Entry the first...

As I sit typing this, my wife, Anna, sits in our living-room recliner, thirty-eight weeks pregnant. She is carrying our daughter, Addison Marie, due on the 28th of March. Addie (that's what we are going to call her) is my first child. If modern medicine is to be trusted, she will be living in my house within the next two weeks. To me, this knowledge is both awe-inspiring and panic-inducing. I've held approximately two newly born infants, and I don't feel as though I have this integral part of child rearing down. My knowledge of holding babies, prior to a week ago when I held a five-week-old, was limited to how a pastor will hold a baby during an infant baptism. Apparently, the pastoral grip at the baptismal font is not a particularly natural or nurturing way to hold a baby. One hand under the head and the other hand under the rear, thrust out in front of yourself holding on as if you were involved in a go-for-broke red rover game is--so it seems--not entirely comforting to a baby. My wife tells me that I probably don't want to hold our daughter that way. I think that she is slightly concerned about my lack of baby-centered experience. So am I.

With Addie soon to arrive, I've decided to start a blog dedicated to her and my sure-to-come foibles with new parenthood. I've flirted with the blogosphere in the past. At one point, probably a year ago or so, I wrote an entire first entry that I was quite proud of. Blogspot did not have a save now feature at that time, so naturally, I lost my entire post. I guess I didn't really feel like recreating my entry, so I dropped it, and haven't thought about it again until recently. Now, on the eve of my genes being able to look at me, I'm starting again. Maybe Addie will look back at this and be able to see a window into her childhood, or maybe she'll be horrified when I read these entries out loud to her first boyfriend (same diff)...either way, I think this should be fun (for you at least, apparently I won't be sleeping much). Stay tuned for more.