Oh, baby baby!

The big news in my life right now is that I am with child, one that is presumably a boy. As of today, I am 22 weeks and 4 days pregnant, which means that I am more than half over. Unfortunately, the halves aren't created equal (or so I'm told), and I'm facing what will likely be the tougher half.

It has been an easy ride so far. No morning sickness. No chronic fatigue. Very little discomfort. Baby has passed all of the screening tests with flying colors. We're hoping for the best, and trying to prepare for as much as possible that would be anything less than that.

Our preparations have involved lots of reading (hey, we've got to start somewhere!) So far, we've read the following:

• A Child Is Born (Lennart Nilsson & Lars Hamberger)
• Dad's Pregnant Too (Harlan Cohen)
• Baby Bargains (Denise & Alan Fields)
• Your Pregnancy Week By Week (Curtis & Schuler)
• Parenting, Inc. (Pamela Paul)

And we're in the middle of reading these:

• Becoming The Parent You Want To Be (Laura Davis & Janis Keyser)
• The Birth Partner (Penny Simkin)
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (La Leche League International)

In addition to trying to take in as much information as possible, we've also begun acquiring baby gear. In Parenting, Inc., the author "exposes" much of the hype generated by the Baby Industrial Complex. She makes many valid points, though I believe she could have done so with half as many words. We will be avoiding any electronic toys, DVDs, and hopefully many of the unnecessary gadgets. Additionally, we're trying to get as much gear as possible pre-used. By planning ahead and putting the word out there that we're open to reusing gear, we hope to minimize the footprint we're making by generating another life. I realize it's probably baby steps, but I feel good that we're at least trying.

I realize that most parents will laugh at our attempts to prepare and grasp a tiny bit of how our lives will be changing. At least we feel like we are doing something as we snowball toward some irreversible changes to our lives!