On November 5th 2012, my wife gave birth to our first child. During the pregnancy I decided that I would write about the experience. Every week since I have documented all of the events that took place throughout this time, along with my thoughts on them. Now that I can confirm that our baby is happy and healthy, I will share those thoughts with you.

Week 82 – Home And Happy And Healthy (And Stinky And Loud And Gross)

It has now been 41 weeks since Alex left the hospital and I am happy to report that he is perfectly happy and healthy. He is ten months old now and not only is he crawling like a maniac, but he is standing on his own and on the verge of walking!

I hate to be one of those people who says you just don’t get it unless you are a parent, but you don’t. The emotions that come from creating a person that did not exist before, and watching him grow and develop and take your mannerisms is completely unmatched. He had me teary-eyed during Finding Nemo. I never cried during a movie in my life (including Up) and now I’m sobbing through Finding Nemo? What have I become?

It took 6 months but we finally did close on the house and another 6 to finish renovation and actually move in. I love the house. We modernized it enough to make it our own but did not change so much that it is unrecognizable from the house my great-uncle called home. There is plenty of yard space for Alex to run around in and I can’t wait to play catch with him.

The last year and a half has easily been the most emotional time I have ever gone through. Each triumph and set back and piece of news we received took more out of me than I could possibly comprehend until now. With that in mind I would like to thank every one of my friends and family for offering their time, support, thoughts and prayers. While I did not accept everyones assistance (that can be like pulling teeth for me), justing knowing that I had such a strong support system behind me made all the difference in the world.

Finally, I want to thank my wife Jessica being as amazing as she is. I can not begin to comprehend the physical toll her body went through and I never will. For her to just function at a normal level through pregnancy is nothing short of amazing, but to handle house hunting and moving and child birth and being a mother and keeping me in check when I started to waver all at the same time is David Copperfield S#!T right there!

I hope you all enjoyed reading about my experiences waiting for my son to be born. If you actually learned something throughout it then that is a total bonus. If my wife talks me into having a second kid I look forward to doing it again.

Don’t expect that any time soon thought. We’re still trying to keep Alex from getting into the kitchen.