The Ol’ Switch-a-Roo

To Chris, there is a big difference between this:

and this:

or this:

As our due date gets closer and closer, Chris seems to be sweating more.  He’s walking around in circles mumbling about things like safety gates and car seats.  The husband that two weeks ago was so excited about meeting this baby and couldn’t keep his hands off my belly is suddenly terrified.

I blame my friend Lori.  (Sorry, Lori)  Lori was two weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy.  Everytime Lori went through something, I’d tell Chris about it and we were somewhat prepared two weeks later when it happened to me.  She was like the ultimate guinea pig.  Well, suddenly, Lori had her baby.  Unexpectedly.  Five weeks early.  Baby Porter decided that he had had quite enough and was ready to come out and meet his parents.  While Lori and her husband, Aaron, were ecstatic about meeting Baby Porter, his early arrival has sent my poor husband into sleepless nights and irratic speech patterns.

Chris has been super excited about being pregnant.  He loves my belly.  He loves talking to the baby and rubbing him when he pokes a random body part out.  He has been the poster child for excited, supportive father-to-be.  But, apparently, all of this has still not prepared him for the actual arrival of the Bean.

Coincidentally, the same week that Baby Porter arrived five weeks early, I received a bajillion dollars in Target and Babies R Us gift cards and began bringing home lots of baby equipment.  One night after work last week, I bought a high chair, a swing, a bottle warmer, a baby monitor, and a diaper bag.  On this same day, my baby bouncer arrived in the mail.  Our home became a sea of baby paraphernalia.  And Chris had to put it all together.  All one million pieces with their one million tiny screws and plastic safety shields.

And he cracked under the pressure.

He was fine while he was putting it all together because that’s right in his element.  Tools and screws and blue prints.  He was in his comfort zone.  But once all these assembled baby products started appearing in our home – the baby swing in our living room, the high chair in the dining room, the glider in the bedroom – he sort of freaked out a little.  Suddenly, I wasn’t just pregnant.  Suddenly, we were having an actual baby.  Who would live with us.  Permanently.

I don’t blame him.  It was a little overwhelming.  But normally, I am the one who panics.  I have been the one who has been a little more reserved and a little more hesitant about this whole parenting thing.  Oddly though, seeing baby things everywhere has given me more confidence and gotten me so excited that I can’t get my thoughts together.  I’m thinking about the baby all the time now.  I washed all his clothes and blankets and organized his nursery.  I am just so excited.  And poor Chris is wide-eyed and shaking.

So we got into a fight.  A big one.  A yelling across the house at each other fight.  It sort of went like this:

Me:  I need you to help me more!

Chris: I can’t because I’m crippled with fear about the arrival of our son!

Okay, so it didn’t really go just like that.  But we did have a big fight.  I think it was just a way for both of us to release steam over the stress of the situation.  I was frustrated that I kept having to tell him every step to make to get ready for the baby, and he was frustrated because he thought we were rushing all of a sudden and it was a little overwhelming to go from zero to sixty in one day.  Neither of these things were either of our faults, but sometimes the steam just has to release and it did that morning.

Looking back, I probably did go into overdrive really quickly.  Armed with my gift cards, I hit the baby stores like a crazy person.  I’m sure it was overwhelming for Chris to have me show up with all this baby stuff.  Our house went from clean and simple to flooded with blankets, binkys, and bottles.  But on the flip side, Chris needs to understand that this is the part that I’ve been waiting MONTHS for.  I’m getting ready to meet the Bean and I get excited by seeing everything come together.

But I think this is all normal.  We’re going through a big change in our relationship and we both deal with that very differently.  And at the end of the day, as long as we love each other and as long as my baby swing gets put together, I think things are gonna be just fine.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go talk Chris down from our roof.