On the Road to a Parenting Life

Expecting your first child comes with some fun moments.  Especially when you're husband is a resident.

• Picking an OB: when you're husband has worked with most of them and you'll see them at resident Christmas parties (which mine hosts).  
• Hiding pregnancy symptoms: When you're surrounded by doctors (and mother's who've been through it before).  Luckily, I had close to zero symptoms at the beginning, my belly didn't pop out until 5 months along (which is when we started telling people), my OB is at the hospital, not the clinic, so there weren't any residents to bump into accidentally in the one staircase and hallway, and we were ok lying to people's faces if anyone cared to ask if we were expecting (because we didn't care to tell them yet).
• Picking a regular doctor when your heart starts acting funny at the clinic where all the residents work.  Who are all either husbands of your friends, or your friends.  So I chose a female friend.  Because it would just be weird to have your friend's husband seeing you uncovered in any way.  Otherwise I have no problems with male doctors.
• Talking labor and birth with a bunch of female residents and mothers who explain things in such a clinical way.  Which is a little refreshing after all the wives tales reasonings behind funny pregnancy symptoms.
• Telling the Labor and Delivery nurses that I'd like to try going natural, no epidural.  Some interesting faces were passed around the group.  But they were still nice to me.  We'll see how that plays out in 3 months.
• In general, having men around that know so much about pregnancy.  More than the average father.  It's a little topsy turvy and funny.
• Sometimes when I ask my husband about some symptom I'm feeling and he says 'I don't know, ask your OB'.  What's the benefit of marrying a doctor, then? Besides the fact that I love him and he's super cute.  And he typically does know (or at least has a good idea), he just likes to feign ignorance to get a reaction out of me.  And it works, pretty much every time.  Adorable. 
• Realizing my husband is more prepared for labor than I am.  He's seen it, delivered children, coached women through delivery.  I've only heard him talk about it.

So we're excited to have an addition to our family.  And I really love having a medical man in the house to help me understand what my body is going through and what it has yet to go through.  But I know neither of us is really aware of what's about to happen in 3 months.  And we're stoked to find out!

I love my husband.  

And our little baby.  

Even though it's recently found my ribs.

-Rachel C.