Hello all! Times being what they are these days, many dads are living the life as a stay at home dad mom or “Mr. Mom”. As it stands now, with my wife, Sarah, due anytime in the next three weeks with our first child, a girl, it looks as though I’ll be the one staying home with baby and teaching her all the great things I learned as a kid. That is, once Sarah returns to work from maternity leave.

That being said, let’s jump right in to where we sit right now. Sarah is 37 weeks pregnant, the house is an ever-changing mess of new baby clothes, toys, car seats, diapers and everything else under the sun the baby gadget engineers have come up with. Take one step into a Babies r’us and you’ll know you’re in for a long day of shopping, staring blankly at shelves with things you didn’t even know you needed and, of course, avoiding being run over by the thousands of other newly crowned mothers-to-be or brand new mama’s with baby strapped to their chest.

When we first found out Sarah was pregnant and we would be parents, the first thought that flashed through my head was “awesome, I’m gonna be a dad!” Quickly followed by “Wait, WHAT?!!?” I had no idea what I was in store for or what the last nine months would entail. Of course, we ventured out to Babies r’us to register for “everything we need”, because, of course we knew exactly what we needed.

I’m not lying when I tell you, I’e never been more intimidated in my life than when we walked into the store to register. When I think of registering, I think of registering for our wedding, which was fun. “Hey, look a giant flat screen TV, don’t mind if I do!” “Oh, you mean someone is going to consider buying us this great wrap around couch? Well, add that to the list!” Yeah… registering for baby things does not equal the experience of running around and scanning anything and everything for a wedding. So after approximately 63 hours of scouring, searching and scanning, we left the store thinking we were set. Yeah, like there was a chance of that! We’ve since been back and forth at least 38,000 times adding, subtracting, adding, doing long division and adding some more things. Thankfully, after our baby shower and the approximate 49,362 bags and boxes of baby gifts later, it appears the never-ending trips to the baby store are over. Right?? I’m pretty sure I’m wrong on that one, but I’ll wait til Sarah tells me I’m wrong. Which should be as soon as I publish this post…

Let’s fast forward to today. Driving to Sarah’s parents for dinner with her brother, Sarah says to me, “I’m pretty sure Braxton Hicks contractions aren’t supposed to last all day…” I’m sorry, you said what now?! Knowing that my 37-week pregnant wife is now considered full-term and being told by the doctors last week that the baby had dropped into torpedo position, the first thought that popped into my head was CALL THE DOCTOR!!

As is turns out, it is not yet time for the baby currently known as Baby Browne to come popping out to say “Hello World!” I can only imagine that the time is coming and sooner than the March 6 due date we have been planning our lives around…