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Tracking our baby's development — right from birth
In this weekly journal, BabyCenter Managing Editor JD Lasica describes the joys, challenges, fears, and dreams of first-time parenthood. JD, his wife Mary, and their son Bobby live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Check back each Monday for the latest installment.
The week after my wife and I became engaged, we drove up from my parents' house in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, to the scenic seaport town of Mystic, Connecticut. There, in a pretty seaside restaurant, while gulls spun above in the salty air, I suggested that both of us write down the number of children we hoped to have.
Family means so much to both of us. But I was closing in on 40 years old, and Mary wasn't far behind, so I wrote a conservative number on my cocktail napkin: "2 ... but I'd do anything for just one healthy baby." My fiancée, a super career woman, wrote a number that surprised me: 3. I loved her even more for that.
Soon after our wedding, after Mary went off the Pill and we transitioned for a month with another form of birth control, we began trying to conceive. Two months later, Mary was pregnant. Well, that was easy, we thought. But the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. The next time around, it took 16 months. A weekend at Rancho La Cuesta, a hidden-away bed-and-breakfast in Sonoma, California, finally did the trick — with the help of an ovulation predictor kit. We waited three months to share the news with family and close friends.
Entrusted with a new life
Mary had a relatively uneventful pregnancy — bouts of fatigue, feet swollen to the size of Karl Malone's sneakers, but no morning sickness or complications. We had one major advantage: I work for BabyCenter, so we tried to outdo each other by devouring everything on the site (as well as in books and magazines) on the subjects of pregnancy and baby.
Mary was happy to let me detail a few highlights of her pregnancy — but only a few — so I wrote an article about couples baby showers and a detailed description of her labor and our time in the delivery room. That first-person account led to the next logical step: writing a week-by-week journal of the issues, fears, and challenges we now face as new parents. As you read the journal, I hope you'll share your thoughts and experiences with me and your fellow readers along the way.
This is the story of Robert James Lasica.
NEXT PAGE | How it all began: Birth of a Father
SKIP TO: | Week 1 of parenthood
Share your thoughts with JD at jd@well.com.
• See hundreds of parents' comments on Bobby: A New Life
• See Bobby's home page — a photo gallery
