The Baby

So as many of you know Marelize and I are expecting our first Schaefer Jr. in mid-January of 2008. As I write that it seems pretty far off, but when I stop to dwell on it I get a pit in my stomach....the "OH MY GOD I'M 23 AND GOING TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR A HUMAN LIFE!" pit of nervousness that only an expectant first-time parent knows. Marelize and I went into marriage planning on having children fairly early on in our lives. For me, I wanted the energy to be able to whoop up on my kids in sports well into their teenage years (some sort of sick satisfaction I guess of knowing that I didn't leave all my glory at Deti Stadium in high school) and for Marelize, she would like to be done having children by her early thirties. We felt we were financially in a position to support a child at this moment in time...the Air Force pays for 100% of the costs, so thank you tax paying citizens of America for my college and now my first child...and after much prayer, discussion and one to0 many times of watching "A Baby Story" on TLC we decided we'd go for it.

After first finding out Marelize was prego we went through several weeks of anxiety about telling people. We understood that we were going against the common advice of waiting to have children until later on in our marriage, so naturally we were worried that people would not be happy with our news, but rather skeptical or somehow half-hearted in their congratulations, almost waiting to see us fail and say I told you so. But, the reaction was quite the opposite, our parents, family and friends all were thrilled with the news which was a tremendous blessing and load off our backs.

So now the madness has begun. Ultrasounds, books on pregnancy, the purchasing of the cool, but no so expensive that you look like you're trying to prove something, baby gear (who knew that such and innocent seeming industry, baby accessories, could be such ravenous wolves, preying on the fears of first-time parents...."I don't know if my stroller can go off-road, should it be able to? Is off-roading something babies do on a day-to day basis?")...much more to come on this topic, I feel that by the end of these 9-months I will have enough humorous material on the baby industry to write quite a book. Anyway, I must say that I am really excited to be a father. When Marelize and I first got to see our child moving around on the ultrasound a few weeks ago I got a taste of what the life of a parent will be like and it was sweet!