This has been a roller coaster year! There is one other thing I have been hiding from the community. But we will save that for another post. Today, I wanted to talk about an unbelievable, amazing event that has changed my life completely over the last month. In March, the Diplomat family became a little larger. It is time to meet Baby Diplomat!
To start, you should know which Diplomat this is. This is Bert (of course there is Uncle Lanny as well). I thought I kept a pretty tight lid on this. With subtle hints over the last few months that something exciting was happening soon. So I’m sure this is a surprise to many of you. Our bundle of Joy had a due date of April 14th. However, on March 26th, I received a call from my wife at work. She told me that she was pretty confident that the baby was on the way. We called and met with our midwife. It was confirmed. Baby Diplomat was coming three weeks early!
We arrived at the hospital at 3 PM and we told to expect a very long delivery. Expect her to arrive late the next morning, we were told. I’ll spare everyone the details; but let’s just say that things started slow and then picked up speed out of nowhere. In fact, my wife was so relaxed and prepared for a long haul, she told me to grab dinner from the hospital’s cafeteria! But when all was said and done, Baby Diplomat was born at 9:53 PM. She is healthy, mom is healthy, and that’s all that matters.
Speaking of mom. She is incredible. I left this experienced amazed by how strong she is. This was not easy and it helped put a lot things into perspective. If she can deliver a child and be happy about it, I need to stop complaining about the small things. Women are incredible for nurturing and caring for a child for nine months. I’ll never understand it. I respected women for doing it before; surely my respect level has increased exponentially as a result.
People have said that your life changes forever. It couldn’t be more true. In my mind, I couldn’t imagine a life without her. There isn’t a moment that passes where I don’t think about her. When we are together, I just want to hold her, comfort her, and watch her grow. Everyone who said it would be the best could not have been more true!
We are still figuring out the best sleep and life schedules. Recently, she has been fussier. Rather than sleeping on her own, she likes to be held. Of course I’m happy to hold her. It has just made blogging difficult! Just when I’m ready to start writing or work on an article during a nap, the plans change quickly. When she is finally calm late in the evening, exhaustion kicks in and we need to sleep. This will change as she grows. I’m working on finding the right system and balance of getting things done while enjoying this amazing stage in her life. Above all else, I don’t want to miss our bonding time.
I’ve been brainstorming some articles as well. Many of which will discuss frugally raising a baby. Most importantly, it will seek A LOT of advice from those of you that have successfully done so already. We have started a new chapter in our lives. This is going to be a lot of fun.
Oh yeah, of course we have some pictures here. I’ll add some captions.
-Bert
Photos:
I was able to capture this picture while waiting for a Doctor’s appointment! Nice and tired.
Fingers crossed. So far, she loves bath time!
Getting ready for her first, of many, photo shoots with mom
The city planted a tree in our front yard the week she was born. We call it the Baby Diplomat tree and will take a picture with her next to it every year!
A photo of Uncle Lanny with Baby Diplomat! The first of many meetups
Thought I would end this with one of my favorites. I could hold her all day long!
