The To-Do List

When Jessica and I found out she was pregnant, we were busting at the seams. “How long do we wait to tell people?!” We have had 8 years to think about this, we’ve come up with various scenarios on how to tell our families. How we wanted to make the announcement.

None of those happened. Because of various reasons, mostly our excited-ness, we told folks right away.

The day after we are at my mom and dad’s house. Anxiously trying to work the news into casual conversation. Jessica is getting antsy, giving me looks from across the room. “COME ON. TELL THEM!!” I interpret from the eyes she is giving me. For some reason, I’m nervous to bring it up. Finally, I do.

My dad jumps up excited and hugs Jessica, then hugs me. My mom is tearing up, happy to hear the news. Once the initial shock and happiness washes over everyone, we start discussing details about how we found out, etc.

My dad (where I get a great deal of my personality) perks up and says, “okay, we need to start buying stuff and getting a room ready. There is so much to do!” I tell him, “we’ve got nine months to do all that, we’re good.” However, as is usually the case, father knows best. See what I did there? It’s time to start planning!!!

We have been riding the wave of the first trimester, taking everything in stride, and pinning things like crazy on Pinterest. But as we go through these months, and telling folks about the baby, more and more items keep coming up. Where are you going to look for a daycare? What colors are your nursery going to be? Are you going to bottle-feed or breast-feed? What about a pediatrician? WHOA! Hold up!!

Okay, as much as I thought, “we’ve been planning for this for 8 years. We’ve got this!” There is a lot that we didn’t even think about since we never actually got to the point of actually having a baby. Let’s start with the basics; the nursery. Well, we have ideas of what we would like to do, but do we paint and decorate for a boy, or girl? Do we say screw those archetypes and plan gender neutral? Boy or Girl, let’s do a Star Wars room!!!

As awesome as that would be, that would be for me and not for momma or more importantly baby. Momma is going to feel the desire to start “nesting” soon and this is a room we want to make perfect. Technically, as I write this, she is already feeling this urge. So, we picked out colors over the weekend. These have only changed a billion times since June. But this time, we got it. A color scheme for a boys room and a color scheme for a girls. They are great! 

Now to daycare. Sure I knew about daycare. I went to daycare. It was awesome. You mean, I can go to this place and play all day? Yeah of course learning happened, but when I was a kid I was more concerned about getting to play on the playground. As an adult, those have definitely switched. The piece that didn’t dawn on me is the waiting lists. “Get your baby on a list now, so after they are born, the daycare will hopefully have an opening.” Huh?? Why can’t you just accept my baby now! I get it now. This is how things work. So, we are going to tour some daycares in the coming week.

Momma has got the breast-feeding vs bottle-feeding agenda planned out. So we can cross that off the list. Still-to-do; pediatrician. We got to find this baby a doctor!

There is an entire laundry-list of other things we need to do. But, baby steps. Daycare tours are next. Then hopefully at the beginning of September we will find out if Baby Graham will be my big guy or little lady. After that, it’s time to create some registries, find that doctor, and start putting together the nursery.

Dad, those 9 months we had are going by quicker than expected. You were right. It’s time to get stuff together because this leggy baby will be here before we know it!