I feel the rhythmic beat of my heart
counting the seconds until your arrival.

I can see you in there,
kicking, stretching, pushing against
the boundaries of your world…

Soon, little man, there will be a
great big world for you to discover.
It needs you to push against your boundaries too.

It’s beautiful, scary, and amazing
all at once, but don’t worry
I’ll be your guide.
We will explore it together.

You’ll learn to create, to share, to give.

To Love.

I Love You.

And until we meet face to face
I’ll keep counting heartbeats
and dreaming of you.

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post on why we chose to use a midwife for our firstborn.  One of the reasons I highlighted was the astronomically high maternal death rate in the U.S (it is double that of Canada and Western Europe).  Since hitting publish on that post, I came across this infographic from Amnesty International—who is spearheading this cause—and wanted to share it with you.

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It’s no secret we are having a boy.  It has been an awesome pregnancy so far, and one of the things we wanted to do before our progeny enters the world was have a song to remember this time – just like how couples have their “song” that stirs feelings/memories/love.

While there are many pregnancy songs out there, when I narrowed it down to boy specific I found very little to go on.  Undeterred, I pressed on.  After hours of digging, I came up with a baker’s dozen songs to choose from that were meaningful and fit our musical taste.

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Being a healthcare practitioner, I often have people asking for my opinion or advice on a wide variety of topics ranging from “what should I eat” to “what do you think of vaccination.”  It comes with the territory, and I truly enjoy sharing my knowledge with people.

Then we decided to go through our pregnancy with a midwife and use a birthing center for delivery.

Open the floodgates.  I was now treading water in a sea of questions.

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Nothing prepares you to hear those words, much less utter them yourself.  You know those moments that you’ve seen in the movies about time standing still?  It happens.  S**t gets real.  Real good, but real in a way you have never experienced in life before.

OK Cole, pick your jaw up off the floor

Such was my 6:30 am wake up call on October 29th, 2011.  My wife was anxiously trying to get me out of bed to come see something, and like a bear coming out of hibernation I was resisting the waking world.  As I stumbled out of bed, protesting the whole way, she presented me with the above picture – in full stereoscopic 3D of the real world.

BAM!  Ton of bricks, meet Cole.

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