, baby will here. It is what we are going to do after wards which is, although planned, I believe, can be very unpredictable. However, isn't that what life is supposed to be about? The unpredictableness of it. Can't plan for everything.

"Jack Spat could eat no fat and his wife could eat no lean."

Do You Like Babies R Us?

Do you like Babies R U? Well, I certainly don't. But I really do not know why. Every time I walk into that store, I feel like my head is going to explode. Maybe is the combination of bright lights, deep purple shirts and couples buying everything baby related in site. What did our parents do before such super sized baby stores? We were raised without the stores. And they were raised without their parents going to such stores. But, do these stores make things easier? Or are they an invention of Lucifer himself?

Doing Fine

Yesterday, we had quite a scare. There is nothing worse than to receive a phone call at work from your pregnant wife saying that she needed to go to the hospital. Well, after receiving the call, I rushed out of work and tried to get to MGH as quickly as possible. On Storrow Drive, all that I could think of what happened previously to my family. 'Was this going to happen to us?', I thought. 'What if it does? What will we do?' The questions came flying and flying and suddendly exploded into one big question mark as I walked into the room where my wife was. There she was, heart beat monitor connected with a nurse by her side. All that I could hear was thunder. It was not thunder, however, but Hammie's heart beat. 155, 160, 165, boom, boom, boom. Well, lets just say, that I was not feeling well. Then I remembered to stay calm and find out what was happening. The nurse said that they needed to do tests. After a half an hour, Tina had the tests and luckily everything was fine except for one thing. She tested positive for a fetal protein. I hope that this is a false positive. All that we can do is wait and just remember what the Temple has told us.

Hammie Diaries - First Entry

08/30/08

About to wake up my wife and along with Hammie. If you do not know, Hammie, is the code name of our unborn son. We have yet to pick a name for him. We have run the gaumet on names. The names that I like my wife does not like and vice versa. I guess it might be decided the day of the delivery. Anyway, my wife is 24 weeks pregnant. Thus, her body has gone through some changes (most noticeably are her belly and the part that gives milk). We are both excited to finally meet our son. I think the time will go by fast. She is expecting to deliver on December 17th.

Ok, will write later. Time for the wake up call.