And it begins…

I called a meeting at work on Monday. I began the meeting by letting everyone in on the going ons as of late. I then swallowed and said, “… and, uh, Elise is pregnant.” I looked at everyone in the eye as I was saying that short sentence. My eyes fell on Lacee as I completed my sentence and she immediately looked away. I worried for a moment and then someone chimed in and said, “Yeah, we already knew…”

I was shocked.

I soon found out that my bosses told their daughter, who works for me, and she and Janice kind of let the cat out of the bag.

Everyone was happy for us and we chatted for a few minutes about the life changing news. It’s a relief to be able to now talk openly with everyone at the office.

My boss’s wife and the VP of the company called and left a message for me while I was out running errands.

I called her back when I got back in. She and I agreed for the three of us to meet at 4 p.m. They showed up early. I was interviewing a candidate for a marketing position.

After my interview I met with the bosses. We discussed business as needed. One topic was finally letting go of one of our outside sales guys. It was an intense conversation and it finally came to an end.

I chimed in to break the silence. It was a delayed chime in and I finally said, “Well… on a happier note…”

Long pause.

“Well… Elise is pregnant!”

To which they both loudly exlaimed their excitement. It was really great. A huge smile took over my face as my work family’s excitement ensued.

I told them about our first doctor’s visit and how far along we are. I told them about seeing the heartbeat in the ultrasound. They continued in the excitement. It was truly a happy room and I was excited.

I eventually proposed that I wanted to telecommute for a few months after the baby is born. My boss was pretty hesitant as I was making my proposal. I got a little worried at that point. I went on to reassure him that I would be easily accessible and could access our office network from the house. He still had the wrinkled forehead. I pointed out that I hired a bad ass office manager who can take care of business if I’m not around. He agreed.

All is good. All went well. The bosses were so happy for us and it was such a great feeling to not only hear of, but to actually feel their support. It’s great to be in a work environment that values family so much.

At that point it was well past 5 p.m. All of the girls left for the day except for my office manager. I went to my desk and started closing down for the day. She came over and started talking to me about something that I honestly didn’t hear because I was set on how I was going to tell her that Elise was pregnant.

When she finished her sentence I said, “Oh, and…”

She was starting to walk back to her desk and her stride was paused as she waited for me to finish what I was saying.

I paused for a moment. I looked up from my computer and looked at her. I shot a small grin and said, “Elise is pregnant.”

She squealed and walked past my desk to give me a big hug.

It was such a great feeling. I debated on waiting until after our next doctor’s appointment at the end of the month but just couldn’t hold it in.

Not only is it a great feeling, but it’s also a relief to let people know. It’s like the secret is out – I don’t have to “lie” anymore.

I want to tell everyone now. But we’re going to wait until after the end of the month.

I found out early last week that one of my new employees is pregnant. This employee told my office manager who, in turn, told me the next day. I wasn’t sure if this employee wanted me to know so I didn’t want to acknowledge the news. Then it was casually brought up later in the week and I decided to make it known that I knew. I congratulated her and took geniune interest in whatever news she wanted to disclose but had to be careful not to let on that I knew too much about pregnancy.

I had lunch brought in today because the girls are having to stock a huge order we received this morning. I like to try to keep the mood light and fun and limit our conversations to anything other than work, especially on days like today. I asked our preggers employee how she’s been feeling. She said she’s been sleeping okay but is nauseous all the time. I asked how far along she was in the pregnancy. She said, “A couple months. I think. I haven’t even been to the doctor yet.”

This will be her and her husband’s second child. She has an 8-month-old daughter. Yeah, quick turn around, eh? But I’m really happy for her. Since I can’t be around my pregnant wife during the day, at least I have a pregnant employee who’s about as far along in gestation as Elise.

I’m having the mano y mano meeting with my boss tomorrow. I thought about writing out a list to have in front of me but realized I didn’t have much to warrant a list. Luckily I have a very cool and understanding boss and it should be a nice chat. I really just want to let him know that I want to telecommute for a few months after Mini Me comes. I’m 99.9999% sure he’ll be fine with that.

I’m debating on if I want to tell the girls at the office yet. The doctor said it’s best to wait at least ten weeks. I think tomorrow will be ten weeks. Or nine weeks. I still don’t know. I’ll get it figured out one of these days. I really wanted to wait until after our second doctor’s visit on the 29th of this month to make sure we were past the first trimester.

I’m confident that Elise and baby are fine so I may just tell the girls tomorrow after my meeting. I already had a “doctor’s appointment” on the first of the month. If I have another “doctor’s appointment” in the same month, they might start worrying about me.

I hope I don’t steal my employee’s thunder. Ahhh, who cares. This is Elise’s and my first baby. I can share the thunder with my employee 60/40.

Elise and I went to Half Price Books this afternoon. I was set on finding Pregnancy For Dummies. It wasn’t there. Elise had a few other books in mind.

Elise found a few books that we need to read. We bought:

What To Eat When You’re Expecting
The Girlfriends’ Guide to Pregnancy
The Expectant Father

I found and purchased this instructional novel:

Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt.

Last weekend Elise and I went grocery shopping. I was browsing the produce section and my eye caught a jar of kimchee. Next my eye caught a package of eggroll wraps. Elise saw my eyebrows lift and she said, “Ooh, ooh, make eggrolls!”

So I put the wraps and necessary vegetables in which to make eggrolls in the shopping cart.

On Wednesday evening I pulled a pork hind quarter from the freezer to thaw. Last night I stewed the pork with vegetables and veal stock to be used as part of the filling for the eggrolls that I plan on making tonight. I left the pork simmering on the stove for a few hours so It would fall off the bone. Keep in mind, this is wild baby pig that was caught on my parents’ land. Even when cooked properly, there can still be a hint of gaminess that can linger when cooked.

I left the pot simmering in the kitchen. Elise sat in the living room and watched a rerun of ER. I went into my office and nerded out while watching Steve Jobs’ Special Event presentation on the iPod nano and the Motorola ROKR iTunes phone.

An hour into the presentation Elise walked into the office.

“Uhhh… ummmm… are you going to be cooking that stuff much longer?”

“Yeah. Probably another hour or so. Why?” I asked.

“Because that smell is making me nauseous… I think I’m going to go into the bedroom and close the door and see if that’ll will block out the smell” she said.

It wasn’t a bad smell. It smelled no different than any other time I’ve cooked wild pig.

So that was the first time I witnessed a food or smell aversion from Elise. She’s told me that the smell of cigarettes really bothers her now as well.

Things should be better tonight when I make the eggrolls. Hopefully. Or I’ll have a lot of eggrolls to eat by myself. Outside. Surrounded by citronella candles.

In other news: things are going along great for the mom-to-be. There’s not a whole lot to report as we’re just now 9 weeks along. I think. I still haven’t figured the weeks thing out yet. Elise said she has the inclination to be “bitchy” more often now. If you know Elise, you know “bitchy” really isn’t her social repertoire.

And then there is the sleep thing. Elise can sleep like a champ. She comes home from work, sits on the couch, turns on the tube and it’s pretty much lights out after that. She’s a borderline narcoleptic. I think she’s been sleeping the whole night through. She might get up once during the night to use the restroom, but I don’t think the constant need to pee has quite set in. She tells me she’s been drinking a lot of water. Maybe she’s a narcoleptic camel. Now that’s a good name for a band!

Last weekend Elise told her boss, office manager and assistant that she was pregnant. We agreed that she needed to tell them as soon as possible as her job is pretty demanding. We also agreed that Elise needs to cut back on the physical and emotional stress that her job requires. The news was well-received by the coworkers but her boss might need to be hit over the head a few times before it sets in that we’re serious about Elise scaling back on hours and stress.

I sent an e-mail to my boss today giving him and update on the happenings around the office. I manage all operations for our company so my boss isn’t around that much. We usually correspond via e-mail as needed. At the end of the e-mail that I sent I wrote, “And we need to have a mano y mano next time you’re in the office.”

I want to tell my boss as soon as possible because 1) I want it to be out as soon as possible so when I want to take time off it won’t be a surprise and 2) my boss is a pharmacist and I want to milk him for all of the free medical advice I can get!

I also want to telecommute to work for 90 days or so after the baby is born. I want to run that by him early on to see if we can work something out so I can be with Elise and the baby as much as possible. I work 60 miles from home so it’s not like I can just run home during my lunch break to see my family.

Since I love to cook, one of my big questions for Dr. S was, “Where can we get good, healthy ideas for meals to prepare?”

Her answer: The American Diabetes Association.

If you’re like me, you probably have no idea what you’re looking at the first time you see an ultrasound.

If your wife is anything like mine, she sees the embryo’s head, arms, legs, fingers, eyelashes, wrinkles and dimples. She might also decide on a nice earth tone color to use to paint the uterine wall, maybe even crown molding and baseboards.

Here is my first-time father’s interpretation of the vaginal utrasound:

Interpreting the Ultrasound: Click to Enlarge

Click to enlarge

We had our first visit with Dr. S, our OB at 8 a.m. this morning. Everything went great! We had a nice, long chat with her – we were inundated with information, all of our questions were answered and, most importantly, we both felt comfortable.

I quickly realized how, no matter how much the dad tries to be involved, he’s limited to a supportive role. Our doctor addressed Elise directly most of the time, only looking at me when addressing my limited questions. At first I felt ignored and started to get disgruntled. I had to remind myself that it wasn’t my uterus that was needing to be discussed at this juncture.

After our consultation it was off to the ultrasound room. We waited for five minutes or so as Elise filled out paperwork. The doctor came in and it was time for the ultrasound.

I had never heard of a vaginal ultrasound in my days. I always thought an ultrasound was the grocery store bar code scanner that the doctor lubed up with some KY and slapped on the mama’s belly. Nooooo… not this ultrasound. The particular ultrasound device was a robotic phallus that I will not-effectionately refer to as Mr. Howdy.

The physician’s assistant turned down the lights and Dr. S turned on the ultrasound machine and turned the monitor toward us.

I was sitting calmly in a chair to the left of Elise. Dr. S quickly found the baby and immediately said, “…and there’s the little heart beating.”

I tossed the Fall issue of The Ovarian Times, which I was reading earlier, to the side and like a rocket I sprung up out of my chair and leaned way over Elise so I could get a closer view of our baby’s heart beating.

It was amazing. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The only way I can describe it is that it looked like a little butteryfly, or an angel, flapping its wings very fast, rhythmically and peacefully.

I’ve had that image playing over and over in my head all day. While at work later this afternoon, a huge grin took over my face. I actually got a little choked up in mid-grin. I was proud and I was happy.

I breathed a deep sigh and while still grinning I thought, “Ahhh… my child. One day my child will say unto his or her friends, “my dad can be such an asshole sometimes…”"

This morning truly was an amazing experience. That was the absolute coolest thing I’ve ever witnessed. If seeing our child’s heart beating was the last thing to fall upon these eyes, I will at least know that I have witnessed divinity.

Here are the stats:
Pregnancy: 6 weeks, 6 days
EDD: April 21, 2006
Length: 0.89 cm
Next Dr.’s visit: September 29, 2005, 8:30 a.m.

On a scary note: Elise has an ovarian cyst. Yeah, that’s what we thought at first. The cyst is 3.5 cm but this is apparently normal in a lot of pregnacies due to the last ovulation. It’s supposed to dissolve in the next few weeks. Dr. S will take another look at it during our next visit.

Everything is going great. We’re excited and we can’t wait to start telling everyone.

The mom-to-be is fairing well. I, on the otherhand, am not as hot.

It first started Sunday night. I couldn’t sleep. I think I finally fell asleep a few minutes before the alarm sounded. I’ve been sleeping a little as the week has progressed, but haven’t been getting good sleep. Elise has been sleeping soundly every night.

On Monday evening we went for a walk. My stomach immediately started cramping. It hurt almost to the point where it affected my breathing. It felt like I was being stabbed in the abdomen. Elise’s stomach has been fine.

I ate two ice cream sandwiches last night. Seldom will you find me eating ice cream. Two ice cream sandwiches is beyond me. Elise is eating carrots, spinach, broccoli, yogurt, cereal, soups, etc. etc. plus whatever nutritious meals I cook at night. I’ve been eating ice cream.

I’m irritable and cranky. Elise is sound as a pound.

“Josh, what is “maly” of maly.janicek.com?”

I have fairly self-explanatory subdomains under Janicek.com such as cabo.janicek.com, cooking.janicek.com and photos.janicek.com.

I wanted a new, secret subdomain to blog our pregnancy until we tell the world. I thought about baby.janicek.com and little.janicek.com. I decided to consult Google to find a word for “small” or “little” in Czech. I came across the word “maly” in the Little Czech Primer.

I don’t know how to pronounce “maly” in Czech. I’m fairly certain it would be pronounced something like, “paperweight” or “jockstrap” in the motherland. I pronounce it “Maylee”. That doesn’t mean we’re naming our child “Maly”. I do think that would be a cute name for a girl. Not so much for a boy though. Maybe “Jockstrap”.

That being said, the name Janicek is, in fact, Czech. My great grandmother was from what was previously known as Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately I don’t know much about my partial heritage other than she shares the same last name and kolaches taste pretty damn good.