The Husband-Father

I dearly love my husband.

I haven’t shared too much of what he’s been like throughout this unexpected pregnancy process, and I thought it might be fun to do so. These have been some of my favorite memories of my hubby since the day we found out I was pregnant:

~ The hospital bag. From about 8 weeks on, my husband began researching what we might be needing in the hospital bag for when our son is ready to be born. Although I assured him that he had many several more weeks to figure this one out, it sure warmed my heart to see his interest and excitement in the coming of the baby. I still don’t think he’s completely decided on what to the pack the bag with, but his engineer-method of researching such a topic was hilarious to me.

~Hospital (piggy-backing on the previous memory). Because my hubby was really wanting to get the hospital bag right, I reminded my husband that the hospital was only ten minutes away and that if he forgot something, he could just quickly run home and grab it. His response: “Oh no. There is no way I’ll be leaving you at the hospital. Not even a chance!”

~The workshop lesson. The very night we learned we were having a boy, my husband started talking loudly towards my belly and gave a lesson to our son on various kinds of saws and tools one might find in their garage. I rolled my eyes and laughed but delighted in knowing that he will be an excellent father and teacher to our son.

~Pregnant belly pictures. This was my husband’s idea, not mine. His idea was to keep track of this growing belly of mine every single week with our camera. I negotiated for once a month since once a week is a lot of pictures!

~Baby shower. My husband: “Wait, I’m not invited?!” (He was of course joking.)

~Nutrition. A few days after the IVF was completed, I was extremely nauseous one day with no relief. The only thing I could keep down were Ritz crackers and water. My husband, very concerned about my sad lack of nutrition for an entire day, said to me “But what about the baby?? Will everything be okay with the baby?” I explained how (if I was even pregnant– at the time it was too early to know) the baby would take whatever nutrition they needed from me, and that one day of eating Ritz crackers would be just fine. “Phew!” He said. “That’s really good to know.”

I hear bringing a new baby into your family, especially the first, can be a strain on your marriage. Just the sleep deprivation alone can cause friction, let alone the complete life-altering adjustment of caring for another totally dependent human being. And I don’t anticipate that my husband and I will be immune to these struggles. But for today, we are enjoying this process of another human being growing inside of me. Despite the chronic pain I am dealing with, there are so many things to cherish and be grateful for!