The basics:
Susan and I are expecting our first child in April 2004.
Really?
Really.
Why?
Why not? I mean, children have been born into far worse times, right?
Have you picked out a doctor?
We are going with the midwives at the UW Medicine Maternal and Infant Care Clinic.
You're having the baby at home?
No, we're going with the UW Medical Center.
But you have a midwife, doesn't that mean...
...that we're delivering at home? No, of course not. UWMC has one of the best midwifery practices in the nation; all the midwives are ARNPs and have delivered hundreds of babies in the hospital. Plus, should anything bad happen, we're right down the hall from an OR and the state's only level 3 NICU.
So, sage burning and drumming, yes or no?
No, we're going to examine the entrails of a sheep to determine the future. Can we change the subject?
OK. Boy or girl?
Dunno.
You going to find out?
Yes. But we're not telling you.
Why not?
Because we don't want 35 pink onesies or GI Joe creepers.
Names?
Yes, we think they're a good thing to have.
Such as...
We're not telling.
Oh, come on, this is the fun part!
Sigh. OK. If it's a boy, we're between Ichiro and Benito. Girls, Thomasina and Ermintrude.
Uh. Yeah.
Hey, you wanted names.