What's in a Name?

Saturday we went to Baby’s First Furniture again, a store that sells....baby and children’s furniture along with other items like diaper bags and the like. This was our second trip there, albeit a different location as this one was in the Galleria, about 20 miles from our house. A smaller version (boutique) is located much closer and that location is where we picked out the furniture we like (crib and dresser/changing table). 

But this location is larger and Tiffany wanted to go there to see if they had anything else we might like. They did have a larger selection, but the trip just confirmed our original choice. It was nice to look around this location though because they did have a wider selection of strollers and highchairs. Later on I realized something, the more difficult a brand is to pronounce, the more expensive it is. This is probably true in many areas, but it’s pretty glaring in baby goods.

They had a stroller, made in Germany, that had some name that started with  a “P”. I already forgot the brand, that’s how complex the name was, but I told Tiffany that it must be the BMW of strollers. It was very nice, and not suprisingly cost $600...for just the stroller, it didn’t even come with the infant car seat. 

Here’s another one of my favorites. This company makes a lot of items, in fact Tiffany likes their high chairs, but they are not in the same price range as say Graco. I’ve yet to run into a high priced item with a one syllable name.

"Hard to believe Harry, hard to believe."

Today I had to pick up Chase’s meds from our vet (heartwarm, frontline) and right next door is Kids R Kids, a possible daycare solution for us. I had emailed them earlier this week to get their pricing to compare to others that we’ve investigated, but the woman who replied recommended stopping in and didn’t tell me any pricing. So I stopped in.

That was an eye-opening experience to say the least. Not surprisingly, I’ve never been inside one of the facilities before so I had few expectations. It’s a new building and on the door as you enter is a large sign that reads “Please Sanitize Your Hands Upon Entering”. Certainly a reasonable request. 

Inside, the building was divided by age and the infants were in the first room on the left. They let me take a look through the door and windows. The whole room was surrounded by windows so it was easy to see inside. Of course I was not allowed to enter. The women at the desk were very helpful and one of their first questions was, what is your due date?

As soon as they asked that I thought to myself that these ladies are going to think I’m a lunatic for looking nearly 9 months before we would need the day care. I sheepishly answered January and then they asked when we would we need their services and I said around March.

“Okay, March 2011 is our first opening, but let me make sure there’s not a waiting list,” was the response I heard.  WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!. Here I am thinking I’m way too early to be looking at this and it turns out that I’m right on schedule?

Turns out there was no one on the waiting list so there is space for March, 2011. They only take on 10 infants at once and they have three women for just those infants, a nice ratio made up of a ‘lead” teacher and two assistants. What they’re teaching at this point in the child’s lifetime I’m not sure, but it does seem like there would not be a lack of attention. 

Also outside “Suite 100” were stackable treys with each child’s name on it that contained booties for the parents’ shoes for when they pick up their bundles of joy. You can only enter the room with booties over your shoes and after sanitizing your hands. That’s comforting only I don’t remember seeing booties on the workers so do they have shoes they only wear in that room? Still, they’re making an effort. 

They also had a closet with hangers for carriers/car seats which makes a lot of sense for parents with multiple bases, but not carriers. I was impressed from what I saw, but it was still overwhelming to see in person and to realize that we may have to reserve a spot at one of these places very soon. As the late, great Richie Ashburn use to say to the late, great Harry Kalas during Phillies’ games.....”Hard to believe Harry.”

Fathers' Day...and the gun

So Sunday was my first father’s day, sort of. Tiffany did buy a card for the father-to-be and a cherry limeade from Sonic. I’m expecting more next year. You start to notice strange things when your’e expecting. For example, on Saturday we were at Target and there was a woman breast feeding while shopping. There she was walking along, pushing her cart with one hand, all while nursing her child who was tucked away behind some sort of exotic mommy bid that hid all the action.

Maybe I’ve seen this before, but I certainly don’t remember if I have. Either way, it was certainly a unique example of multi-tasking. It didn’t take Tiffany long to point out that she would not be doing that. I can’t say that I blame her. Much of our attention, and by our I mean Tiffany’s, is being spent on nursery furniture right now. We have a crib and dresser that doubles as a changing table picked out. It’s on sale right now so I think Tiffany is anxious to get it. I’’m pretty confident that it will be on sale again or something else will go on sale that we like just as much.

My preference would be to have the room painted/decorated before we added any furniture to it. But since we won’t find out the sex of the baby until early August, it does seem likely that we will have at least some furniture before that time.

That was just one topic over Father’s Day weekend. Another was our registry plans in general. Almost in passing, Tiffany mentioned that she planned on registering without me for the baby. I can assure you that this is not going to be the case. A point I made to her quite clearly when I first heard her say it.

So why do I want to be present for registering for items at places like Babies R’ Us and Target? I want to operate the scan gun again. I don’t plan on being married again so when else am I going to get to operate the scanner? Answer? Only when we have children.

Tiffany said it might be nice to go with someone who has a child and knows what to get. I told her that was a good point, but that our car seats four people comfortably so a third is no problem. I could still go and operate the gun.

Listen, I don’t get to participate in many things during this pregnancy, I’d like to participate in the registry, I don’t think it’s an odd request. It’s not like I’ll be able to register for Father’s Day in the future.

Big Business

It’s early yet, but Tiffany and I have started to research daycare options. We have plenty of time, especially considering that TIffany will most likely be off from work for 2 months after the birth. When researching daycare options it doesn’t take long to figure that this is a big business. Options seems to range from $500-$1000 a month. Some have weekly prices, some offer three-day week options, one woman, who our neighbors use, is right around the corner. The choices seem almost endless.

Many of the larger daycares, not home daycare, have cameras installed so you can check in anytime. They also offer educational courses for children as young as 1 and publish weekly menus online that describe lunch and any snacks given to the children. It can be a little overwhelming trying to plow your way through all the information.

Of course another concern is that where there is money, there are always people trying to take advantage and obviously, we don’t want our child being cared for by people out for a quick buck. I’m not getting that impression from any of the places we’ve looked at online, but I’m sure they’re out there.

Another option would be for one of us to stay at home. Neither of us are against this option per say, but our income would be reduced and while we could manage, we’d also like to kick-in for the kids college someday too. That becomes less likely with a loss of a number of working years from one of us. Also, with the way the job market is, there’s no guarantee we could get another job when we were ready to go back to work.

The reason why daycare has taken off is pretty simple. A little research, and common sense, tells you that real wages (income adjusted with inflation) have remained stagnant for quite some time. (BTW it doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon). This wouldn’t be a problem necessarily until you consider this: Since 1980, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has increased 67%, while median household income has only increased by 15%.

You don’t have to have a degree in economics to figure out that’s a problem. Here’s a better example. When I was in high school (1998), I routinely filled my mom’s Ford Taurus with unleaded priced at 99 cents a gallon. Remember that? Today I filled up at $2.51 a gallon (The bargain recession price!). In college (2001) I did a news report (I still have the video) of rising gas prices and outrage by consumers...the price? $1.53. That’s less than 10 years ago. Here’s another example.

Anyone planning to send their kid to college? Unless you’re living under a rock you’re aware of rising tuition costs. Schools are routinely raising tuition 10% a year. Are salaries increasing 10% a year? By the way, in case you’re wondering, the real median household income in 2008 was just over $50,000. Care to guess what it was in 1990, nearly 20 years earlier? The answer, a hair under $50,000.  I wonder what the price of gas, groceries, college......was in 1990? I don’t know, but probably a lot less than they cost in 2008. That, in a nutshell, is why the economy collapsed, sorry, it wasn’t all Bush’s fault. But I digress. 

For people determined not to eat cat food in retirement, it’s easy to see why childcare is such a huge business and why it has grown so much especially considering there are 26 million couples in the United States with children under 18. The numbers just don’t add up for many people to stay at home. So now the trick is to find the right care.

The Sound of Silence

As we wind down the first trimester Tiffany is beginning to have trouble sleeping. That, of course, means I am having trouble sleeping. Apparently her mind starts to race right after she lays down keeping her from falling asleep. Two nights ago she actually woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall asleep again for an hour and a half.

Not surprisingly, she wanted to go to bed early last night. Most nights we are in bed, with the lights off by 10. I get up during the week shortly after 5 a.m. and Tiffany sometime thereafter, usually 6, so we usually get 7 solid hours. Last night we were in bed by 9:30, so not drastically early for us, but I can’t imagine too many adults going to be bed much sooner. As I’m starting to drift to sleep, her arm hits me and I hear “It’s happening again.”

Her mind was racing and when I asked about what, she just said that it was nothing important. I use to have this problem frequently when I worked for the Texans, trying to organize the next day in my head before I could really relax and fall asleep. So I knew what she was talking about, but I didn’t really understand why she couldn’t pinpoint what she was thinking about. A solution was found pretty fast. We both have alarm clocks (since we get up at different times) and both have a “soundspa” option. I’ve never used it, but last night Tiffany turned on “waterfall” and it helped. I woke up when it shut off, but I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. I also woke up at 4:30 when Tiffany got up to use the bathroom. I got back to sleep for 20 more minutes, but there really is nothing worse than waking up so close to the time you’re supposed to and know that you will be waking up again shortly.

That’s really one of the worst aspects of getting older, you rarely get to sleep through the night. Maybe I would if I wasn’t sharing a bed with someone, but I don’t think it’s fare to blame Tiffany...at least completely. Even on a weekend I can sometimes make it until 8 before I get up for good, but that’s pretty rare and I’ve usually been up at 6 already. I’m usually up shortly after 7 on the weekend, but as I like to tell people, that’s 2 hours later than normal. Hopefully we both get enough sleep in the next few months as I’m sure that’s going to change in the future.

And the Beat Goes On...

Met Dr. Thompson today for the first time at our latest doctor’s appointment.  At this point we are 10 weeks, or thereabouts, and were expecting an ultrasound, but I’m sorry to say we have no picture to post. After arriving 10 minutes early we were shown to the back of the office where the examination rooms are. As we’re walking the nurse said to us, “I dont’ have a room right now so you can just wait over there.” She pointed to a different waiting area and handed Tiffany a cup to get a urine sample. The outer office waiting room is quite roomy and comfortable, I can’t say the same about this area as there were just two seats left in exam room purgatory. 

If they didn’t have a room ready for us, as well as the four other couples now packed into an 8x8 space, why bring us back? I don’t know maybe that’s crazy, I”m just saying. One by one (or I guess, two by two) we were all shown to examination rooms in what appeared to be the order we arrived.  Once we made our way into the examination room, Tiffany was weighed and her blood pressure was taken. She actually lost 5 pounds in the last two weeks. I”m obviously not going to post her actual weight, no man is that stupid. In fact, she’s down 3 pounds since our very first doctor’s visit.

For those that might be concerned about a weight loss, consider a couple things. First, our first visit was right after we got back from a trip to Florida. I think we know what vacations can do to all of our waistlines. Also, this was our first visit in the morning and as anyone can tell you, you weigh less in the morning than in the afternoon. Suffice to say, her weight loss is not anything the doctor is concerned with. She appears to be getting a tiny tummy so she’s probably shedding weight in other areas thanks to taking Chase for a 40-minute walk nearly every day.

Dr. Thompson said 30 pounds is the accepted norm to gain during pregnancy and 20 pounds is the absolute minimum. She claims that a women who gains only 20 pounds will be back to pre-pregnancy weight 6 weeks after birth assuming she breast feeds. I didn’t ask how long it takes the man who gains weight to lose it after birth....

Before we met with Dr. Thompson, my first encounter with her, the nurse attempted to find the heartbeat using a device like an ultrasound over the stomach. It seemed to be a really sensitive mic with a speaker that could be turned up really loud. Anyway, she never found it. We weren’t concerned because we had both read that it’s not uncommon  NOT to be able to hear the heartbeat at 10 weeks.

The nurse left and we waited for Dr. Thompson, and waited, and waited until 40 minutes later, Dr. Thompson walked in. She told us that someone had written on Tiffany’s chart that she was 14 weeks and at that point if you don’t hear the heartbeat, you could have a problem. She said she would try again and if she couldn’t find it, she would bring in the ultrasound machine. I didn’t really want her to find it so we could get a visual, but sure enough, she put her hands on Tiffany’s stomach, said, “Your uterus feels to be right about here,” put some gel down and put the mic on and found it almost right away. I think she had done that before...

I had read that the first time a couple hears the heartbeat, it can be an emotional experience. I found it more surreal than anything. I for one think that when you can feel the baby kicking on the outside of the stomach is when things feel very real. That said, it was cool to hear it.

Dr. Thompson then went over both of our blood work. Everything looked fine, I’m A+ and Tiffany is A- and we have that RH negative issue that I talked about before. Tiffany will take a shot in the butt at 28 weeks and that will be handled along with a test at birth, and at that time she might need another shot as well. 

Our next appointment is 14 weeks or a month from now. Finally, we have graduated to once-a-month visits. I won’t be going to the next one. They will just listen for the heartbeat again and nothing more so my next trip will be 18 weeks when we will first go to the hospital for an ultrasound by a tech and then to the office to go over the results. We can also find out the sex at that time...and we will. 

I honestly don’t have a preference but a boy would be nice because then a daughter could have a big brother and also the Pirone name would live on. For those that don’t know, I am the only Pirone male under the age of 92. There are two left right now, my grandfather and myself and well, I don’t think he’s having any more children.  

But again, I’d be happy with any healthy baby.

Just Browsing

While it’s too early to “officially” register, Tiffany and I have been checking out prices of various items at Target and Babies R’ Us to see if there’s difference and what should be registered for where. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the market for baby supplies has quadrupled in the last 20 years and that estimate is probably conservative. I can’t believe some of the stuff they’re trying to pass off as essential.

Anyway, there are some things that are necessary: crib, stroller, car seat, diaper bag etc... You can’t avoid these things, but you would think one could limit the spending. Last week Tiffany called me from Babies R’ Us and said she found a nice stroller and that it was made by Chico . It’s a stroller and also a car seat, a combo, a travel system as they call it. Many makes offer travel systems, Graco, even Eddie Baur, and I’m all for it. One less purchase,  we just have to buy an extra base so we have one for each car. 

However, when I heard Chico I thought that sounded expensive. Sure enough it’s one of the most expensive units on the market. Likewise when we’re at the store Saturday I saw a play yard that looked pretty good, that could also double as a bassinet for a week or two, only guess what? Chico makes one of those too and it’s 70 bucks or roughly 50% more than the one i thought looked good from Graco.

Now I’m not saying we need to buy things on the cheap, not at all, but who is the $300 stroller really for? The baby who doesn’t even know what a stroller is or mom or dad? I’m not saying I’m even against buying it, let’s just be honest and not buy these things under the assumption that it’s better for our child when in reality we could probably get one used and the baby would never know the difference.

Another debate that is raging right now is the “lifetime crib” vs. a traditional crib. And when I say raging debate, I mean neither of us can decide for certain which might be better. The lifetime crib, for those uninitiated folks, turns from a crib, to a toddler bed, to a full-size bed, so in theory, it could be the only bed frame you buy the child its’ entire life. Obviously, I like the idea of that. But I have some suspicions on whether or not that will be the case.

Already, I’m hearing things like, “Our guest room bed is a full so if nothing else, it could become the frame for that if we buy a cute kids bed later.” Again, sounds good in theory until the cute kid’s bed becomes embarrassing for the teenager to use. Do you switch back to the lifetime crib at that point and if so, what happens to the cute kids bed. I wouldn’t say I’m stressing about all this, I just find it interesting and wondering if they only have this lifetime crib as an option so they can squeeze another 40-60 bucks out of would-be parents, meanwhile it ends up in the trash heap or garage sale like everything else. I’m sure these are all issues that we’ll have to address at a later time. 

 I won’t even get into the “great glider debate”, we’ll save that for another post. Next doctor appointment in two days.

Free Advice

It’s interesting that as soon as you tell someone that you’re expecting your first child, they usually offer up some helpful hints. Some say that when it comes to free advice, you get what you pay for. I don’t think that applies in this particular situation. To me anyone that has had children knows more about it than me, I’ve had exactly 0. It would literally be impossible for them to know less about pregnancy or raising children than me. So I listen...intently. 

One theme or tip that has come often...SLEEP NOW. Almost every person has said that at some point after we’ve shared our news. Well, we’re trying. Tiffany takes a nap whenever she can (mostly on the weekends). But she needs it right now. It’s hard for me to sleep more than 7 hours, but i can usually get to 8 on the weekend depending on how long it takes our furry baby to wake us up on the weekend. He doesn’t seem to care that we don’t sleep all morning after waking up like he does and he’s ready to play almost as soon as the sun starts shining. 

The advice was coming fast this weekend as we had a block party in celebration of Memorial Day. We do that a lot during the summer and we’ll probably do it again for July 4th or Labor Day. This year we did take the chance to let our neighbors know about our news. It also explained why Tiffany didn’t want a Margarita, which was one of the items we provided. Everyone was happy for us and excited as the population of our street continues to expand. Our neighbors Brian and Brittany just had their first child last summer and a few more houses down, Alex and Shauna, are expecting their third child that will join their twin 3-year old boys. Right across the street, Bill and Deb just welcomed their first grandchild to the world. So everyone around here is doing their best to keep Social Security funded.

Tiffany’s family also visited over the weekend and we checked out the new pool in our neighborhood. This took a tole a on TIffany who fell asleep on the couch early in the afternoon despite PLENTY of activity around here. Other than being tired and the occasional headache, she’s doing well but is now anxious to find out if it’s a boy or a girl so we can “start buying things”.....