Our Baby Boy! (we think)

So in case you haven't heard Kaela and I are having a baby! Well, Kaela is having the baby, I made my contribution to the whole process about 18 weeks ago.... At first when we found out we were equal parts excited and terrified. Luckily now as each day passes we get a little more excited and a little less terrified! Kaela has handled the first 18 weeks pretty well, all things considered. She had about 6-8 weeks of morning sickness (aside: why is it called "morning sickness" when it lasts all day? Don't really understand that...) but that was it. It mainly consisted of her wanting to eat nothing most of the day and when she did want to eat, it was nothing healthy (my first confirmation that he was definitely a Wheeler) and a whole lot of french fries. Needless to say I got to eat In & Out twice in 3 days! I was thinking that I could definitely get used to this pregnancy thing, Kaela disagreed. I haven't had In & Out since...


After my first parenting blunder (failure to sign up for insurance in a timely fashion) we were forced to wait until my second semester in school started to get insurance. After a few days of fretting and some crying/anger (I'll let you decide who did what) we talked to a few friends and realized that it wasn't that big of a deal because we don't drink/smoke/have promiscuous sex and Kaela is in great health. One of the great benefits of waiting until the 17th week to go in for your first appointment with the OB/GYN is that you get to do everything all in the first visit. The doctor (whom Kaela really likes because she's younger and isn't in favor of any unnecessary uh...cutting) checked out Kaela to make sure she was in good health and then we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was awesome! I thought it sounded like a train, a woosh woosh woosh sound, if you will. The doctor concurred that it sounded good and then we went to get the first ultrasound. The doctor put the goo (I'm not sure what it really is so I'm sticking with goo) on Kaela's belly and then started fishing (or scanning if you want to be technical) around for our baby. After about 3-4 minutes of searching and no talking I had to break the silence so in my smartass fashion I whispered, "I have no idea what I'm looking at." The doctor wasn't too amused but said that she would explain when she got a good angle. She finally did and...I still had no idea what I was looking at! Another 5 minutes went by and it hit me like a ton of bricks! I could clearly see our baby's head, eyes, nose, and upper mouth/chin and arms. It was amazing! It finally sunk in a little for the first time that I was going to be a dad and our baby was in Kaela's tummy. Still a crazy thought but it's one that I'm really excited about and looking forward to! As she continued to scan she saw what she thought was another head (Kaela has a history of twins on her side and we were kinda hoping for a boy and a girl, why would we hope for twins you ask? I don't really know...perhaps because we don't know any better) but it turns out that Kaela has a fibroid in her uterus. The doctor gave the impression that it was no big deal so we weren't/aren't too worried about it. Hopefully Kaela will shed it during birth or it will decrease after the baby is born. After that potential bomb was averted the doctor exclaimed, "I think I see a wiener!" She couldn't get a better angle so she left us with an 80% certainty that we are having a boy. 80% is good enough for me! (Aside: not too sure how I feel about our doctor using the term "wiener". It doesn't exactly instill a ton of confidence, you went to medical school for like 200 years, the least you could do is use the clinical term! I digress...) I am overjoyed about having a boy. I think that I was the only one that really wanted a boy first. Having 2 nephews already everyone was really amped up for a girl. I told Kaela all along that I wanted a boy first because everyone should have an older brother to be the protector. Let's face it we're probably going to have our second child in the next 2 years (aside: I'm really really really hoping that we have a girl next, I'm 1 for 1 so far...just sayin) and any father will tell you that he wants to protect and watch out for his little girl. What better way to do that in the horrible/awkward/high pressure Babylon that is High School than having an older brother to make sure that daddy's little girl isn't being taken advantage of or pressured by some horny teenage boy! (aside: I'm hoping and praying beyond all hope that my son doesn't fall into that latter category) All that being said I can't wait for our son to be born! He is going to be such a blessing in our lives.


I've been thinking about things that I'm looking forward to doing most with our son and some are serious and some are less serious, I'm sure you'll be able to tell which is which:
1. Nap time! I'm pretty sure that you parents with little ones love nap time because your kids are quiet for as long as they're asleep but I'm really looking forward to nap time because it will mean nap time for me too! Stay tuned for many, many, many pictures of the baby asleep and drooling on my chest while I sleep and drool! It's gonna be awesome!!!
2. Dressing up our son in Lakers/Angels/BYU gear. This could also be read as "Indoctrinating our son with lifelong allegiances."
3. Coming home to 2 beautiful faces that love and miss me. It's going to be pretty difficult right after our son is born because I will only be home for the birth and then I'll have to go back to work in Las Vegas for another month. I already feel pretty horrible about leaving Kaela for her last month of pregnancy and the first two months of our son's life and it'll only be harder on us when it actually happens. Fortunately I have the best wife in the whole world and she knows that this is an amazing opportunity that I can't pass up. At least I know I'll be there for the birth...
4. Blessing our son in church. I have to admit that I'm super nervous about it. I know that the Spirit will help provide the words and calm me but it's a pretty meaningful event and man I hope I don't screw it up!

That's all I got for now. I'll try and write more as we go along but I'm sure that you'd all rather hear from Kaela than me. I hope that this post finds you happy and well!

-Mark