Everything is on the Internet

These days it's hard to imagine life without Internet. In my situation I wouldn't be able to imagine how people managed to raise their children without the ability to read about the experiences of other parents in their blogs. I can't imagine how I would learn about all of the options available on feeding and clothing. To reference my past posts, I can't imagine how I would learn about cloth diapers, strollers, car seats, and names without Internet research. Honestly.

Well, I guess for some things there is always the library but it won't have a catalog of cloth diaper options. It certainly won't tell me that there is a strong market for used diapers (I still can't get over that). Aside from cat videos, the Internet's strong point is the information about the experiences of real regular people! 

Sometimes I am guilty of relying too much on the Internet. I buy things. My wife buys things. Luckily most of these purchases are reasonable. So while I will be doing a lot of research on the Internet I will also make it a point to go out and see the things we want to buy, as long as it's possible to do that. As we all know, things that are highly rated with amazing comments also have some low ratings, and vice versa. People these days can be too critical of things when there's a small discrepancy between their expectation and reality.

So I have been researching car seats, diapers, and pregnancy. There are a lot of anecdotes. Some of them scare me. There's too much information on the Internet. TMI.

But none of this lessens my excitement of the baby's arrival. 

A Programmer's Bane!

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. - Phil Karlton

To humans the concept of cache invalidation is easy. Naming things is not. We started talking about possible names for the baby. During dinner that night I must have spaced out for a few seconds (we all know that means it was way more than that). When I explained I was thinking about names that might sound good my wife asked which ones I had considered. To be honest I was only thinking of names that didn't sound good. To that end I began thinking of rules for choosing a name. The programmer's bane!

Should not be unisex.
This is an interesting one that I did not consider until overhearing another programmer friend talking about naming kids. He was going to have a girl but didn't want a name that was derived from a male name (or vice versa). I guess that's technically not a unisex name but that's my definition.

Should not share name with close friends?
Although friends have very nice names I believe that it would be awkward. Why? People tend to attribute it to themselves being so awesome that we chose to name our kid after them. We respect you enough to let you keep your humble.

Name of family members??
I think this is more of a western tradition. Parents like to name kids after themselves, especially boys. What about after grandparents? Feels like we'd be calling or parents by name every time so I think that's a no.

This is hard. Forget about naming variables and classes, that's easy compared to naming kids. Even though we end up with a list of names to avoid, there is still a huge list. Fortunately for us we still have months to go to decide on one, and in a few weeks we will be able to eliminate half of the names if we decide to know the baby's gender. Stick with me to find out our names short-list coming soon!

So many crappy options...

Our pregnancy is progressing very nicely and my wife appears to be getting more comfortable with it. She noticed that she is walking funny now, trying to stay balanced with the extra weight on the front. Just yesterday she visited the temple and pretty much everyone noticed the change, no matter how much she tried to hide it.

Her belly is definitely getting more visible now and time is ticking on some decisions that we will have to make soon. One of the decisions is about diapers. I've browsed a few sites that Google Search returned about diapers, especially cloth diapers. There are so many options with such a large price range. I think most shocking to me is that there is a huge used cloth diaper market. Surprisingly the market for used poopy diapers is stronger than the housing market. I can understand some of the reasoning behind the resale of cloth diapers (some are never used or used once), but the idea of putting someone else's poopy diaper on a different baby somewhat baffles me.

In any case, we may or may not consider purchasing some used diapers. Some sites recommend this as a way to try out certain brands before committing to a large purchase. Other than the possibility of leftover poop, I think it's a great idea given the number of options available in the market today. Just like how adults have many types of underwear, babies have similar options available to them. To name a few:

• bamboo, 
• cotton, 
• hemp, 
• fleece

I will be doing a lot more research on this topic but almost definitely taking a hybrid cloth/disposable approach. Many of the diaper blogs primarily discuss cloth, but rarely the hybrid approach. It's great to be good to the environment with reusable diapers. The main gripe with cloth is that changing on the go is a crappy experience. So why not supplement with disposables? I love the environment but I think it would be injustice to carry poop around a mall in a bag.

Follow my blog to keep posted about my findings on cloth diapers and other baby things!

Where has the time gone?

A bit late to the game. She's into her 14th week now and the baby bump won't stay hidden for much longer. We just announced it to my parents this past weekend. I made a complete mess of it, of course, but everyone is excited. I've already started making a list of things that we'll need and it's tiny so far, but no doubt it will grow as the due date nears. I can't imagine the amount of preparation we'll need to do. I planned most of our wedding and while I thought I had most of it done, my wife didn't think so. At this stage I know there's still a lot of planning to be done and it must just be the tip of the iceberg.

Somewhat luckily, a couple of friends recently had kids of their own. I suggested to my wife that she should ask them about the preparations that they made, and more specifically the hospital/doctor they chose. Again I can't help but feel that we're a bit late choosing the doctor. In any case we're not exactly too late and there is still quite a ways to go.

I would have to say that baby stuff is definitely something that you only think about and research when you need to, just like weddings. Although it would be weird to remember, things have change drastically since I was a baby myself. I can now check up on my baby from anywhere in the world using my smartphone. My brothers and I had to settle with being heard over staticky radio. The sheer amount of baby products is overwhelming: just choosing the stroller and carseat will probably require months of research. Of course this is the age of crowdfunding and registries so we might at least be able to afford some of the stuff. I would hope that some friends can chip in and gift us some of these items. 

What would I do if I had access to a 24/7 webcam pointed directly at my child? I think that I would be like many parents, if not all, and have a tiny video stream in the corner of my computer monitor while I work. I also think that I could survive without the stream but I would be supremely disappointed if we didn't manage to secure one as a gift.

I think that's enough dreaming for now. There's much work to be done and I want to be the one to do it.

Introduction

I'm glad you managed to find me. On this blog you'll read about my thoughts and some events as I advance toward parenthood with my wife. I hope to continue this through the first few years of parenthood too and possibly beyond that as well.

This blog is meant to be enjoyable and light-hearted and I hope that you find some useful information here from time to time. Keep in mind that this only reflects my thoughts and feelings and does not necessarily reflect how I feel all the time.

On that note, enjoy the ride!