Baby On Your Six

It's been requested that I explain what this little corner of the 'net's name means by someone largely influential and inspirational to it's content - DrummerWife herself. So, since she asked so nicely, I'll explain it here. It goes a little something like this - if I were a fighter pilot, and in a dogfight, and an enemy plane got into the blind spot immediately behind me, it could be said that I had a "bogey on my six". "Bogey" being the term for the enemy plane, and "my six" being a reference to the face of a clock, whereby I am the pin in the middle. Directly in front of me is my 12 o'clock, to my right is my 3 o'clock, to my left the 9 o'clock, and immediately behind me is my 6 o'clock. So...the bogey is on my 6. Well, this waste of bandwidth's name is derived from that expression. I have a baby on my six. It's closing in fast, and there's really very little I can do to shake it. :)

I don't think I've slept a solid night of sleep in 2 weeks. I know that DrummerWife hasn't gotten enough sleep since she's gotten pregnant. We're both beat. Last night, after redeeming a Christmas gift card and doing some maternity clothes-shopping in King of Prussia, we got home, and DrummerWife all but had a sleep-deprivation inspired break down. I put her in bed, and then spent about an hour killing time on my current video-game addition, the World of Warcraft . Then, I climbed into bed, and laid there for about an hour. I have trouble sleeping to begin with, but with all of this stuff swirling through my head, and the noise the neighbors were making, I just couldn't fall asleep. Then I did fall asleep. Then I woke up. A lot . Rinse and repeat. Just like the last 2 weeks. Someday, I hope the two of us can sleep well again. Someday.

It has a heartbeat. When I saw it, I can honestly say, that it was the most important thing I'd ever witnessed in my life. A heartbeat. It wasn't much...just a little flutter...but my GOD did it make everything so much more real. I've been smiling ever since yesterday afternoon. Wow. Just...wow. A heartbeat. It doesn't sound important, but it oh so is . Here's what we know, thanks to the ultrasound: DrummerBaby is about 8.5 weeks old. It's 19mm long (I think... ) The heartbeat means there's less than a 3% chance of miscarriage. The approximate due date is August 4th of 2006 It has a heartbeat. I can't stop saying it. And I can't stop smiling. I love DrummerBaby already, and it's not even born yet. :)

Well, the family knows. All of the family, that is. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins, you-name-it. It was nice to be able to reveal the big news on the holiday, and it was great fun to watch people's faces as they realized that DrummerWife and I were having a baby. DrummerWife came up with this cute little Christmas quiz, where all the answers were words from Christmas carols, and they were all baby-related. The final question was "You better not pout, you better not ______, I'm telling you why, [DrummerWife] and [Drummer] are having a ______!" The best response was DrummerWife's cousin who blurted out upon realizing the news, "You ass! You made me pee my pants!" Also, today is the first doctor's appointment. Huzzah. Photographic evidence!

I have never been happier to be a man. Holy crap. DrummerWife vacillates between happy and sad faster I ever thought possible. And it's not like anything is wrong. She just cries . She even says that nothing is wrong. It's just time to cry. Jebus. I like being a man. Also! Nausea continues. The most random things set it off, too. The look of chicken. Berry-scented aerosol spray. The list just continues to grow. And the food combos keep coming too. The latest? Marachino cherries and black olives. It's going to be a fun 7 months. :) EDIT: It's just been confirmed - there WILL be an ultrasound on the 27th. Actual photographic evidence that I'm reproducing.

Well, we're getting ever closer to the first doctor's appointment. We're about 8 days away at this point. I have to admit, I'm getting scared. Not of the doctor's or of being a father, but of our current housing arrangement. Our apartment is old, drafty, and has a dangerous staircase. It's narrow, and the stairs themselves are very short. I've fallen down them myself at one point, and nothing scares me more than having DrummerWife take a spill in the middle of the night and go tumbling down them. The apartment was great when we first saw it. It was cute, kinda old-styled (which both me and DrummerWife wanted ) but now, it's small, cluttered with the crap we've collected in the last year and a half of marriage, and just not going to cut it for a baby, OR a pregnant woman. We've got about 7.5 months before DrummerBaby is born, but not long before DrummerWife starts "showing." We have to be out of our place by then. The only question is do...

Picture this quaint domestic scene - Husband arrives home from work, after stopping off to do some Christmas shopping for the love of his life, to find his pregnant wife is sitting down in the living room, resting, with dinner in the oven. The young wife opens the oven to reveal the evening's meal... Chicken Nuggets and Texas Toast. Now, I don't exactly posses a discriminating palette. If left to my own devices, I'd probably eat English muffin pizzas and ramen for dinner every night, so I'm not going to complain about what my wonderful wife has prepared for our meal. I just can't help but smile at the fun food combinations she comes up with. Her explanation was, "It just sounded good to me at the time." She was driving home from work and had a craving for chicken nuggets . At least she didn't go to McDonald's to get them. On top of the nuggets and "toast", she proceeded to put about 3000 black olives on her salad, stating "they taste...

DrummerWife and myself have taken to referring to DrummerBaby as "the Peanut." This is due to the fact that DrummerBaby is currently very, very small, vaguely peanut-shaped at this state of development, and is currently located in DrummerWife's belly. The Peanut has been causing DrummerWife the expected nausea associated with early pregnancy. While this is proving to be quite annoying to DrummerWife's dietary schedule, the Peanut has also inadvertently revealed itself to DrummerWife's coworkers by making her take a few hours off of work yesterday morning. It seems that DrummerWife's coworkers are smart enough to put two and two together, and they confronted DrummerMom (who works with DrummerWife) about the status of a potential DrummerMom grandchild. DrummerMom confirmed the Peanut's existence. For some reason, DrummerWife was embarrassed by this information getting out. Whatever. It's a baby. Not vestigial tail. The Peanut also apparently can't ma...

The Facts Drummer Age: 26 years Occupation: Web Developer for a GIS Mapping firm Residence: 2 BR apartment, Pottstown, PA DrummerWife Age: 26 years Occupation: PR/Marketing for a Contractor/Remodeler Residence: same 2BR apartment DrummerBaby Age: -7.5 months Occupation: Fetus Residence: DrummerWife's uterus The Story: Well, we've been married 1 week shy of 17 months now. DrummerWife and I discovered our pregnancy little over 1 week ago. As best we can figure DrummerBaby is about 6 weeks "concieved" at this point, making our due date (as best DrummerWife and I can tabulate) sometime in late July or early August. Our little bundle of joy is quite the surprise to both of us. I decided a little over 10 minutes ago that I was going to track the status of my wife, myself, and the little DrummerBaby over the course of the next 7.5 months and beyond. And hence, BabyOnYourSix is born. I only hope I can supply you, gentle reader, with some wit, some insight, and most importantl...