My favorite line from the doctor's visit yesterday: "He could grow up to be president. Or a mass murderer. Or both, as the case may be."

We share our mother's health

We heard the baby's heartbeat today!

Which means I didn't lose the keys before we left for our appointment and we made it on time. We had a good visit with one of the doctors as well as the nurse we met with last time (in November?). From the size of Shannon's uterus it appears there is one (1) baby, which is fine with us.

Our next visit will be in a month and we'll get an ultrasound!

My bad; plus, thoughts on being a dad

We went to a place in Cedar Rapids to see about signing up for lamaze classes and other stuff. The lady there was very encouraging and pointed us toward some more resources like doulas and another area midwife.

We went to CR because I lost the keys to the car and we missed our first appointment with our doctor in Waterloo. By the time I found the keys (in the snow by the car) it was too late to get there in time. I felt terrible about it, because we were going to get the first ultrasound and see our baby. So I called to reschedule (for early January), and it seems that we wouldn't have gotten an ultrasound at that appointment anyway, which was news to us. So I'm going to call back and make sure that we will have one at this next appointment, because we're not feeling a lot of communication here.

I'm kind of nervous about being a dad. I'm afraid that I won't be a good enough disciplinarian, that our kid will run wild and get into more trouble than s/he can handle (I mean in the course of childhood/adolescence - how much trouble can an infant get into?). I want to strike the right balance between being compassionate and strict. I know I'll love the kid. I just want my love to benefit him/her, not be a hindrance.